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4-1-1985 Women On The Great Plains Recent Developments Research Glenda Riley University of Northern Iowa

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Riley, Glenda, "Women On The Great Plains Recent Developments Research" (1985). Great Plains Quarterly. Paper 1847. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1847

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GLENDA RILEY

During the past dozen years or so, scholars assumption is that scholarship regarding plains­ have become increasingly involved in research­ women has now reached a stage that demands ing the lives and experiences of women on the introspection so as to continue to grow and Great Plains. At the same time, interest in become more sophisticated. learning more about the lives of all types of During the early 1970s, agricultural historian western, frontier, farm, and rural women has Mary W. M. Hargreaves was the first modern burgeoned. As a result, researchers now devote scholar to focus attention on researching Euro­ their careers to these topics, national confer­ American women on the Great Plains. 1 In two ences convene to disseminate and refine this essays published in Agric;ultural History, Har­ increasing scholarship, and journals commit greaves approached a topic that most historians theme issues to presenting research results. had not yet thought about.2 While it is true This essay is a survey of research develop­ that at this time women's history was gaining ments concerning plainswomen between the increasing impetus, few women's historians had early 1970s and the present day. The purpose the awareness to initiate investigations into the of such an examination is twofold: first, to historical experiences of particular types of gain an understanding of the dimensions of women. The customary practice was to consider current research and scholarly perspectives predominant groups of white women rather regarding women on the Great Plains, and than to explore those of various regions, cul­ second, to suggest some crucial methodolog­ tures, or races. Those historians of the West who ical issues yet to be explored. An underlying mentioned women did so almost exclusively in terms of image and myth. These stereotypes included the Saint in the Sunbonnet, the Pio­ neer Mother, the Frontier Feminist, the Help­ Glenda Riley is professor of history and coordi­ nator of women's studies at the University of mate, and the Light Lady.3 Northern Iowa. Her most recent book is Women When Hargreaves first approached the topic and Indians on the Frontier, 1825-1915 (1984). of female settlers on the plains, little evidence of scholarly acumen existed. In a 1973 review [GPQ5 (Spring 1985): 81-92.] essay, Hargreaves observed that, although

81 82 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985 plainswomen "performed a partnership role earlier reservation that the available materials more difficult than on any previous frontier," would not be representative of the typical their story had been customarily overlooked westering woman, but would mirror only those by most historians. In critiquing three recent women whose activities were unusual enough books by women settlers on the Great Plains, to merit publication. Hargreaves noted that these women's state­ This lack of women's source materials was ments finally provided some insights to scholars reflected in the stereotyped treatment of fron­ about women who participated in "an impor­ tierswomen in general histories of women and tant and generally neglected segment of the' the West during the mid-1970s. One of these westward movement.,,4 characterized women as intrinsically weak and In her consideration of memoirs by Grace domestic, "natural" traits that made women's Fairchild, Faye Cashatt Lewis, and Sarah success on the frontier unlikely: Roberts, Hargreaves began by noting that it was unfortunate that all three accounts were Clinging to a few treasured heirlooms as reminiscences rather than on-the-spot records.5 reminders of a kinder life, they accompanied They were, she argued, colored by "the after­ their husbands across the continent, suffer­ glow through which age views the past." In ing the most desperate physical hardships as addition, all three women were well educated, well as a desolating sense of loneliness. More a factor that raised the question of how repre­ place-bound than men, more dependent on sentative they were of women involved in the the company of other women, on the forms homesteading experience in general. Hargreaves of settled social life, they grew old and died pointed out, however, that these women's before their time, on the trail, in a sod hut writings did offer a good deal of detail concern­ or a rude cabin pierced by icy winds. 8 ing daily life on homesteads, work schedules, and challenges to domestic responsibilities. But other writers portrayed frontierswomen They also contained women's .comments regard­ as strong and hardy people. "Beneath her linsey­ ing topics such as loneliness, families, and cul­ woolsey dress or calico frock was a sturdy tural activities. But she concluded that historians body," one claimed. She was a "builder" who interested in plainswomen were in need of "a "wrapped a shawl around her shoulders, tied on more abundant literature, and probably a more her sunbonnet, cradled the youngest babe in representative one" than volumes such as these her arms, and pointed her face West.,,9 Another provided. 