Page 202 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

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entire f a mily f e lt his loss very much: her children cried fo r him "as much
as though he had been a relative." She went on to explain that "he was
their f r iend truly they missed his singing, he used to fix a drum & then
sing and drum & have them and the little papooses dance, any one could
not tell which was which only by the color, many a time I have went
in where they were dancing, all having blankets on, and I could hardly
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tell my own children . . . they would all sing, but just alike."13 Later,
during the 1 8 50s, a young Puget Sound woman, raised by an Indian
nurse, acquired a f o ndness f o r native f o od and gained proficiency in her
nurse's language. She also expressed a love fo r the woman that she said
was second only to her f e elings f o r her mother. 137
White women who treated with f a irness their Indian employees
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f a red the best. Rachel Wright, a settler in the Upper Napa a lley, claimed
that the key to f a vorable working relations with American Indians lay
with migrants and settlers. Indians could be "an advantage rather than
otherwise," she argued, "as they were not only willing but glad to work
if they were left f r ee, well treated and properly paid f o r their labor."138
It was in this spirit that many fr ontierswomen visited American
Indians.While such occasions nourished cordiality, it was personal inter­
changes between white women and Indian men and women that f o s­
tered warm f e elings. White women who f o und Indians f e arsome in a
large group could handle a f e w at a time. One trail woman of the 1 8 50S
who visited Sioux women was impressed by their hospitality and their
"skill with a needle."139 A f e male migrant of the 1 8 60s recorded fr e­
quent and very genial social times between her white fr iends and "the
Cherokee Ladies." I40 A Mormon woman added that Indian women
whom she visited were "really fr iendly." She remarked that they had
enjoyed "quite a dish of conversation together." I41
Others recalled getting to know Indians as children. An Iowa set­
tler of the 1870S explained that she grew up with f r iendly f e elings toward
the Indians who roamed the woods and camped in the fields around
her home. She attributed this to the f a ct that her Aunt Liza had regu­
larly taken her and her sister to a nearby native village, where the women
had given them beads that they "treasured greatly." 14 2 An Oklahoma
woman recalled a similar experience fr om her childhood of the 1 8 90s.
She often visited a Choctaw woman, whom she called Aunt Sophia.

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