Page 167 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

F R O N T I E R P R O C E S S : H U MA N I Z I N G

Indians. W o man after woman employed the phrase "no trouble with
r
Indians" in their diaries, letters, or memoirs. r6 In a specific case in point,
Ada Millington concluded her travel diary by writing, "Our journey has
been as prosperous, with as little trouble as we expected. No Indian
r
difficulties to speak of, and our stock was not stolen or lost." 62
Could media accounts have been wrong or perhaps sensational­
ized? The answer is yes. In spite of white women's assertions, myth and
the media promoted the belief that white women and American
Indians were at loggerheads more often than not. Violent confronta­
tions that harmed women have held center place, whereas Indians have
generally been portrayed as barbarians who pillaged, burned, and raped.
A survey of nineteenth-century novels, poetry, drama, tracts, textbooks,
newspapers, magazines, sermons, and lectures supports the customary
idea of the weak and ill-used white woman and the fierce and rap a­
ciousAmerican Indian.The widespread popularity of the captivity nar­
rative is a good illustration of negative views of Indians finding wide
audiences among whites. r 63 Unfortunately, twentieth- and twenty­
first-century myth and media have perpetuated this view rather than
questioning and reassessing it. With a f e w notable exceptions, such as
Dances with W o lves and The Last of the Dog Men, film and television
westerns, as well as much print media, remain largely unsympathetic to
fr ontier Indians, preferring to deal in dramatic events.
Of course, what watcher or reader hopes to get a line on the
boring truth? Most would rather relish an exciting story. And, in f a ct,
excitement, disaster, and tragedy did occur in the trans-Mississippi
f r ontier W e st. For instance, T e xas in the mid-nineteenth century was
the setting fo r numerous horror stories, no doubt embellished by white
storytellers. Beginning with one of the earliest women to settle in
T e xas, Mary Maverick, the drama that unfolds is one of misunder­
standing and confrontation. Maverick not only related troubles
between T o nkawa Indians and white settlers, but described in detail
eruptions between the Comanches and the whites during the 1 8 30S
and the 1 8 40S, including the taking of white captives. Maverick
proclaimed that T e xas Indians were "cruel and relentless savages" who
"daily committed atrocities about us." In a similar vein, Mary Rabb, an
Indian Hill settler, maintained that during many years, especially 1835,

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