6 writer maintained that although women were Although she raised several problem areas "the most conservative of creatures, hating with basic to research in the history of Euro-American a passion those three concomitants of the west­ plainswomen, Hargrea.ves was not deterred from ern frontier-poverty, physical hardship and continuing her own investigation into their danger," it was really they who tamed the lives. In a 1976 essay, she attempted to delin­ "wild West."l0 eate their roles as civilizing influences, their By the mid-1970s, the emergence of the con­ involvement in the western woman suffrage temporary feminist movement fostered a criti­ movement, and their attempts to deal with cal view of such pat typologies of women. prevalent loneliness, primitive housing, and a Several feminist scholars soon applied this general lack of services. 7 While this essay raised attitude to scholarship concerning frontiers­ some issues crucial to understanding early women in general and plainswomen in particular. female settlers, it also reflected a continuing These investigators contributed not only a difficulty with women's source materials. Har­ healthy disrespect for traditional interpretations greaves' sources were sparse and published, of western women but also a methodology that rather than wide-ranging and in manuscript emphasized documents written by women form. This limitation echoed Hargreaves' own themselves. 11 WOMEN ON THE GREAT PLAINS 83

Fortunately, the situation concerning wom­ Resource Center in Pierre, the Orin G. Libby en's source materials was beginning to alter, a Manuscript Collection at the University of trend that has accelerated during the 1980s. North Dakota in Grand Forks, the Western His­ Numerous documents by all types of plains­ tory Collection at the University of Oklahoma women, including American Indian women and in Norman, and the Barker Texas History Center women of various ethnic origins, are now in at the University of Texas in Austin are some of print. These sources include letters, diaries, and the better-known libraries that offer such wom­ daybooks, as well as memoirs. They appear in en's resources as daybooks, letters, memoirs, both book form and in local, state, and regional reminiscences, clipping ftles, minutes of women's historical journals. The philosophy behind their clubs, records of suffrage associations and selection no longer limits them to just the un­ women's religious and civic groups, daily usual or colorful women. Rather, the accounts dockets of women officials and bureaucrats, written by typical, grassroots women are now official documents including legislative acts considered worthy of publication because they relating to women and suffrage memorials, reflect the lives of the vast majority of women.12 postcard collections, invitations, broadsides, Another important trend is that archivists and autobiographical and biographical sketches. are increasingly aware of the need to locate and In addition, the results of such special make available documents of the sort that projects as Works Progress Administration inter­ formerly were lost or ignored. Women's writ­ views conducted during the 1930s are available ings such as daybooks and diaries that might in the Indian-Pioneer Papers at the University once have been rejected because they required of Oklahoma and in the WPA Collection at the more space in an archive than their "value" Wyoming State Archives, Museums, and Histor­ dictated are now aggressively sought out. ical Department in Cheyenne. Other interview Documents such as personal letters that were collections that include women are housed casually tossed into a box of family letters or a in the American Heritage Center at the Uni­ husband's collection without more than a pass­ versity of Wyoming and the Pioneer Collection ing notation on a catalog card now receive an at the Montana State Historical Society in entry of their own. This new awareness has Helena. been fostered by Cynthia E. Harrison's 1979 Many archives are also increasingly offering clio bibliography concerning women in Amer­ special services that are helpful to researchers ican history and, more recently, by the compi­ on plainswomen. Both the Kansas State Histor­ lation of a massive guidebook to women's ical Society and the Nebraska State Historical history manuscript sources by Andrea Hinding Society loan women-related documents on and Clarke Chambers at the University of Min­ microftlm to other research institutions. The nesota.13 Regarding the Great plains in partic­ Montana State Historical Society has both an ular, SheryU and Gene Patterson-Black's 1978 extensive photograph collection and knowledge­ bibliography on western women and Carol able photo-archivists. And in many research Fairbanks and Sara Sundberg's 1983 guide to centers, particularly the two just mentioned, prairie women both emphasized the research special exhibits concerning women supplement area of plainswomen.14 the archival materials. In other cases, exhibits This massive retrieval effort has resulted in in nearby museums, such as the Cheyenne Days the recovery and establishment of a rich and Pioneer Museum in Wyoming, complement the growing supply of women's source materials for holdings of the state historical society. Finally, researchers. Such archives as the American it is now possible to expect to find a catalog Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming section titled "Women" and often an archivist in Laramie, the Nebraska State Historical Society or librarian versed in the topic in most major in Lincoln, the Kansas State Historical Society research collections on the Great Plains. in Topeka, the South Dakota State Historical Furthermore, published materials by and 84 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985 about plainswomen are included in such publi­ nineteenth-century ideology of domesticity cations as the Great Plains Quarterly, Great affect the white plainswoman? Why did she Plains Journal, Plainswomen, and historical often seem more committed to suffrage and journals of the individual plains states, thus actually achieve it earlier than her eastern supplementing archival