Page 136 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER THREE

the greenhorn to f a ce the giggling and applause of the native women,
the guffaws of the Indian men, and the taunts of his own comrades. 180
Even though some Indians seemed to go out of their way to
f r ighten whites, others hoped to gain something fo r themselves by cre­
ating scares. 181 For example, Indians would warn white travelers of
impending attack, sometimes to ingratiate themselves with the migrants,
other times to chase a train away f r om their territory.I82 In other
instances, one tribe would revenge itself on Indians who had been
f r iendly to settlers. By raising the cry of depredation, they hoped to turn
the settlers against the traitors. 183 Once in a while, an individual
American Indian even attempted to aggrandize personal power through
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implementing the f e ar of an uprising. In 8 89, fo r example, a Crow med­
icine man used an alleged vision of white extermination to gain what
a white woman settler described as "a dangerous fo llowing of restless
spirits among his own people."I84
Perhaps worst of all, even the most well-intentioned Indians f o und
whites impossible to f a thom. One Indian stood in the kitchen of the
T e xan settler, Ellen Bird-Dumont, making his needs known through
gestures and actions. Bird-Dumont, however, was so jumpy that she
could not comprehend the Indian's intentions. I8s When seven more
Indian men pushed their way into her house, they saw that Ella Bird­
Dumont was terrified. Their leader increased his efforts to appear
f r iendly and to "talk" to her through motions. The object of their visit
was to trade their government-issue clothing f o r groceries, but Bird­
Dumont's stock of fo od was short and she vehemently shook her head
no. When the men discovered her rifle, however, their leader became
determined to trade f o r it. Although she continued to shake her head
f e arfully, he began showing her the items of clothing that he wore. T o
the Indians, the woman appeared stupid so their leader took off his
clothes, item by item. He was quite satisfied with his trade, clothes fo r
a rifle, but when Bird-Dumont's f r iend suddenly realized that he
thought he had a satisfactory trade going, the two women signed him
that there was no trade and he should re-dress himself immediately.
Fortunately, he was not embarrassed and, laughing, proceeded to put his
clothes back on. I86
These and thousands of similar episodes demonstrated a lack of

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