Page 14 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

INTRODUCTION

including growing numbers of women. Although Indian peoples with
long-established governments and cultures already lived in the area,
white Americans viewed purchased land as open f o r the taking. Soon,
would-be settlers coveted lands that lay outside US. borders. In r834,
although the United States did not own the expanse along the
Northwest coast, Reverend Jason Lee explored the Willamette V a lley
and f o unded the first mission and f a rming colony there. Explorers,
missionaries, and settlers soon f o llowed, making their way to the
"Oregon Country." Among these were the first fe male missionaries to
cross the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, Narcissa
Whitman and Eliza Spalding, who in r 8 36 helped establish the W a lla
W a lla mission. In r842 and r843, the first great wagon trains rolled out
of Independence, Missouri, beginning the "great migration" over the
Oregon Trail. In r847, another religiously inspired migration, the first
contingent of Mormons, or members of the Church of Latter-day Saints
of Jesus Christ, escaped the boundaries of the United States to settle
near the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah where they hoped to be
fr ee from discriminatory treatment due to their religious belief s . A f e w
years later, in r848, the discovery of gold in California drew thousands
to the coast. In that same year, the Oregon Treaty gave the Northwest
T e rritory to the United States. T w o years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe
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Hidalgo with Mexico secured the Southwest f o r the nation. In r8 3 , the
Gadsden Purchase of land along the U S .-Mexican border completed
the boundaries of the continental United States. 12
Beginning in r86r, the Civil W a r interrupted the flow of western
migration. When the war ended in r865, migration swelled. Additional
discoveries of gold and silver, the mushrooming of railroads, and the
Homestead Act of r862 encouraged people, including white Europeans
fr om such countries as Norway and Denmark, to settle the Great Plains,
which earlier migrants had disdained as the Great American Desert. The
emergence of the "long drive" of cattle f r om e xas during the r860s and
T
r 8 7 0s spurred the development of such railroad towns as Abilene and
Dodge City in the Kansas territory , as well as giving the f r ontier new
dimensions: hard-riding cowboys, f a st towns with dance halls and
saloons, and abundant prostitution. During the early 8 80s came a gold
r
rush in northern Idaho. In r 8 90, the US. Congress transformed Indian

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