holdings. To say that sisters? Did she really interact with the native the problems that Hargreaves encountered have population in the destructive way that myth been solved would be overstating the case. But and media have led us to believe? How did tech­ it is accurate to say that a small revolution has nology, ranging from an improved washing occurred in the assumptions underlying the machine to birth con trol methods, change her collection and publication of women's docu­ life? What was the effect of the Great Plains ments. region upon the westering woman as compared As the availability and amount of evidence with the influences of other regions on her has grown, the complexity of perspectives has counterparts across the country? These are only also multiplied. A general recognition that a few of the many queries being raised by in­ stereotypes and myths are one-dimensional and creasingly informed and aware scholars of limiting now exists in the literature. is In addi­ plainswomen. tion, a growing awareness of the need to At least part of this growing diversity of examine various types of women also pervades research interests and approaches can be attrib­ research. Considerations of ethnic, racial, immi­ uted to the influence of various feminist per­ grant, urban, rural, religious, reform-minded, spectives, including the radical, Marxist, and working, single, widowed, and military women conservative. Regardless of approach, all are 'some of the refinements in approaches to feminist historians agree that plainswomen are women that now add subtle shadings and excit­ worthy of serious and extensive study. They ing insights to the study of women on the also stress the idea that women were absolutely plains.16 The many women who helped settle crucial to the early development, eventual the Great Plains by taking up homesteads are settlement, and more recent progress of the being studied in their own right rather than Great Plains region. Some, however, emphasize being overlooked because of the assumption such issues as discrimination on the basis of that homesteaders were male.17 The history of gender, concepts of inferiority of women and women on the Canadian Plains is now being resulting prejudicial treatment of them, and researched.18 Plainswomen in literature and exploitation of women by men. Others are film are yet another focus. 19 And despite the more interested in questions regarding work difficulties of dealing with largely oral sources roles, rewards by the system, and power rela­ and overcoming a long-standing prejudice tionships. Still others choose to look at gender against America's native peoples, Plains Indian roles and expectations in their study of women women are finally receiving the widespread on the plains. Of course, there are additional attention and intensive study that their history issues that each group of feminist scholars and invaluable cultural heritage deserve. 20 raises, just as there are other types of feminist So too has the level of the questions being views. The significant point is that a multitude posed risen dramatically. No longer content of approaches now exist, each contributing yet with knowing simply how women on the plains another dimension to the study of women on managed their households or dealt with the the Great Plains.21 harsh demands of their environment, scholars Accompanying this proliferation of feminist are now pursuing a broader range of concerns. viewpoints has been the development of a wider What was the role of the plainswoman as a range of research techniques. Literary and con­ domestic producer? What was the impact of tent analysis of fiction and other women's her economic contributions both within and sources offers many insightful perceptions.22 outside of the home? How did the prevailing Demographic analysis provides such essential WOMEN ON THE GREAT PLAINS 85 information as the number of American Indian women who seemed largely unaware of its women in different eras, the ratio of single and existence, or at least did not articulate it clearly. married women, family size, longevity, and Should historians and other scholars impute settlement patterns, to name just a few of the modern notions of oppression to previous gen­ types of useful data. 23 Economic analysis erations of women and men? Clearly, percep­ determines the number of women who held tions of persecution vary with cultures and eras. paid employment, acted as entrepreneurs, and As a case in point, early European observers of ran their own businesses, again to list just a American Indian peoples saw native women as few concerns. 24 As with the various feminist beasts of burden. They appeared, to white eyes, approaches, these differing types of analysis to be downtrodden victims of native males, of the evidence supply new kinds of informa­ who preferred to "play" at hunting and fight­ tion about plainswomen's lives. All indications ing. A more modern view is that these women suggest that the multiplication of techniques were actually carrying out the domestic and will continue, rather than abate. agricultural tasks of their society while men This survey of research on the history of engaged in the equally serious chores of pro­ plainswomen today as compared with Har­ viding meat and protection for the group.26 greaves' early work brings to mind adjectives This example alone is sufficient cause for exer­ such as complex, growing, and vigorous. The cising caution and care in the dangerous, yet progress achieved in this area since the early essential, study of women's exploitation. 