Engendered Encounters

Description

In this interdisciplinary study of gender| cross-cultural encounters| and federal Indian policy| Margaret D. Jacobs explores the changing relationship between Anglo-American women and Pueblo Indians before and after the turn of the century. During the late nineteenth century| the Pueblos were often characterized by women reformers as barbaric and needing to be “uplifted” into civilization. By the 1920s| however| the Pueblos were widely admired by activist Anglo-American women| who challenged assimilation policies and worked hard to protect the Pueblos’ “traditional” way of life. Deftly weaving together an analysis of changes in gender roles| attitudes toward sexuality| public conceptions of Native peoples| and federal Indian policy| Jacobs argues that the impetus for this transformation in perception rests less with a progressively tolerant view of Native peoples and more with fundamental shifts in the ways Anglo-American women saw their own sexuality and social responsibilities. Margaret D. Jacobs is an assistant professor of history at New Mexico State University.