The Wild West 11: Gender in the West

Hollywood portrays the Wild West as a tough man’s world. Yet, there were some who refused to be labeled. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
We can see it all so clearly, thanks to decades
of Hollywood films, our image of the wild West is
pretty defined. Chisel jawed cowboys riding high on horseback, maybe
a rugged teddy Roosevelt trudging across the Yellowstone Valley, guns
and leather and sweaty horses. You get the idea. But
it's not that accurate. In our American mythology, the West

(00:28):
was a rugged place filled with rugged people. It was
a place for tough guys and saucy ladies. But those
weren't the only kinds of folks who lived there. Of course,
during the pre contact days of Native America, boundaries blurred
and possibilities loomed. When it came to gender. Many Native
cultures had expansive views on what it meant to inhabit

(00:49):
a body, and over one hundred and thirty tribes across
North America showcased some type of gender nonconformity in their community.
They were known as two spirit people, and for many
Indigites groups, they were viewed as sacred. They often served
as healers and medicine folks. They had places of reverence
in society, but not all people were so accepting European colonizers,

(01:12):
who came from a very different culture, sought to eradicate
those who didn't conform to their rigid understanding of what
it meant to be male and female and how one
should be playing out those roles. In fifteen thirteen, for example,
the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa sentenced around forty
gender non conforming indigenous people to death, and as the

(01:34):
late seventeenth century arrived, French colonizers further denounced and stigmatized
those practices, casting an oppressive paul over those who defied
their rigid norms. The dawn of the twentieth century saw
Western scientists and their creation of the taxonomic system. People
became obsessed with categories and classifications and figuring out how

(01:56):
to place animals, vegetables, and minerals in little, tiny boxes.
This led to a lot of people assuming that there
were right ways to be and wrong ways to be,
with little room for anything else. Like I said before,
we can see the wild West so clearly we have
specific assumptions, specific images that try to capture how the

(02:16):
people in that place and time might have looked and
dressed and carried themselves. But when it came to the
Wild Frontier, gender was a lot more complicated than any
of us could imagine. I'm Aaron Manke, and welcome to
the Wild West. In the vast expanse of the frontier

(02:42):
that is now west central New Mexico, there once lived
the Zuni tribe. Men and women were assigned distinct responsibilities,
and yet both enjoyed equal prestige and status. The Zuni
first encountered European colonizers in fifteen forty when Spanish explorers arrived,
and those Spaniards didn't care much for the tribes traditions,
especially regarding gender roles. In fact, they were pretty confused.

(03:05):
You see, while European society was firmly rooted in the patriarchy,
the Zuni followed matriarchal tradition. Men often knitted clothing or
may jewelry, while the women owned property and were seen
as the head of the household. But within all of
this was another important role in the Zuni culture, that
of a third, more ambiguous gender. Awana Walona, the Zuni
supreme being and creator of all life, was considered to

(03:28):
be both male and female. In fact, their foundational beliefs
celebrated blurred lines the in between, and then in eighteen
forty nine, a special child was born, we Wa. Wewa
would become the most renowned Zuni lamana, a person in
Zuni society who was assigned male at birth but would
grow up to take on both male and female roles

(03:50):
and dress for the Zuni people who held those liminal
in between spaces in such high regard, it was seen
as a great honor to welcome a lamana into their community.
Now let me pause here for a moment. The historical
records show both male and female pronouns have been assigned
to Weewa's story. In fact, go online and watch or
listen to modern Zuni historians talk about Weewa, and you'll

(04:12):
hear either of them used interchangeably. For our journey today,
though we'll be using the gender neutral singular they them,
which yes, is grammatically correct for anyone who might be
suddenly worried about the integrity of the English language. Orphaned
at a young age, Wewa and their brother lived with
a wealthy and influential aunt within the tribe. The siblings

(04:34):
received an education in Zuni traditions, gaining specialized ceremonial knowledge
and participating in revered cultural rituals. Over time, we Wa
became skilled in various crafts, excelled in Zuni pottery and weaving,
eventually bolstering native arts by selling that pottery in those textiles.
According to anthropologist Matilda Cox Stevenson, we WA's extensive knowledge

(04:57):
of Zuni history and culture are earned them recognition as
one of the most intelligent individuals in the Peblo. The
Zuni culture placed great importance on Kachina's, their ancestral spirit beings.
During Kachina ceremonies, we Wa embodied the spirit of ko Lamana,
symbolizing the harmonious combination of male and female traits and wisdom.

