Page 172 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTE R FOUR

persuaded her that there was no danger in attending an Indian dance.
Phelps and her sister seemed to have used these occasions to learn some­
thing about another culture. Phelps also called an Indian doctor to treat
her children and hired an Indian male nurse f o r them. When John, her
children's native nurse, died, she said that they mourned him as though
he had been a member of the f a mily. After an r838 upheaval among
Native Americans in the area, Phelps stated that she was glad to "have
peace & quietness again after so much howling in the wilderness, if we
always had to live as I have f o r three weeks past I could not stay in the
indian country, but I never was very much afraid of them." 198
Many years later, another woman, Hilda Faunce, also the wife of an
Indian trader, had a similar experience. She moved with great trepida­
tion to a Nav a j o reservation in the Arizona desert. Feeling superior yet
scared, she initially branded the residents as primitive, heathen, and
immoral. Gradually, however, she came to admire Navajo people and
f e el comf o rtable living near them. "As the months passed," she wrote,
"I learned to respect the way the Navajos made the most of an arid,
rocky land; I admired their architecture; the design of the blankets and
the skill and sincerity in carrying it out were real art." She added that
"the lazy and the indigent were less common than among whites." As
to native religion, Faunce fo und it "wholesome and clean and their
respect fo r their belief compared f a vorably with the white man's atti­
tude toward his God." From her new perspective, Faunce blamed Nav a j o
problems on white men who supplied the Indians with alcohol. 199
Like these traders' wives, military wives went fr om misgivings to
warmth. Although white women arrived at their husbands' f r ontier posts
filled with misconceptions about American Indians, they eventually
became more open and receptive. Martha Summerhayes regarded her
Indian servants as quick learners and conscientious workers.200 With
time, Alice Baldwin became fr iendly with several Indian women and
praised the "sincerity" ofIndian culture and values. She also insisted on
describing the disgruntled Chief Joseph as a "wonderful Indian."2 OI
The timid and f e arful Ada V o gdes is an outstanding example of a
white woman's ability to adjust her attitude. In "constant f e ar" when­
ever she ventured fr om Fort Laramie and "frightened to death" at
any irregularity while inside its sheltering walls, she was not a likely