Page 166 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER FOUR

Native American groups to fight whites and to wage war with each
other over dwindling resources. 157 Kate Furness explained that when
she encountered her first Indians just across the Missouri River they
were engaged in war with the Sioux, who had "encroached on their
hunting-grounds and killed the buffalo." 158 Other women added yet
another f a ctor, "renegade whites," who not only "incited" the Indians,
but stole white stock and then blamed the Indians. 159
Clearly, a significant portion of white women modified or radically
altered the conceptions of American Indians that they had brought with
them on the westward trail. Many women replaced hate and fe ar with
warmth and sympathy. Neither did women f u lfill the widely accepted
image of inept and cowering creatures intimidated by vicious, maraud­
ing, and sexually abusive natives. As interchanges grew between white
women and Indians, fe w were the dramatic, conflict-filled confronta­
tions portrayed by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century media. How
women acted in their dealings with American Indians is vastly different
f r om the story usually told.

-- Changing Attitudes --

T o explore the contention that white women's relations with American
Indians were less negative than usually thought, a sample of 150 diaries,
journals, memoirs, and letters was assembled. Unfortunately, Indian, or
subaltern, accounts do not exist in a written f o rm, only in oral tradi­
tion, or storytelling. 16 ° T hus, documents regarding white fe male-Indian
f e male contacts were generated by a dominant group-white women.
These sources represent most trans-Mississippi areas, the primary eras,
and the thoughts and experiences of Anglo women fr om a range of
social classes, ethnic backgrounds, and national origins. When the
women's reactions to Indians were studied and counted, it was discov­
ered that 1 1 3 writers recorded no trouble with native peoples, 22 noted
minor problems, and only 15 reported major difficulties. Although it is
not very scientific or sophisticated, this data provides enough evidence
to challenge the image of white women victimized by predatory