Page 140 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915
P. 140
-- Chapter Four --
FRONTIER PROCESS: HUMANIZING
AMERICAN INDIANS
Since the majority of Americans and Europeans were more receptive to
the idea of the "bad" Indian than to that of the "good" Indian, migrants
headed west with a view of American Indians that was more negative
than positive. Because the existence of bad Indians confirmed the right
ness of white migration and white superiority, migrants who turned
westward during the early decades of the nineteenth century or started
their treks later expected to meet barbarous savages. At the same time,
most of these people hoped that American Indians might turn out to
be the noble savages described by Jean Jacques Rousseau and James
Fenimore Cooper: "nice" Indians who would prove helpful rather than
troublesome.
These contradictory expectations resulted f r om the long, complex
conditioning process that migrants experienced in regard to native peo
ples. Female emigrants had additional reasons f o r searching out despi
cable Indians, to whom they would minister, and ennobling Indians,
who would help them survive. These women presented portraits of
Indians that overstated their undesirable traits and exaggerated their
f a vorable qualities, thus giving a picture of Indians that was paradoxical
and fr aught with ambivalence.
Further complicating the inconsistency in women's views of west
ern natives was f e male migrants' tendency to shift toward generous
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