Page 232 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APTER S I X

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completed n the personal realm the work of colonization that men had
begun in the military and political spheres. At the same time that men
colonized the body, women colonized the mind. As men took land and
f o rced on Indians structures of white governance, women taught Indians
how to talk, dress, and eat like whites A s f r iends, teachers, missionaries,
.
and employers, women modeled white manners, appearance, customs,
beliefs, and aspirations. Clearly, white women needed what today would
be called reprogramming, which was unavailable then 5 8
.
In addition, women f a iled to generalize the little they had learned
about Native Americans. Their "education" was case specific, largely
because women did not conceive of themselves as resisting a system­
the white colonialist scheme called Manifest Destiny. Although they
railed about mistreatment of Indians, fo und a number of people to
blame, and suggested various answers, they f a iled to realize that they,
white men, and American Indians were caught in the larger net of
Manifest Destiny.As long as whites thought they were superior and their
culture constituted "civilization," the drama in the W e st had to play out
as it did.
Therefore, white women reshaped some beliefs regarding Indians,
but they discriminated against virtually everyone else who was not one
of them. Because Mexicans, African Americans, and Asians were visibly
different f r om emigrants and settlers in appearance, language, and cul­
tural characteristics, they were easily identified as targets of prejudice.
White women took these characteristics as reasons to act stiffly and,
although they lacked information, to criticize these peoples.
White women also disliked Mormons, a group of people very much
like themselves in appearance, culture, and ethnic origin. Because of
these obvious similarities, it might be assumed that Gentile (as Mormons
called non-Mormons) women would have had more incentive to asso­
ciate with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
than with Native Americans, but this was not true.
Anti-Mormon prejudice was rampant among white women.
Before leaving their eastern homes, they had been indoctrinated with
anti-Mormon prejudice by critical sermons, speeches, tracts, novels,
newspaper articles, satirical cartoons, and caricatures.59 Consequently,
many women expected Mormons to be more difficult to deal with than

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