Page 216 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

CHAPTER FIVE

native woman and was then taken in by an Indian f a mily, who made
quite a "pet" of her. "Their conduct toward me was so considerate," she
later declared, "that I really liked them."2°7
Perhaps Carrigan's attitude can be understood through a survey of
events leading to hostilities. The conflict began with an altercation
between begging Indians and resistant whites that led to the death of
several settlers. The contretemps escalated into the settlers' severe and
dehumanizing retaliation against the natives. Carrigan recalled that white
people were given the right to shoot any Indian fo und off the reserva­
tion. When soldiers shot one errant Indian the people brought his body
into town and "celebrated" with it in the streets. "The boys put
firecrackers in his nose and lit them," Carrigan remembered. "After they
were through celebrating, they scalped him and threw him into a ditch."
Later, someone removed his head and decided "to have it fixed up in a
showcase."This " celebration" was f o llowed by a bad winter, during which
the government neglected to pay the Indians their allotments. All of this,
Carrigan said, resulted in the Indians becoming "disagreeable and ill­
natured." Carrigan did not seem surprised when violence flared, nor did
she condemn the Native Americans f o r their behavior.2 08
Other unpublished narratives involved very young women. Some
years before the New Ulm episode, a teenage brother and sister lost
their family in a cholera epidemic on the plains. When they continued
their trek toward California, they were seized by some Indians along
the north f o rk of the Platte River. During their captivity, the young
woman, Ruth, "cured" the chief's daughter of cholera. In the mean­
time, Ruth's brother Curtis joined the native men in buffalo hunts and
other activities. The Indians finally put the two young emigrants back
on the road near Fort Laramie, supplying them with blankets and other
items. The narrator of the story claimed that a bond of affection existed
between the young people and their captors, especially between Ruth
and the girl she had aided.2 09
Bianca Babb Bell of e xas related a similar incident, which involved
T
her experience as a young woman when Comanche Indians took her
prisoner during the late 1 8 60s. The Comanches killed Bianca's mother,
carried her and her brother off in a grueling three-day trek, and neg­
lected to fe ed her. Later, however, she grew fo nd of her adoptive mother

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