The Attitudes They are a Changin'

In the settler's eyes the Indian was inferior.  Culture had also taught the frontier woman they she was physically and intellectually inferior - smaller brains, weaker muscles, helpless, childlike, indecisive, and unable to protect herself or her children alone.

So, is it surprising that pioneer women began to exchange their groundless fear and begin to see the Indian as human beings to empathize with?

Women's perceptions began to alter when Indians would repeatedly return lost cattle and livestock to their camps.  According to Mabel Beavers "those people were lovely to me, were and yet are, some of the warmest people I have ever met".

One pioneer woman said of the Indian's lack of English language, "Why do they need to speak English?  Do we speak their native tongue?"

Women were the first to see past the generalization of judging an entire race on the basis of a relative few.
Kudos to the pioneer woman!

Next...White Man's Standards...