Page 87 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

F R O N T I E R PH ILOSOP HY: E U R O P EAN D I SCOURSE

Agreed, it was problematic f o r most Europeans to approach Native
Americans with any degree of objectivity. Caught between opposing
interpretations of the "good" Indian, who was simple, pure, and virtu­
ous, and the "bad" Indian, who was cruel, rapacious, and predatory,
Europeans tended to reflect one view or the other. Seldom did they
attempt to blend the two images into a realistic portrait ofIndians com­
bining both "good" or "bad." Novelists made up stories based on their
own beliefs, whereas visitors with preconceptions tended to see what
they expected to see, even when the scene before them contradicted
their notions. 120 These were mostly men, although a few women dared
to travel to the areas less settled by whites and still containing Indians.
One proponent of the "good" Indian was Chateaubriand. He
believed that it was unfair to show only the unattractive characteristics
of Indians because in reality their "manners were often charming." 121
Another who staun,chly defended Indians was a German physician,
Johann Schopf, who traveled through f r ontier America in the early
1870s. From his observations, he maintained that the moral character of
American Indians was not nearly as black as it had been represented.
Schopf also maintained that many Indians were innovative and that their
medical competence was especially admirable. 122
A number of novelists took similar positions. The Norwegian nov­
elist Jens Tvedt created a Dakota woman who, as a child of a trapper,
grew up among Indians and married a native man.Tvedt put these words
into her mouth:

There are Indians who possess just as many good qualities as any
white person. Although you may find some of the worst scum
among them, I think that you will find quite as many bad speci­
mens among our own people.You will seldom find such a degree
of vile coarseness among the Indians as exists among the whites­
at least as long as they have not been corrupted by contact with
the whites. 123

Other novelists championed Indians as well. During the 1 8 30s, the
author Charles Sealsfield decried the injustices perpetrated on Indians
who were the legitimate owners of the lands that the whites were
so ruthlessly seizing. 124 But the greatest supporter of the American

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