(05:20):
Of course, those traditions were foreign to a lot of
other people, especially the curious white anthropologists who came to
study them. Matilda Cox Stevenson and her husband James were
two of those people. Matilda and we Wa struck up
what was, depending on your perspective, an unlikely friendship or
a mutual sense that the other could be useful to them.

(05:41):
Matilda wanted to make a name for herself by documenting
Zuni culture and introducing Wewa to Washington, d c. Society
and Wewa wanted to secure protection for their shrinking tribal lands,
which is why together in eighteen eighty five, they embarked
on a trip to the nation's capital to see what
could be done in the name of tribal preservation. During

(06:02):
their stay, which extended into the summer of eighteen eighty six,
Wewa learned to speak English and lived under the Stevenson's roof,
But Washington society was unsure of what to think about
we Wa. Standing roughly six feet tall with long black
hair gathered into a thick braid and adorned with feathers,
paired with a traditional calico dress and a dark colored

(06:23):
woven blanket called a manta, Wewa didn't look like a
typical diplomat. In fact, many people mistook the Lamana for
a Zuni princess or a high priestess. On June twenty
third of eighteen eighty six, the delegation visited the White House,
and in doing so, Wewa became the first Lamana on
record to shake hands with an American president. President Cleveland

(06:45):
and his wife even presented them with a gift, and
despite the language barrier, they asked the President to help
protect the Zuni's interests from American and Mexican settlers who
were encroaching on their land, and President Cleveland agreed. In
the end, Wewa brought the Zuni culture into the public eye,
helping Americans to understand the importance of the tribe's heritage, history,

(07:08):
and way of life, making Wewa one of the most
well known Native Americans of the nineteenth century. Custer had
a secret. In eighteen seventy four, the military leader, then
a lieutenant colonel, returned from South Dakota's Black Hills, and

(07:30):
he carried with him some news that would ignite a frenzy,
the discovery of gold on Native American land. The territory
where the gold had been found was protected by the
Treaty of Fort Laramie, an agreement made six years earlier
in eighteen sixty eight between the Lakota Sioux and the
US government. Some tribal leaders, though, like Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse, didn't agree with the treaty. It asked the

(07:52):
tribes to give up their nomadic lifestyle and instead depend
on government aid. As you can imagine, this led to
conflicts between Settle and people from those tribes. The US
government had been pressing the Lakota Sioux to sell their
sacred land to them, but the native peoples had refused,
so in late eighteen seventy five, the government basically just
demanded that all Lakota report to reservations, with a deadline

(08:16):
of January thirty first of eighteen seventy six. If they refused,
they risked being labeled as hostiles. And still the Lakota
remained defiant, which is why Custer led his troops into
the Black Hills in eighteen seventy six. He was there
to force the Sioux onto reservations and claim the gold
rich land for the United States, and as we all know,

(08:37):
Custer's last stand was a victory for the Native American
people and is still remembered today as the US Army's
most devastating defeat in the Plains Indian War. There was
a survivor, though, a guy named Sergeant John Noonan. He'd
been left behind at the Yellowstone Depot, ordered to tend
the cattle there while Custer led the rest of the battle.
Noonan had joined the cavalry in eighteen seventy Tioo, and

(09:00):
his dedication and efficiency helped him rise through the ranks.
But he also had something else going for him, his
good looks. General Custer's wife, Elizabeth, praised the man's appearance,
describing him as the most handsome soldier in his company.
With his deep blue eyes, dark hair, and fair complexion,
he caught the attention of everyone who met him. Following

