Page 224 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTE R SIX

weapons toward the Indians, who insisted they were peaceful and did not
intend to fight.When Furness's mother offered the leader bread and sugar,
the gesture convinced the Indians to allow the train to pass. When deal­
ing with Indians, Furness added, it was her mother's custom "to initiate
f r iendly acts, in contrast to the men's belligerent reactions." 15
What these white women f a iled to take into account was that mas­
culinity entered most male white-native interactions. Although this
would not have been as true f o r male teachers and missionaries who
hoped to help Indians, it would have played a part f o r white male emi­
grants and settlers. White men may have thought Indians inferior, but
they were still dangerous enemies. In f a ct, the more dangerous and shifty
Indians could be portrayed, the more their defeat assured white males
of their own prowess. Any tricks the white man could get away with or
damage he could inflict on Indians upped his image in other men's eyes,
including f a thers, sons, and brothers. 16 W o men might have argued that
if Indians were inferior they should be treated with kindness by their
superiors. These women did not understand the pressures that standards
of white masculinity put on men. Nor did Indians understand white
masculinity . They could not know that if white men acted more savage
than Indians as they imagined Indians to act, they garnered points
toward masculinity .
Still other women chided white males f o r taking advantage ofIndians
at every turn. An Oregon settler fe lt that "lecherous white men" who
preyed on young Indian women caused the upheaval on the local reser­
vation. A Kansas settler believed that men who cheated Indians in trades
also created many difficulties. "Is it right," she queried, that white men
paid Indians "three dollar f o r a buffalo robe, worth twelve at home?" 17
According to Margaret Carrington of Fort Kearney, military men
were especially unethical. She was enthusiastic about an 1866 fo rt policy
barring soldiers fr om trading with Indians. This policy, she argued,
deterred "the possibility of collisions growing out of trades in f u rs, beads,
and other articles, in which the Indian is generally the unlucky one, and
often exhibits his disappointment by becoming revengeful and wicked." 1 8
Other women admonished military men f o r unnecessary attacks on
natives. Rachel Wright mentioned a detachment of soldiers sent to "exter­
minate" some peaceful Indians in the Upper Napa V a lley. According to

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