Page 133 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRON I E R P R O C E S S : VI L I F YING
T
Helen Carpenter, explained, "that they would fo llow and be a nuisance
if shown any kindness."When the Pawnee continued to hang around,
they saw that Carpenter was having trouble eating her lunch. She later
explained that she could not eat "with those poor wretches watching
every mouthful like hungry dogs." The Pawnee were thankful when
Carpenter's mother slipped some f o od to them. They did not f o llow the
train or give the travelers any trouble, which left Carpenter and her
mother fr ee f r om suspicion. "We do not coincide with all of Uncle Sam's
views," Carpenter remarked, "but he is the 'boss' of the train and as such
his views must be respected." 16 2
Other Indians were disgusted by white attitudes, which usually
combined a pettiness of spirit with an utter disregard f o r the American
Indian as a human being. Indians were disheartened by white migrants
who, convinced of their inherent right to invade native lands, refused
to pay tolls to cross bridges that natives had built. Indians fo und them­
selves captured and f o rced to serve as guides f o r white parties. 16 3 Other
Indians experienced white needling and attempts to make them appear
f o olish. They encountered white men who not only swaggered and
bragged that they could whip any band of natives, but treated them con­
temptuously on a personal basis. "It was their usual custom whenever
the Indians approached our camp or sat by our camp fires," Lavinia
Porter complained, "to tease and play various tricks upon them." 16 4
The consequences of white "tricks" ranged f r om disrespect to phys­
ical harm. For instance, American Indians were f r equently fleeced in
trade, an occurrence that delighted many whites, supposed Christians.
Disregard f o r the basic humanity of American Indians motivated a
variety of other schemes that resuked in white profit at native expense.
In one of the more macabre tricks, a young doctor allegedly severed
Black Hawk's head fr om his recently deceased corpse and boiled the
flesh f r om it with the intention of publicly exhibiting the skull f o r a f e e.
Intimidated by the near uprising he provoked among Black Hawk's
people, the doctor was reported to have deposited the skull with a f r iend,
who sold it to a museum that subsequently burned down, destroying
the skull.1 6 5 To some Indians, such treatment of an Indian's corpse
condemned his spirit to similar disfigurement in the afterworld. T o
virtually all, it constituted the greatest of insults.

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