Page 98 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

C H AP E T R Two

at all and "sometimes had to be carried on their wives' backs when they
grew too lazy to walk home fr om hunting."199
These inaccurate portrayals of the roles and duties of Indian men
and women occurred because commentators usually observed only the
village life of traditional hunting and military societies. They had many
opportunities to watch native women carry out the domestic chores
that were their responsibilities, yet seldom had the same chance to wit­
ness native men conducting a dangerous and demanding buffalo hunt,
fighting in deadly warfare, or performing such rites as a sweat lodge
ceremony . Coming f r om an industrialized society where hunting and
fishing were considered little more than leisure-time sports and where
warfare was a matter f o r a trained few, Europeans had no notion of the
skill and peril involved in such pursuits. Thus, in their eyes, native
women got the very worst of the bargain, whereas men seemed to get
the very best.20o
Complicating the matter still f u rther was the absence of meaning­
f u l contact between observers and Indian women, so that visitors could
hear women's opinions. Nor were women's words available in written
f o rm among tribes who depended on oral traditions and history. Even
the trappers and missionaries who got to know American Indian women
allowed their self-interests or perceptions to bias their reports. In addi­
tion, white commentators virtually ignored women operating outside
the domestic realm. Although American Indian women among many
tribes became equestrians, warriors, medical practitioners, and religious
leaders, it has been left to modern anthropologists, historians, and native
women who serve as tribal, f a mily, and personal historians to reveal the
stories ofIndian women such as Elk Hollering, Running Eagle, and Old
Lady Drives the Enemy. 20 1
As a result of the blinders they wore, European commentators
emphasized what appeared to them to be a cruel and unfair division of
labor between American Indian men and women. "The man smokes
peacefully while the woman grinds corn in a mortar," Louis Philippe
wrote. "The men in domestic life are exceedingly slothful," traveler John
Davis added. Another claimed that "women perform all the household
drudgery . . The active employment of the men is war and hunting."202
.
.
"The squaw has to toil," Pulszky claimed, "the man but to fight, to hunt,

90