Page 165 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRON T I E R P R O C E S S : H U MANIZING

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ravages of white migration so thoroughly by the 8 60s that they became
belligerent. 150 Lucy Sexton maintained that when her f a mily moved to
California in the mid-18sos "the Indians were peaceable all along the
route, and we had no such contentions as later travelers over the same
route did." 151 Mary Pelham claimed that there was a difference in time
periods and trails. She believed that the northern route was safer than
the southern one that her party took on its way fr om e xas to California
T
in 1 8 53. Pelham voiced a common complaint about alterations in
Indians: "How these Indians have changed. Not simple and childlike any
more. Until that year very fe w had ever seen a white man and seldom
a white woman or child. They never tired of watching us and our ways
of living." 152
In some cases, time improved Indian-white relations. During the
late 1 8 sos and the early 1 8 6 0s, whites so dominated the San Francisco
area that they fo und Indians peaceable, seldom causing settlers the trou­
ble that was reported f r om the interior portion of the country. 153 White
women seemed pleased that-in their view-Indians had responded to
their civilizing influence. Clearly, a significant number of Indians had
learned how to act in ways that whites f o und acceptable. Although
Indians may have demeaned whites in private, perhaps by joking or
making f u n of them, they appeared" civilized" in the presence of whites.
In 1 8 67, Cynthia Capron, an army wife, said that most Indians had set­
tled on a reservation where they were "very industrious f o r Indians,"
cultivating "a large f a rm of several thousand acres, and very well too."
Evidently, Capron assumed that reservation Indians were happy in their
dependent, confined state. 1 54 In the Mount Hood region of Oregon,
white women described Indians, especially the Flatheads and Nez
Perd:s, as fr iendly, good looking, well clad, and clean. 155 During the late
1 8 60s, the Montana settler Mary Hopping maintained that when the
Flathead and Nez Perce Indians passed by on their way to hunt buffalo
"everyone was glad to see them."156
Modifications in American Indian behavior did not always promote
smooth Indian-white relations, however. Some Indians continued to
resist violently rather than passively. Some women saw that exploding
numbers of whites on the fr ontier pushed Indians to the edge, margin­
alizing Indians in terms ofland and patience. White pressure compelled

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