Page 71 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PH ILOSOPHY: EUROP EAN D I SCOURSE

continuous frontiers emerging in the American West encouraged the
European tendency toward wish fulfillment. Each successive frontier
appeared to be one more promise, one more opportunity for the even­
tual redemption of the European world through colonization into less
"civilized" parts of the world.
Thus, many commentators reached new heights of exaggeration
and inaccuracy in their analysis of frontier America. This willingness on
the part of Europeans to perceive the American frontier in terms of their
own needs and wishes still exists in the twenty-first century. Wild West
novels, poems, and movies are best-sellers throughout Europe, where
western wear and country music are popular consumer items. Cowboys
and Indians is a game widely played by European children. And adult
western cultists and buffs throughout Europe continue to breathe life
into a colorful but inaccurate image of the American West.21
Despite their inaccuracies, European views of western Americans
are well worth exploring for the effect they had on generations of set­
tlers, politicians, and policymakers. It is clear, for example, that when
their traditional values clashed with the new, liberal, and innovative ideas
demonstrated by generations of western women, confusion filled the
minds of European observers. Given their customary and conservative
notions about women's "place," what could Europeans possibly think
when they confronted relatively independent, free, and sometimes even
gun-toting western white women? The resulting ambivalence on the
part of Europeans resulted in contradictory judgments regarding west­
ern women that ranged from outrage to praise.
Yet, in light of their belief that the God-given superiority of white
people was destined to triumph over the West and its native popula­
tions, Europeans were committed to perceiving western women as
intrepid conquerors. The single view upon which European observers
generally agreed was that frontiers women, shaped by the crucible of the
western environment, were exceptional among women. Seemingly lib­
erated and freed by the frontier setting, these women were considered
by many Europeans as a distinct and even superior breed of female.
Much as they looked upon their own white women as "mothers of
empire," they thought of western women as tools of Manifest Destiny,
as veritable saints of western expansion.