Page 129 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONT I E R P R O C E S S : VILIFYING

mobile. In addition to customary weapons, they had obtained white
weapons and ammunitions fr om white traders at such places as Bent's
Fort in New Mexico. Moreover, Indians were puzzled. Although early
white mountain men had mixed with them, observed certain rituals,
and had no interest in taking their land, the hordes of whites entering
their lands avoided them, were rude, and seemed to want nothing but
land. Especially after the whites' war among themselves during the early
r 8 60s, more white troops accompanied white settlers. The Indians had
no way of knowing that they were caught not only in a massive white
migration, but in the economic transformation of the W e st to a capi­
talistic system. 147
At first, Indians had difficulty in understanding why their everyday
activities so alarmed white people. They did not realize that settlers like
Agnes Cleaveland believed that American Indians, who had lived by "the
natural bounty of the land or the garnered resources of their neighbors,"
would eventually direct their greed or ire against whites. Seeing no prob­
lem, Indians took no precautions to keep their hunts or battles fr om
white eyes.148 As a result, overanxious whites misinterpreted hunting
parties as war parties, ceremonial makeup as war paint, religious dances
as war dances, and a lone sentinel as an advance guard. 149 Indians must
have thought that whites were superficial observers, a point on which
they were absolutely correct.
Internecine warfare among Indians also fr ightened whites. Peaceful
Indians who asked whites f o r refuge and protection discovered that
white reactions varied widely and were seldom satisfactory. For exam­
ple, one group of migrants sheltered f r ightened natives, supplying them
with f o od and other small gifts. Another train, however, simply allowed
some scared Indians to f o llow it, as one migrant explained it, to have
the advantage of numbers against "the much dreaded Sioux."150 Other
whites extended little sympathy to Indians, especially if they were
Pawnee who, due to their constant discord with Sioux and Cheyenne
neighbors, were f o rlorn and starving. One f e male traveler expressed
dismay when what she called "the gallant men" of her train drove the
Pawnee "forth without mercy," but another voiced the majority view
that because intertribal warfare was a great source of unrest f o r migrants,
the Indians were best dispatched. 151

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