Page 65 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

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FRONTIER PHILOSOPY:
NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPEAN

DISCOURSE ON WESTERN WOMEN AND

ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN "OTHER"

The philosophies and ideologies of westward-bound migrants origi­
nated not only with American thinkers, writers, and artists, but with
Europeans as well. At the same time that Americans engaged in a spir­
ited discourse regarding the nature of white women in general and in
the West, as well as of American Indians, so did Europeans speculate on
the makeup of those white women who migrated to western frontiers
and on the character of the peoples they encountered there. Some
European observers traveled in parts of the American West, whereas
others became western settlers; both frequently made their reactions
public. Thus, the "philosophy" stage of American migration drew heav­
ily on European perceptions and misconceptions.
The most significant European prejudices and vanities to influence
emerging images of the American West and its people were colonialism
and supposed white superiority. Because a number of European
countries-notably England, France, and Germany-were expanding
to frontiers in India and Africa during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, they argued that white Europeans had the right
to divest native Indians and Africans from their land and resources,
replacing them with European-style farms, businesses, and
governments. European colonialists, who spent a great number of
written and spoken words justifying their behavior to themselves and

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