Page 162 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER FOUR

and guide, which "went to prove that there was honor among these savage
tribes of the wilderness after all." 133
W
Similarly, Harriet a rd not only overcame her dread of Indians, but
maintained that many other women did as well. "I have conversed with
many ladies," she declared," and they all appear happy and in good health."
At one point, W a rd admitted that she f e lt uneasy knowing that "hostile"
Indians "infested" nearby mountains and, at another, she remarked that a
f e w Indian groups she met seemed "wild," "miserable," and "not to be
trusted." Y e t she fe lt confident enough to not lose any sleep over the
matter. "We encamped beside the mountain, with not a living being near
us except the Indians, who, they say , are watching all our movements,"
she declared. "We staked our horses near the tent," she went on, "and all
laid ourselves down to sleep, which we enjoyed nicely." 134
Anglo army wives serve as a good illustration of how white women
came to understand American Indians better as their contacts with them
increased and improved. Army women lived every moment under the
threat of attack and the possibility of losing their husbands. They often.
survived mind-numbing Indian wars, and they were by affinity and mar­
ital relationship committed to subduing native populations.Yet they sur­
prisingly had a great deal of goodwill f o r Native Americans. For instance,
despite the death of her first husband in the Fetterman "massacre," Frances
Carrington expressed sympathy f o r Indians who had been f o rced to relin­
quish hunting grounds on which their lives depended. Margaret
Carrington, whose husband commanded Fort Phil Kearney during the
conflict, supported Frances in her interpretation of events. 135 Even
Elizabeth Custer, wife of the f a mous boy-general, grew unsure of her
position regarding Indians. When Custer related the story of the Battle
of the W a shita to a f r iend she was so sympathetic with Indians that the
f r iend commented that Custer's memories "confused my sense of jus­
tice." She added that " doubtless the white men were right, but were the
Indians entirely wrong? After all these broad prairies had belonged to
them." 13 6 Obviously, Custer had caused her companion to rethink the
usual beliefs regarding Native Americans.
The wife of Orsemus Bronson Boyd also changed her mind about
Indians. Stationed at Camp Halleck, Nevada, in the mid I860s, she was
so regularly exposed to Paiute and Shoshone Indians that she wrote, "I

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