Page 164 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAP E T R FOUR

noble-looking tribe . . . so well dressed; such gay trappings on them

and their ponies, and beautiful beaded work they wear." During the
j
same year, Lodisa Frizzell u dged them to be the "best looking" Indians
she had seen, explaining that they were "tall, strongly made, firm
f e atures, light copper color, cleanly in appearance." 139 The Cheyennes
also elicited women's admiration f o r their intelligence, wealth, and
stalwart appearance. 140
When women saw the so-called Digger Indians of the Plains
region, the tone of their remarks became acrid. They agreed that the
Diggers, given this name because of their custom of digging roots f o r
f o od, were the most loathsome of all Native American tribes. 141
Elizabeth Lord described them as "repulsive creatures, squatty, dark and
greasy."14 2 When Lydia W a ters spied her first Digger Indians she
exclaimed that "greater brutes nature never made." She went on to say:
"They had never cut their hair which was fu ll of sticks, dried grass and
dirt, and their heads looked as large as bushel baskets fo r their hair stuck
out straight." She added that "they were very saucy and would have taken
the guns out of the wagons in spite of all the women could do."143
Evaluations of other Indian groups along the many trails and their
"cut-offs" varied. The Bannock Indians were said to possess counte­
nances that were "fine and some of them even intelligent." The "Piute"
Indians "were f m e looking" but not to be trusted, according to Harriet
W a rd. 144 The "Kioose," in Esther Hanna's view, were "intelligent, finely
f o rmed, well clad and very cleanly." 145 T o Mary Pelham, the "Pima,
Papgo, Maricopa," andYuma Indians were the most interesting. 146 Helen
Carpenter saw the "Puitahs" as f r iendly, but the Shoshone as aggressive
and combative.147 Harriet Bunyard f o und the "Lemore" Indians
"detestable" and the "Maricopis" an "ignorant, silly looking people."148
An early T e xas settler, Mary Maverick, thought the T o nkawa Indians
treacherous and cruel. And a woman traveling along the Platte River
f e lt honored to give the chief of the Otoe tribe, "a very fine looking
man," a loaf of bread. 149
Clearly, white women came to realize that Indians were not all alike.
They recognized that natives not only varied fr om tribe to tribe, but
also f r om one area to another and f r om one era to the next. For instance,
a group of once peaceful American Indians might have experienced the