Page 39 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONT I E R PHILOSOPHY: AME RICAN D I S C OURSE

V e rnon Seaver's Young Buffalo Show between 19II and 1913, she still
wore her usual clothing. Although some rodeo cowgirls favored trousers,
men's boots, and Stetson hats, a fair number of them emulated Oakley,
who had maximized her opportunities during the late 1800s and early
-
1900S without becoming a pseudo-man.6s Like Sarah Josepha Hale years
before, Oakley subtly subverted usual gender roles to fit her own ends,
but did it so graciously that she received kudos rather than criticism.
Clearly, then, women who went west between the end of the War
of 18I2 and the beginning of World War I had rich and varied exam­
ples to emulate. Also, because these women had internalized many mes­
sages in their lifetimes, they carried considerable mental baggage with
them as they headed west. Anglo women had a sense of white superi­
ority enhanced by female superiority, with a strong undercurrent of mis­
sion. Once on a frontier, most expected to model white " civilization,"
including helping establish white agriculture, which was a mode of col­
onizing the West. 6 9 They would also act piously and help the destitute,
ill, and needy. Although they had a deep awareness of social ills and a
need, as women, to correct them, the only curative they knew was to
exhibit their own moral rectitude. They also had a vague uneasiness that
they had been deprived of certain basic rights due them as human beings
and as highly moral women.Yet, whether it was 1850 or 1900, they had
very ill-defined ideas about how to claim such rights. They had not been
told that change often comes from listening and communicating.
Only the intensity and specifics of Anglo women's mindset varied
from the 18IOS and 1820S to the 1890S and early 1900s.A female migrant
of the 1830s, for example, might interpret her mission as helping une­
ducated white children and black slaves, of which there were many in
the West. She might also hope to have the opportunity of some educa­
tion and perhaps poorly paid employment. A woman of the 1870S and
1880s was probably aware of the Indian "problem," as defmed by jour­
nalists and reformers, and looked forward to gaining such women's rights
as improved education and possibly professional opportunities. By 1900,
a woman might be thinking ahead to aiding reservation Indians and
helping subdue such "renegades" as the Comanche and the Sioux. She
might also plan to work for woman suffrage in the West. In virtually
every case, however, Anglo women were not well-informed citizens who

3 I