Page 149 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRON I E R P R O C E S S : H U MANIZI N G
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least in part, fr om the Indians' habit o f rubbing themselves with "the
entrails of some small f a t animal, a skunk or raccoon, which looked as if
it were dried in smoke." Instead of bathing with water, she said, they "took
the greatest comfort lying in the sun rubbing themselves with these
greasy insides." 54 Mary Fish claimed that the Sioux smeared their bodies
with "oil which they procure f r om polecats." She phrased her opinion
delicately, saying that the "effluvia arising f r om their persons is none of
the sweetest." Frances Roe was more direct in stating that the Indians she
met struck her as "simply, and only, painted, dirty and nauseous-smelling
savages." 55 Again, white women f a iled to consider need or custom in
judging Indian ways. They simply brushed aside American Indians as
deficient in certain areas, a lack that white women intended to remedy.
Many f r ontierswomen were in f o r yet another shock. When they
got close enough to an Indian to hold a conversation, they discovered
that the average Indian spoke little or no English. With dismay, Ellen
Adams remarked, "Some of the Indians could not understand a single
word of English."56 Other women noted that the native peoples they
tried to converse with could not speak or understand English 5 7 And
.
Helen Carpenter called them "stupid" because they could not "under­
stand French any better than they did English."58 These women deni­
grated the validity of native tongues and assumed that English was the
dominant means of communication f o r all western peoples. This ethno­
centrism grew even more apparent when women f o und an American
Indian who could manage a few words of the white's language, often a
discovery to be recorded and sometimes disdained. 59 "They do not
understand any of our language," one woman declared with a sneer, "and
when they can speak a word of it they seem to think that they have done
,,
something very smart. 60 Whether Indians spoke no English at all, some
English, or "good" English, they were often the targets of disdain on the
part of white women.
As f r ontierswomen came into contact with various Indian customs,
they continued to demonstrate puzzlement, derision, and outright
racism. Some were amused by entire Indian villages moving to new
campsites with equipment and other belongings mounted on pole carts
pulled by dogs or, in other cases, with wigwams' poles strapped to
ponies.6r It would, of course, be revealing to know what Indians thought

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