Page 208 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

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women also aided Native American men. Nannie Alderson restored two
"almost f r o zen" Indian men with a fire and a meal. 173
Some women not only coped with individual Indian men, but dis­
covered in the process that they liked, admired, and even loved them.
Under these circumstances, many white women fo und it impossible to
overcome their sense of superiority to Indians; they could not consider
intermarriage. This was the case fo r Catherine W e ldon, a widow fr om
New Y o rk who in 1 8 89 traveled to the Standing Rock reservation in
Dakota T e rritory as a representative of the National Indian Defense
Association. W e ldon especially hoped to help Sitting Bull in his efforts
to resist the United States government fr om appropriating Sioux land.
Although W e ldon grew close to Sitting Bull, she was shocked and
insulted when he proposed marriage.Weldon was put offbecause Sitting
Bull already had several wives and because she thought of herself as a
superior white savior to inferior people, hardly a figure to stimulate an
Indian man's proposal. 174 For other white women, however, their anath­
ema to intermarriage dissolved. 175 When romantic love blossomed
between a white woman and a native man, it often resulted in marriage.
In 1886, f o r example, a young New England woman of genteel f a mily
and demonstrated literary ability became a teacher at the Great Sioux
Reservation in Dakota T e rritory. Here, Elaine Goodale came to see
Indians as human beings with a complex culture and who were likable
as individuals. During her first five years among them, she wrote articles
and tracts about them and their problems. In 1 8 9 1 , she married a Sioux
physician named Charles A. Eastman, with whom she shared a commit­
ment to helping Sioux people adjust to a changing world. T o gether, the
Eastmans wrote nine books. That Elaine Goodale Eastman's decision to
marry an American Indian was not unique among missionary women is
supported by references to other instances in fr ontier accounts. 176
Another situation that f o stered marriages between white f e males
and native males existed in Oklahoma during the 1 8 80s, the 1 8 90s, and
the early 1900s.As large numbers of settlers took up land leases on Indian
agencies, pushing into the region in land rushes, associations developed
between whites and American Indians. These contacts led to a number
of intermarriages. A f o rmer T e xas woman recalled, "I have two nieces
who married Commanche Indians, one Clinton Red Elk, and one Buster

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