1970s offers much to be proud of for those A closely related area is the study of gender who contributed their skills and energies. It roles. Sociologist Carolyn E. Sachs claims that provides tremendous promise for the leaps that American conceptions of farm people's gender scholarship regarding plainswomen may take roles-that is, men as "farmers" and women as during the coming years. Perhaps more impor­ domestic laborers-have been translated into tantly, it furnishes a base from which scholars United States policies for developing nations can raise and explore some crucial methodolog­ that stress agricultural methods for men and ical concerns. Although rapid growth is heady home economics for women. Despite the fact and exciting, planned and deliberate growth is that women are widely involved in agriculture often more productive in the long run. Conse­ in developing countries, traditional American quently, there are a number of issues that might notions of what men and women do still prevail be examined at this time for future profit. among American policymakers concerned with One key area of consideration is the ques­ these countries, even to an alarming and de­ tion of women's long-term exploitation by structive degree. In considering the effect of men. John Mack Faragher points out that gender expectations on American farming, among white rural people the traditional rela­ Sachs finds that women (who are not expected tionship between men and women "was not to farm on their own) are denied access to land, only one of male domination but of female credit, training, and necessary information. exploitation." He effectively argues that an From nonadjustable tractor pedals and seats that understanding of "rural antebellum political do not fit female dimensions to information­ economy must begin by recognizing women's sharing sessions at the local grain elevator that exploitation and subordination." 25 Emphasiz­ exclude women, female farmers find themselves ing the importance of this issue, he suggests shut out by a pervasive system of gender roles. 27 several creative ways in which the historian The importance of gaining insight into such might approach the topic of exploitation. The long-standing conceptions of gender and into significance of this matter demands that it resulting policies that reflect such discrimina­ receive wider consideration by scholars, who tion is apparent. One approach to the question must meet a multitude of challenges in analyzing of role prescriptions that deserves much more and defining the impact of exploitation on attention and development is the examination 86 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985 of male gender rqles and the comparison of impact of many cultures when studying wom­ them with those for women. For example, both en. In their call for a "new multicultural frame­ white rural women and men on the plains com­ work" as a focus for the study of western mented on their physical environment, yet women, Jensen and Miller point out that "once men, more than women, tended to be inter­ refocused on cultures, many new insights, ested in the fertility of the soil, questions of approaches, and questions immediately appear." mileage and dimensions of property, and natural They offer examples of such innovation by resources such as timber. This is not an unex­ discussing the topics of migration, the demog­ pected finding, given the fact that men were raphy of settlements, relations among women charged primarily with tilling the fields, but it of various cultures, politics, and occupations demonstrates that they were not free of role from a multicultural perspective.29 prescriptions and their effects either. On the While investigators of plainswomen are other hand, the reactions of women and men to accepting the need to consider specific cul­ their physical environment were similar in tures, recent studies have placed less emphasis many ways. Both established interior spaces for on following women's experiences through themselves-the women in their homes and the time. But the study of ancient American Indian men, their barns. In gardens and fields, both and Mexican civilizations, for example, is im­ planted crops that they were familiar with from portant to a full understanding of the historical their former homes. And both rearranged their developments affecting later generations of immediate space by removing plants and trees, female inhabitants of the plains. Moving for­ planting new ones, and fencing in portions of ward into the twentieth century can provide a the land. feeling for continuity and change that may Looking at gender distinctions from another lead to unexpected insights. In observing con­ angle, one might hypothesize that because temporary rural women on the plains one notes women were expected to support the arts, cul­ that many now work outside of their farm ture, and the family, men were largely excluded homes in paid employment in order to provide from activities such as folk art or child care. cash income for the family farm operation. Is The samplers that often recorded family history this not essentially a modern version of the or taught moral lessons to the family were earlier female settler who supplied operating female-defmed undertakings, so here too were cash through her butter and egg business ? Yet, men excluded from important family-related at the same time, marked changes in the degree functions. The ongoing quilting bee that pro­ of isolation and physical labor endured by the vided so much support and disseminated so plainswoman are easily observable. much information was similarly closed to Another type of comparative approach males. 