Page 48 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H APT E R ONE

In whatever media they appeared, captivity narratives fulfilled
different functions throughout the nearly three centuries of their exis­
tence. During the American colonial period they were largely religious
tracts concerned with the salvation of those who escaped captivity. By
the end of the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth century,
they expressed anti-Indian sentiment. These narratives rationalized the
extermination of American Indians and the taking of their lands. During
the mid- and late nineteenth century, captivity narratives demonstrated
the courage and fortitude of frontiersmen and women, thus becoming
tall tales that exaggerated the exploits of captives to indicate the brav­
ery of American settlers. They were highly fictionalized and even used
as school texts in moral values. 9 7
Meanwhile, a similar stereotype pervaded other nineteenth-cen­
8
tury forms of popular culture. 9 Like all groups of human beings, whites
sought truths about "others," often constructing them without much
evidence. 9 9 Because literature, including periodicals, was the primary
form of media during the early nineteenth century, it played a key role
in white colonization of Native Americans. Authors who misrepresented
Indians conditioned white Americans to accept almost any travesty
against Indians. 1 0 0 For instance, in I 8 35,William Gilmore Simms's novel
T h e Yemassee presented Americans with one type of ignoble savage, and
in 1837, Robert Montgomery Bird's Nick of the Woods created another.
James Fenimore Cooper also contributed to Indian stereotypes; for
example, his Indians were quintessential Americans who were not
Americans at all, in that they fell outside of white American society. 1 0 1
Meanwhile, the Romantic historians George Bancroft and Francis
Parkman produced widely read histories filled with barbaric American
Indians. In historical narratives more like fiction, these historians made
no pretense at objectivity. Convinced of Indians' inherent savagery,
Parkman wrote that although white settlers must take into account the
"good qualities" of Indians they must also be aware of the "impassable
0
gulf " between the two groupS.1 2 Indians were also depicted in nega­
tive ways in many popular Currier and Ives prints, such as the 1813 Death
of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames, whereas the renowned artist
Frederic Remington often had Indians skulking through his engrav­
ings, paintings, and sculptures. According to Remington's portrayals,

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