Page 144 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APT E R FOUR

she met near Fort Kearney asked not f o r coins, but simply wanted to
shake hands with the migrants and say, "how, how."I4
V
Ada o gdes was another woman whose terror of American Indians
was not borne out by her first meeting with them. On her way toward
Fort Laramie in 1868, she noted that "it was a f e arful f e eling to me, in
the midst of an Indian country, & f a r f r om home." By the time her party
reached Chimney Rock, she added that it had seen no Indians but
believed it was in the midst of them. "This kind oflife," she lamented,
"does not suit the f e male portion of creation. A woman was never
intended to cross these Plains." When she finally met some Native
Americans near the fo rt, the incident passed without drama, fo r they
encountered only a small party of fr iendly Indians on a hunting expe­
dition. V o gdes's pleasant experience did little, however, to change her
ideas. Because she clung to her terror of Indians, she made herself mis­
erable fo r some time. She was unable to enjoy the social life of the f o rt,
spent sleepless nights while her husband was away, and refused to leave
the garrison's protective walls f o r outings. IS
Clearly, years of being steeped in anti-Indian prejudice were not
suddenly erased by a meeting with f r iendly tribespeople. This was espe­
cially the case fo r women who viewed themselves as moral missionar­
ies to "barbarians." T e achings concerning the moral nature of women
and the "savage" natures of American Indians held sway, regardless of
evidence to the contrary. Therefore, first meetings with Indians, even if
cordial, were tense. "I was very much scared," one f e male traveler wrote
during the early 1 8 50s. Others stayed closer to camp or were caught up
in "scares" as a result ofIndians' proximity. 1 6 During the early 8 6 0s, one
1
trail woman viewing her first Indian beggars commented that, although
Indians may have looked pleasant to train members who had seen them
before, they looked "very savage" to her. She added that "they are mon­
strous looking creatures to inhabit such beautiful soil as we are now trav­
eling through."I7 In 1 8 6 4, Mary W a rner jotted, "There were two Indians
came to camp begging-they were the first we had seen and we were
afraid of them."I8
Such revulsion was not uncommon. W o men reacted to the first
Native Americans they met in light of their expectations rather than
the reality standing before them. As early as 1 8 48, a young woman