28 For men, then, the equivalent of mis­ might attempt to cut across regions and coun­ proportioned tractor pedals that conveyed a tries. Were westering women's lives on the message to women regarding their gender roles plains shaped by its arid environment, or was and duties was perhaps the quilting frames and there a "female frontier" that could be found other similar tools of household arts that were on all frontiers, wherever they might be located? clearly dominated by women. The moral is that Do the gender roles that affected both native a more complete understanding of women's and Euro-American plainswomen appear in experience on the plains may be gained by con­ Chinese or perhaps Yugoslavian rural societies trasting it with men's. An understanding of the as well? What might the answers to these and u~queness of women's lives can be seen by other similar questions reveal about the lives comparing them with the larger human exper­ and roles of plainswomen? ience. While an admirable goal, the actual execu­ In a similar vein, Joan Jensen and Darlis tion of comparative studies of the sort men­ Miller emphasize the need to consider the tioned can be complex, demanding, and fraught WOMEN ON THE GREAT PLAINS 87 with unexpected difficulties. Overcoming lan­ Yet another possible approach in the utiliza­ guage and word usage differences between tion of community resources is oral history. countries can be problematic, as can gaining Interviews of farm women often pay unex­ awareness of racial and ethnic sensitivities, an pected dividends, yielding information concern­ understanding of women's artifacts, and a knowl­ ing not only their own lives and work but also edge of many nations' histories, to mention just a those of generations of family women who few issues. How does one deal with demographic preceded them. Making case studies of particular statistics if one is not a trained demographer, a women or farming operations as well as devel­ researcher might reasonably ask. Or how does oping family histories are still other ways to one interpret folk art when lacking a grounding gather source materials.34 Investigators, espe­ in the arts? How does one who is not a geog­ cially those who received traditional training in rapher analyze land systems? The difficulties are graduate school, are beginning to recognize and legion, yet an answer is available. Investigators pursue such unconventional types of evidence can reach outside their own specialities to draw in their study of women. upon the work of historians, sociologists, folk­ This discussion suggests at least some of the lorists, geographers, statisticians, psychologists, approaches that scholars concerned with women biologists, and many others. Multicultural, on the Great Plains might examine and utilize. multiracial, and multiregional analysis can pro­ But there are also some practices that might be ceed through cooperation among practitioners avoided. One is an over-eagerness to reject and of the various disciplines. If each group talks destroy long-standing stereotypes and myths only to itself in conferences and journals, all regarding plainswomen. Of course, legends that will suffer. Although difficult, the combatting obscure reality must be approached critically. of such provincialism could contribute to a Because they often float like a veil between fuller, fairer picture of plainswomen's lives and scholars and historical reality, images demand experiences.30 scrutiny. Yet, it may not be desirable to discard Another very common type of scholarly them entirely. Because stereotypes and legends isolation occurs when researchers fail to mine reflect ideas that were actually held by many the resources offered by community groups and generations of plains women and men, they are other organizations. For instance, when dealing a type of historical evidence in themselves. For with the lives of native women on the plains, it instance, myth and media often told women would be useful to work with American Indian what to expect from the plains environment, as women now living in the region. 31 Farm well as how they "should" react to it. Thus, women are represented today by organizations many women expected to be harassed and such as Rural American Women. Extension even scalped by Plains Indians. In addition, services and their agents are another source of nineteenth-century dictums regarding women information regarding farm women in the plains told them they would be weak and helpless region. Materials from extension services, as when confronting their "enemies." Although well as the Farm Bureau and the u.s. Depart­ both of these stereotypes were in fact inac­ ment of Agriculture, including the various types curate, examining them helps to explain fron­ of statistics and other data that they collect, tier women's high anxiety levels when setting are extensive and often easily accessible. 32 In out on the plains and their near panic at the fact, some extension agents are themselves en­ sighting of their first Indians.35 gaged in the study of such topics as the impact A related caution is the need to go slowly in of gender roles upon agriculture, the develop­ eschewing the "old" questions asked by scholars ment of a historical perspective on the informal like Hargreaves. Such issues as those concerning education of women provided by their services, domesticity, marital relationships, and cultural and the portrayal of women in extension activities raised by earlier investigators are often materials. 33 still germane and do not deserve to be ignored. 88 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985

