Page 138 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER THREE

American Indians took the blame fo r a variety of ills. Whether they had
any part in the creation of these problems was often not really germane
to the consequences that they suffered. Indians experienced a range of
effects fr om embarrassment to persecution f o r trouble they had not
caused. Also, they often experienced starvation, poverty, and the loss of
their land due to misinformed government policies generated by prej­
udiced and harried bureaucrats. 190
Of course, Indians also lost their lives. Not only were they
exterminated without quarter in many instances, but individual natives
also f e ll at the hands of distrustful fr ontier people. Byron McKinstry
told of one such case, in which a white male traveler swapped horses
with an Indian who was overtaken the next day by a rear portion of
the same party. When they recognized their companion's horse they
accused the Indian of stealing it. Fearing their ire, he fled. His flight was
perceived as evidence of his guilt; thus, they fired immediately, killing
the innocent man. 191
From their contact with whites, then, Indian were amused, con­
f u sed, poverty stricken, or dead. Seemingly, Native Americans had much
more to complain about than whites. In reality, white people killed more
Indians than were killed by Indians between 1 8 40 and 1 8 60. In addi­
tion, some 90 percent of emigrant killings occurred west of the South
Pass rather than on the Great Plains, as legend would have us believe.
And even when such killings did take place they often resulted f r om
individual incidents rather than f r om the large-scale murders so often
described by the overworked term massacre. 192

On the one hand, it might be argued that white actions were not
extreme but were necessary measures against an unstable and threat­
ened native population that did indeed assail and kill whites. On the
other, it might be suggested that white behavior created as much trou­
ble with Native Americans as it averted. Aggressive conduct and the
harsh sentiments that accompanied it did nothing to encourage peace­
f u l coexistence or harmonious relations between groups. Certainly, the
widespread existence of anti-Indian passions and the incidents that
they spawned leave little doubt concerning the reasons why so many

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