The Memory and Uses of Indian Captivity in the Progressive Era

University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2011 Strange Vicissitudes: The Memory and Uses of Indian Captivity in the Progressive Era Molly Kathleen Burnett Varley The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Varley, Molly Kathleen Burnett, "Strange Vicissitudes: The Memory and Uses of Indian Captivity in the Progressive Era" (2011). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 917. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/917 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STRANGE VICISSITUDES: THE MEMORY AND USES OF INDIAN CAPTIVITY IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA By MOLLY KATHLEEN BURNETT VARLEY M.A., University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom, 2000 B.A., Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC, 1998 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Montana Missoula, MT May 2011 Approved by: Perry Brown, Associate Provost for Graduation Education Graduate School Dan L. Flores, Chair Department of History Jeff Wiltse Department of History Anya Jabour Department of History Nancy Cook Department of English Angelica Lawson Department of Native American Studies Varley, Molly, Ph.D., May 2011 History Strange Vicissitudes: The Memory and Uses of Captivity in the Progressive Era Chairperson: Dan L. Flores After the official closure of the frontier in 1890, small town boosters searched for ways to prove their participation in the national development on the frontier, to validate policies that promoted the Americanization of Native Americans, and to record for posterity their role as the vital hinge between past and present. In seeking to understand the role of tales of Indian captivity in the national cultural identity, historians and scholars have usually focused on narratives from before 1890 or films after the turn of the century, virtually ignoring the tales reprinted during the Progressive Era. Yet as the danger of actual captivity by Indians disappeared, historical captives provided a method by which Americans examined concerns brought by modernization and a means by which they reinforced and retained traits that they believed had been created on the frontier such as individualism, bravery, ingenuity, enthusiasm, “manliness,” patriotism, self-reliance and concern for others. Local boosters and cultural commentators celebrated Indian captivity because they lamented that the country was forgetting what they saw as pioneer bravery, and because they followed the premise of Frederick Jackson Turner‟s “frontier thesis.” Indian captivity narratives and monuments published, republished and memorialized between 1890 and 1916 celebrated historical captives, but they also congratulated those who made such celebration possible. By reprinting tales of local historical captives, and in some cases erecting monuments unveiled in elaborate ceremonies, Progressive Era Americans retold Indian captivity history. The retelling acted as a conduit through which the past spoke to the future. Preservation of a captive past meant the continuation of its basic elements in the future and the assurance that the local commentators and boosters who enacted the tribute would also be remembered as crucial to the creation of the national identity in the twentieth century. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv List of Illustrations vii Introduction: Indian Captivity in the Post-Frontier Era 1 Chapter 1: Small Towns Remember Indian Captivity 31 Chapter 2: The Indian and the Activist 63 Chapter 3: On Creating Americans 104 Chapter 4: Character Building and The Manly Mother 151 Conclusion: The Captive as Conduit 200 Appendix: Progressive Era Captivity Narratives 228 Bibliography 233 iii Acknowledgements This dissertation is the product of seven years of research and writing, but it is actually the work of many people and many more years. It may be true that my own sense of existing in something of a cultural no-man‟s land predisposed me to discover Indian captives and feel a great affection and sympathy for their cross-cultural struggles. For that, I must thank—or possibly blame—my parents for picking me out of a middle- class American life at the age of seven and plopping me down in East Africa, and then returning me several years later to rural South Carolina, a return that turned out to be far more traumatic than the initial culture shock. Although my own movement between cultures was hardly precipitated by the violent trauma that marks the start of the Indian captive‟s movements, it has left me somewhat disconnected from and confused by the culture designated by birth and time as “mine.” This fact about my life did not lead me to seek out others who felt the same disconnect, but it did, perhaps, make me more likely to become fascinated by Indian captives once other circumstances led me to them. My interest in history as an academic study began under Tom Showalter and David Bradshaw at Warren Wilson College. David provided the model of hard work, good humor and interdisciplinary study on which I have depended ever since, while Tom taught me the invaluable lesson of how to love a great lecture, even at eight in the morning. My instructors at the University of Kent at Canterbury shaped my intellectual development and helped combine my interest in history with the study of national character development and the dissemination of our particular and peculiar identities. At the University of Montana this journey started with an interest in captivity as presented in films of the American West and under the careful and thorough supervision iv of my advisor, Dan L. Flores, my understanding of captivity narratives in the twentieth century refocused on the Progressive Era. Jeff Wiltse also particularly deserves credit as the one who first sparked my interest in the Progressive Era and has never let me off with easy conclusions. I also wish to thank the rest of my committee, Anya Jabour, Nancy Cook and Angelica Lawson, for their invaluable suggestions and patience. Diane Rapp also made my treck through graduate school easier, as she knows everything and always answers questions immediately and directly. Thanks is also due to Linda G. Little, Curator of the Castile Historical Society, Stacey Steadham, Collections Assistant of the Indiana Historical Society, Heather Allen of the Wabash County Museum, and Jerome Thompson, the State Curator for the state of Iowa. I also received much help from the interlibrary loan departments at the University of Montana and at Meredith College. I also am also grateful to my colleagues at Meredith College, whose good humor and support in the last year have helped keep me afloat during the last push to complete this work. A number of people outside of academia have helped this project reach completion. Marsha Hoem and her children Inga and Walker provided friendship and a needed retreat when things got too hectic. They also provided much needed childcare at some critical moments. I must also thank my parents, whose support—financial and emotional—made this all possible. The lives of my grandmother, Mary W. Burnett, and my brother, Karl Burnett, have served as constant reminders that change is often quite necessary and welcome—a fact that has served me well over the last several unstable years. v More than anyone, I must thank my husband Craig and my daughters, Penelope and Madeleine, who have sustained me during these long years and patiently waited for me to come back to earth. Craig has taken care of me in times of crisis, listened to my endless babble about my research and my project, and has loved me in spite of all of it. For that, alone, this work is his as well. Penelope and Madeleine have reminded me that history is only important if it leads to something, and for me, that something is them. I credit them with my sanity and with my education in life, which has proved as valuable and fulfilling as my education in academics. vi List of Illustrations Figure 1: Frances Slocum 211 Figure 2: Frances Slocum Memorial 212 Figure 3: Spirit Lake Massacre Commission 213 Figure 4: Presidents of the Royalton Woman‟s Club 214 Figure 5: Mrs. Hendee and her charges 215 Figure 6: Abbie Gardner-Sharp 216 Figure 7: The Abbie Gardner-Sharp cabin 217 Figure 8: Two Spirit Lake Massacre monuments 218 Figure 9: Buffalo Tom Jemison 219 Figure 10: William Pryor Letchworth 220 Figure 11: Mary Jemison Statue 221 Figure 12: Cornplanter 222 Figure 13: William Pryor Letchworth in later years 223 Figure 14: Glen Iris in the 1860s 224 Figure 15: Mrs. Hannah Handy‟s Spool Holder 225 Figure 16: Madonna of the Trail 226 Figure 17: The Indian Creek Massacre Monuments 227 vii Introduction: Indian Captivity in the Post-Frontier Era To the Memory of MARY JEMISON, Whose home during more than seventy years of a life of Strange vicissitude what among the Senecas upon The banks of this river; and whose history, Inseparably connected with that of this valley, has Caused her to be known as “THE WHITE WOMAN OF THE GENESEE” Inscription on the second grave of Mary Jemison, Letchworth Park,

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