Their domestic roles and contributions were the encompass diversity. The contributions of central concerns of most plainswomen's lives. American Indian and European women to the Marriage and family were the primary focus for development of the plains are of the utmost the majority of them. And cultural contribu­ importance. American female settlers on the tions grew from widely held values among Great Plains cannot be slighted in favor of men nineteenth-century white plainswomen.36 It or bypassed with the assumption that they were could very well be counterproductive in the just like women in other frontier regions. Con­ long run if zealous scholars become so reformist temporary plainswomen of all types must also and revisionist that they create a whole new set be studied and interviewed in order to establish of stereotypes and myths to be struck down by a continuum of women's experiences from the future generations of researchers. While it is earliest era to the present. An approach com­ clearly necessary to consider women as labor­ mitted to diversity would also involve a wide ers, political beings, or emergent feminists, it is variety of sources, research questions, guiding neither useful nor balanced to do so at the perspectives, techniques, eras, and regions. expense of the consideration of domestic and The many complex pieces can be fit together family roles. by the work of many kinds of researchers who Another practical matter, smaller in scope are willing to draw upon each other's findings. than those already discussed, also creates prob­ I t is no longer necessary for the history of lems. Confusion regarding terminology might plainswomen to be shrouded in image and best be resolved now, while the field of research myth. Nor must it be restricted by limited on plainswomen is still in a formative stage. The source materials and narrow perspectives. All muddle that surrounds the terms "frontier" and the needed ingredients are now available to "West" seems to be an object lesson in avoiding investigators who can both refine the scholar­ the same type of blurring around the phrases ship of the past and contribute a new sophisti­ "rural women" and "farm women." Some col­ cation to the future study of women on the lective thinking is needed to determine what is Great Plains. actually meant by these inexact and already widely used expressions. Does a woman who NOTES lives on a farm but works away from it qualify as a farm woman? Is the woman who is engaged 1. Although at least one earlier scholar wrote on plainswomen, he did so largely in in an agribusiness such as hog futures a farm stereotypical terms of hardship, deprivation, woman? Is a woman who lives in a small town a and misery. See Everett Dick, The Sod-House rural or an urban woman? What if she is a Frontier, 1854-1890 (New York: D. Appleton­ female blueberry farmer in Michigan, lives in Century Company, 1937), and "Sunbonnet town, and commutes to her farm daily? Is a and Calico: The Homesteader's Consort," Ne­ woman who operates a beefsteak tomato green­ braska History 47 (March 1966): 3-13. house in a city a farm woman? Although the 2. Mary W. M. Hargreaves, "Homesteading U.S. Bureau of the Census has defined a rural and Homemaking on the Plains: A Review," area as being composed of fewer than twenty­ Agricultural History 47 (April 1973): 156-63, five hundred people, there is no clear indication and "Women in the Agricultural Settlement of in the literature that researchers have adopted the Northern Plains," Agricultural History 50 (January 1976): 179-89. this description. If we are to study and under­ 3. For a fuller discussion of these myths, stand the groups that are characterized as rural see Beverly J. Stoeltje, "'A Helpmate for Man and farm women, it would be helpful to have a Indeed': The Image of the Frontier Woman," generally accepted standard regarding the Journal of American Folklore 88 (January/ composition of those populations. March 1975): 25-41, and Glenda Riley, "Images The study of women on the Great Plains of the Frontierswoman: Iowa as a Case Study," requires a systematic methodology that can Western Historical Quarterly 8 (April 1977): WOMEN ON THE GREAT PLAINS 89

189-202, and "Women in the West," Journal of 70-95; Lorna B. Herseth (ed.), "A Pioneer's American Culture 3 (Summer 1980): 311-29. Letters," South Dakota History 6 (1976): 4. Hargreaves, "Homesteading and Home­ 306-15; Dorothy Kimball (ed.), "'Alone on making," p. 156. that Prairie .. .': The Homestead Letters of 5. Hargreaves critiqued walker D. Wyman Nellie Rogney," Montana, The Magazine of (ed.), Frontier Woman: The Life of a Woman Western History 33 (Autumn 1983): 52-62; Homesteader on the Dakota Frontier, Retold Susan Leaphart (ed.), "Montana Episodes: from the Original Notes and Letters of Grace Frieda and Belle Fligelman: A Frontier-City Fairchild (River Falls: University of Wisconsin­ Girlhood in the 1890s," Montana, The Maga­ River Falls Press, 1972); Faye Cashatt Lewis, zine of Western History 32 (Summer 1982): Nothing to Make a Shadow (Ames: Iowa State 85-92. See also Elizabeth Hampsten, Read University Press, 1971); and Sarah Ellen This Only to Yourself: The Private Writings Roberts, Alberta Homestead: Chronicle of a of Midwestern Women, 1880-1910 (Blooming­ Pioneer Family (Austin: University of Texas ton: Indiana University Press, 1982). Press, 1971). 13. Cynthia E. Harrison (ed.), Women in 6. Hargreaves, "Homesteading and Home­ American History: A Bibliography (Santa making," pp. 157-63. Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1979) and Andrea 7. Hargreaves, "Women in Agricultural Set­ Hinding and Clarke Chambers, Women's His­ tlement," pp. 179-89. tory Sources, 2 vols. (New York: R. R. Bowker, 8. Page Smith, Daughters of the Promised 1979). Land (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), p. 223. 14. Sheryll and Gene Patterson-Black, Western 9. Richard A. Bartlett, The New Country: Women in History and Literature (Crawford, A Social History of the American Frontier Nebr.: Cottonwood Press, 1978) and Carol (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), Fairbanks and Sara Brooks Sundberg, Farm pp. 350, 149. Women on the Prairie Frontier: A Sourcebook 10. Dee Brown, The Gentle Tamers: Women for Canada and the United States (Metuchen, of the old wild West (New York: Bantam N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1983). Books, 1974), p. 269. 