Page 169 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PROCESS: H U MANIZING

with utter disillusionment: "I know the Indians have been unjustly
treated and I have a great deal of sympathy f o r them, but I haven't quite
so much sentiment concerning them as I did bef o re I came here and
learned so much about their cruelty and depredations." 171
During the 1 8 80s and 1890s, relations between T e xas's white set­
tlers and native groups were erratic. One woman who migrated to
Montague County in 1 8 89 lived without incident near her Creek and
Comanche neighbors. "We had no truck with them to speak of," she
explained, "they let us alone and we let them alone." 17 2 Another woman,
T
who moved in 8 90 to Indian T e rritory in e xas, became disgusted with
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Choctaw Indians. According to her, Choctaws were impossible because
" C hoctaw Beer" made "them both drunk and crazy." In 8 9 1 , her f a mily
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leftTexas to relocate in the more stable Oklahoma area. 173 Furthermore,
another woman recalled that other T e xas families, tired of living in f e ar
of "mean and treacherous" Indians such as the Cheyennes and the
Potawatomis, also caught "Oklahoma f e ver" and left T e xas. 174
The experience oITexas women settlers demonstrates that violence
did occur between white women and American Indians. 175 The turmoil
in T e xas gave white women little opportunity to alter their views of
themselves or of Indians. Kept in a state of upheaval, they seldom
developed sympathy f o r Indians. 176 But Oklahoma during the latter half
of the nineteenth century gives a different picture of white-Indian
interaction. In Oklahoma, women encountered the so-called Five
Civilized Tribes, notably the Cherokee, Chickasaw , and Choctaw , who
had migrated to Indian T e rritory (later Oklahoma) beginning with the
"removal" policy of the 1830s. Despite the tragic Trail of T e ars
experienced by these early Indians, a relatively peaceable manner of
dealing with Indian-white issues developed in Oklahoma, allowing
white women to adjust their perceptions of themselves and their Indian
neighbors. Some Oklahoma women who were initially "scared to
death" even became "intermarried citizens" by wedding native men. 177
Oklahoma women went through the process described earlier con­
cerning trail women. Gradually, they f e lt confident enough to attend
native dances, including mourning cries, ceremonial dances, and even
mock war dances, where Indian participants acted in ways that would
have scared whites outside the ritual sphere. Within the context of social

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