15. See, for example, Claire R. Farrer, 11. See, for example, Johnny Faragher and "Women and Folklore: Images and Genres," Christine Stansell, "Women and Their Families Journal of American Folklore 88 (January/ on the Overland Trail to California and Oregon, March 1975): v-xv; Stoeltje, '''A Helpmate for 1842-1867," Feminist Studies 2 (1975): 150- Man Indeed'''; and Sandra L. Myres, "Romance 66; Christine Stansell, "Women on the Great and Reality of the American Frontier: Views Plains, 1865-1890," Women's Studies 4 (1976): of Army Wives," Western Historical Quarterly 87-98; and Lillian Schlissel, "Women's Diaries 13 (October 1982): 409-27. on the Western Frontier," American Studies 18 16. See, for example, Theodore C. Blegen (Spring 1977): 87-100. (ed.), "Immigrant Women and the American 12. See, for example, Elsie North Allison, "A Frontier: Three Early 'American Letters'," One-Room School in Labette County," Kansas Norwegian American Historical Association Quarterly 8 (Spring 1976): 5-8; Maurine Hoff­ Studies and Records, vol. 4-5 (Northfield, man Beasley, "Life as a Hired Girl in South Minn.: Norwegian American Historical Associa­ Dakota, 1907-1908: A Woman Journalist tion, 1930), pp. 14-29; Patricia O'Keefe Easton, Reflects," South Dakota History 12 (Summer/ "Woman Suffrage in South Dakota: The Final Fall 1982): 147-62; Enid Bern (ed.), "They Decade, 1911-1920," South Dakota History 13 Had a Wonderful Time: The Homesteading (Fall 1983): 206-26; Patricia V. Horner, "Mary Letters of Anna and Ethel Erickson," North Richardson Walker: The Shattered Dreams of a Dakota History 45 (Fall 1978): 4-31; "Etta's Missionary Woman," Montana, The Magazine of Journal, January 2, 1874-July 25, 1875," Kan­ Western History 32 (Summer 1982): 20-31; sas History 3 (Winter 1980): 255-78; Flora Polly Welts Kaufman, Women Teachers on the Moorman Heston, "'I Think I Will Like Kansas': Frontier (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University The Letters of Flora Moorman Heston, 1885- Press, 1984); Minnie Dubbs Millbrook, "Mrs. 1886," Kansas History 6 (Summer 1983): General Custer at Fort Riley, 1866," Kansas 90 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985

Historical OJ,tarterly 40 (1974): 63-71; Delores 22-26, and The Last Best West: Women on the J. Morrow, "Female Photographers on the Alberta Frontier, 1880-1930 (Montreal: Eden Frontier: Montana's Lady Photographic Artists, Press, 1984); and Margot Smith and Carol 1866-1900," Montana, The Magazine of West­ Pasternak (eds.), Pioneer Women of Western ern History 32 (Summer 1982): 76-84; Susan Canada (Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies Peterson, "From Paradise to Prairie: The Pres­ in Education, 1978). Note: In Canada the entation Sisters in Dakota, 1880-1896," South plains region is known as the prairie or the Dakota History 10 (Summer 1980): 210-22, Prairie Provinces. "Religious Communities of Women in the West: 19. For example, see Linda K. Downey, The Presentation Sisters' Adaptation to the "Woman on the Trail: Hough's North of 36," Northern plains Frontier," Journal of the West Western American Literature 14 (Fall 1979): 21 (April 1982): 65-70, and '''Holy Women' 215-20; Cheryl J. Foote, "Changing Images of and Housekeepers: Women Teachers on South Women in the Western Film," Journal of the Dakota Reservations, 1885-1910," South Da­ West 22 (October 1983): 64-71; Dorys Crow kota History 13 (Fall 1983): 245-60; Darlene Grover, "The Pioneer Woman in Fact and Ritter, "The Faith of Pioneer Women," Nebras­ Fiction," Heritage of Kansas 10 (Spring 1977): ka Humanist 6 (Fall 1983): 26-30; and Richard 35-44; Madelon E. Heatherington, "Romance B. Roeder, "Crossing the Gender Line: Ella L. without Women: The Sterile Fiction of the Knowles, Montana's First Woman Lawyer," American West," Georgia Review 33 (Fall Montana, The Magazine of Western History 32 1979): 643-56; Robert Kroetsch, "Fear of (Summer 1982): 64-75. Women in Prairie Fiction: Erotics of Space," 17. Sheryll Patterson-Black, "Women Home­ Canadian Forum 58 (October/November 1978): steaders on the Great Plains Frontier," Frontiers 22-27; Jeannie McKnight, "American Dream, 1 {Spring 1976): 67-88 and "Women Homestead­ Nightmare Underside: Diaries, Letters, and ers on the Great plains Frontier," in Patterson­ Fiction of Women on the American Frontier," Black, Western Women, pp. 5-6; and Glenda in L. L. Lee and Merrill Lewis (eds.), Women, Riley, "Farm Women's Roles in the Agricul­ Women Writers, and the West (Troy, N.Y.: tural Development of South Dakota," South Whitson Publishing Co., 1979), pp. 25-43; and Dakota History 13 (Spring/Summer 1982): Barbara Meldrum, "Images of Women in West­ 87-90. ern American Literature," Midwest OJ,tarterly 18. See, for example, Elsie Beeching, "Farm 17 (April 1976): 252-67. Women on the Canadian Prairie," Women of 20. See, for example, Patricia Albers and the Whole World 1 (1977): 53-55; The Correc­ Beatrice Medicine, The Hidden Half: Studies tive Collective, Never Done: Three Centuries of Plains Indian Women (Washington, D.C.: of Women's Work in Canada (Toronto: Cana­ University Press of America, 1983); Rayna dian Women's Educational Press, 1974); Carol Green, "Native American Women," Signs 6 Fairbanks, "Lives of Girls and Women on the (Winter 1980): 248-67 and Native American Canadian and American Prairie," International Women: A Contextual Bibliography (Blooming­ Journal of Women's Studies 2 (September/ ton: Indiana University Press, 1982); Margot October 1979): 452-72; Eula Lapp, "When Liberty, "Hell Came with Horses: Plains Indian Ontario Girls Were Going West," Ontario His­ Women in the Equestrian Era," Montana, The tory 60 (June 1968): 71-80; Grant MacEwan, Magazine of Western History 32 (Summer ... And Mighty Women Too: Stories of Not­ 1982): 10-19; Valerie Sherer Mathes, "Ameri­ able Western Canadian Women (Saskatoon, can Indian Women and the Catholic Church," Sask.: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1975); North Dakota History 47 (Fall 1980): 20-25, Isabel M. Reekie, Along the old Melita Trail and "Native American Women in Medicine and (Saskatoon, Sask.: Modern Press, 1965); Eliane the Military," Journal of the West 21 (April L. Silverman, "In Their Own Words: Mothers 1982): 41-48. and Daughters on the Alberta Frontier," Fron­ 21. For examples of a feminist approach to tiers 2 (1977): 37-44, "Preliminaries to a Study the topic of plainswomen, see Lillian Schlissel, of Women in Alberta, 1890-1929," Canadian "Women's Diaries on the Western Frontier," Oral History Association Journal 3 (1978): American Studies 33 (Spring 1977): 87-100, WOMEN ON THE GREAT PLAINS 91 and Christine Stansell, "Women on the Great Women in Agricultural Production (Totowa, Plains, 1865-1890," Women's Studies 4 (1976): N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983), pp. 87-98. 114-15, 128, 132. 22. See, for example, Annette Atkins, "Wom­ 28. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Betty MacDowell, en on the Farming Frontier: The View from and Marsha MacDowell, Artists in Aprons: Fiction," Midwest Review 3 (Spring 1980): Folk Art by American Women (New York: 1-10; Annette Kolodny, The Land Before Her: E. P. Dutton in association with the Museum Fantasy and Experience of the American Fron­ of American Folk Art, 1979) and Suzanne tiers, 1630-1860 (Chapel Hill: University of Wabsley, Texas Quilts, Texas Women (College North Carolina Press, 1984); Lee and Lewis, Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984). Women, Women Writers, and the West; and for 29. Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller, "The the plains in particular, Hampsten, Read This Gentle Tamers Revisited: New Approaches to Only to Yourself the History of Women in the American West," 23. For examples of demographic studies, Pacific Historical Review 49 (May 1980): 185. see Lawrence B. De Graaf, "Race, Sex, and 30. A study that attempts to combine the dis­ Region: Black Women in the American West, ciplines of sociology and history is Scott G. 1850-1920," Pacific Historical Review 49 McNall and Sally Allen McNall, Plains Families: (May 1980): 315-38; David J. Wishart, "Age Exploring Sociology through Social History and Sex Composition of the Population on the (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983). Nebraska Frontier, 1860-1880," Nebraska His­ 31. For a discussion of the value of American tory 54 (1973): 107-19; and Blaine T. Wil­ Indian women's life stories, see Gretchen M. liams, "The Frontier Family: Demographic Bataille and Kathleen Mullen Sands, American Fact and' Historical Myth," in Harold M. Holl­ Indian Women: Telling Their Lives (Lincoln: ingsworth (ed.), Essays on the A merican West University of Nebraska Press, 1984). (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969). 32. For instance, much of this type of infor­ 24. For examples of economic analyses, see mation was presented at the American Farm D. Cheryl Collins, "Women at Work in Man­ Women in Historical Perspective Conference, hattan, Kansas, 1890-1910," Journal of the New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New West 21 (April 1982) : 33-40; Sheryll Patterson­ Mexico, 2-4 February 1984. Black, "Women Homesteaders on the Great 33. See, for example, W. F. Kumlien, Basic Plains Frontier"; Paula Petrik, "Capitalists Trends of Social Change in South Dakota, with Rooms: Prostitution in Helena, Montana, South Dakota Experiment Station Bulletin 357 1865-1900," Montana, The Magazine of West­ (Brookings, 1941), and Walter L. Slocum, ern History 31 (Spring 1981): 28-41; and Migrants from Rural South Dakota Families: Margaret S. Woyski, "Women and Mining the Their Geographical and Occupational Distribu­ Old West," Journal of the West 20 (April tion, South Dakota Experiment Station Bulle­ 1981): 38-47. tin 359 (Brookings, 1942). 25. John Mack Faragher, "History From the 34. See Susan Armitage, "Household Work Inside-Out: Writing the History of Women in and Childbearing on the Frontier: The Oral Rural America," American Quarterly 33 History Record," Sociology and Social Re­ (Winter 1981): 550,555. search 63 (April 1979): 467-74; Teresa Jordan, 26. For further discussion of this issue, see Cowgirls: Women of the American West, an Liberty, "Hell Came With Horses"; Valerie Oral History (New York: Doubleday, 1982); Sherer Mathes, "A New Look at the Role of Sherry Thomas, We Didn't Have Much, But We Women in Indian Society," American Indian Sure Had Plenty: Stories of Rural Women Quarterly 2 (Summer 1975): 131-39 and "Na­ (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1981); and tive American Women in Medicine and the Mili­ Jensen and Miller, "The Gentle Tamers Re­ tary"; and Glenda Riley, "Some European visited," pp. 185-86. Outstanding examples of (Mis) Perceptions of American Indian Women," oral history projects that include plainswomen New Mexico Historical Review 59 (July 1984): are the South Dakota History Project of the 237-66. early 1970s titled "The South Dakota Exper­ 27. Carolyn E. Sachs, The Invisible Farmers: ience: An Oral History Collection of! ts People," 92 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1985

and the North Dakota Oral History Project, 36. Julie Roy Jeffrey, Frontier Women: The "Prairie Pioneers: Some North Dakota Home­ Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-1880 (New York: steaders," North Dakota History 43 (Spring Hill and Wang, 1979), pp. 11-13, 22-24, 72- 1976): 22-87. 73, 189-90; and Sandra L. Myres, Westering 35. Glenda Riley, Women and Indians on the Women and the Frontier Experience, 1800- Frontier, 1825-1915 (Albuquerque: University 1915 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico of New Mexico Press, 1984). Press, 1982), pp. 171-72, 174, 185-86,204-9, 211-12,269-70.