(09:21):
the Battle of Little Bighorn, Noonan returned to Fort Abraham
Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, where he was reunited with
his wife. Now, if you dig through the records, you'll
only see the name missus Nash. Were not clear on
a lot of her background, but historians think that she
had been married twice before, so perhaps the last name
came from one of those previous husbands. Now, by all accounts,

(09:43):
Missus Nash kept an immaculate home. Specifically, her talents with
laundry earned immense respect with other officers wives, all viying
for her expertise in cleaning delicate materials. On top of that,
her culinary skills were celebrated and her presence became required
at social gathering. And if that weren't enough, missus Nash
was also a skilled midwife. Her meticulous care and tenderness

(10:06):
with newborns endeared her to the community. Between her husband
John's dashing good looks and her tall, thin frame with
dark skin and black hair from her Mexican heritage, they
seemed quite happy to everyone who knew them. The perfect couple,
if ever there was one, But tragedy struck. When John
was away on an extended campaign, his wife fell ill

(10:27):
and passed away on the morning of October thirtieth of
eighteen seventy eight. We've talked about it before. Of course,
medicine was more of an art than a science back then,
and sometimes illness just broke in and stole people from you.
It was sudden and tragic now, as the story goes,
Before her death, missus Nash requested that she be buried
in the clothes she was wearing, but her friends couldn't

(10:49):
imagine laying her to rest forever in the ratty clothes
she'd been wearing on her deathbed, so they broke their promise.
And that's when something unusual happened. You see, during the
preparation of her body, it was discovered that missus Nash
was not a woman at all. When John returned the
following month, he was naturally devastated by the news of
his wife's death, but he was also unprepared for the

(11:11):
rumors regarding his wife's sex. The men at the fort
ridiculed and mocked him about it the moment he arrived. Now,
John insisted that his wife had been a woman, but
no matter what he said, the rumors persisted, and it
wasn't long before someone reportedly disturbed his wife's grave in
search of answers, and a short time later a few
newspapers wrote that they believed John's story. But for John

(11:35):
it was too late. Tormented by the relentless and cruel
harassment from the men of the fort, and unable to
find peace in the community that he once called home,
he withdrew from society and eventually fell ill. And then,
one day, not long after, John walked into a blacksmith
shop at Fort Lincoln, where many of his fellow soldiers
were already present. As expected, they resumed their usual verbal abuse,

(11:57):
Unable or unwilling to see the damne and the pain
that they were causing him. Without warning, he pulled out
his gun and shot himself in the heart. Sadly, it
took John Noonan's death by suicide for those men to
see what they had done to see the power that
their words and cruelty had over the well being of
a member of their community. But in the end, any

(12:18):
remorse they finally summoned had arrived too late. Tragedy roamed
free across the wild West. But thankfully there are happier
stories too. In the late eighteen hundreds, for example, one

(12:39):
particular logger led a fascinating life filled with courage, generosity,
and a well guarded secret. Sammy Williams worked in the
logging industry in Montana for almost twenty years, and over
those years, as the logging frontier expanded westward, rough camps
were set up to accommodate the needs of the lumberjacks
who made it all happen. Now. Initially, Sammy served as

(13:00):
both a lumberjack and a cook. As you'd imagine, feeding
the crew was important, which is why it was a
role seen as only second place to the superintendent of
the entire camp. The reputation of any camp often hinged
on the quality of the food they provided, and as
it turns out, Sammy's popularity among the lumberjacks attested to
his culinary talents. Life was good during his time in

(13:22):
the logging industry. Sammy accumulated significant wealth and property, but
his affluence wasn't self serving. He generously cared for the
sick and the destitute. In fact, many of the loggers
were called discovering that Sammy had silently placed unexpected sums
of money in their pockets during times of need. A
hard worker, an excellent cook, and a generous spirit. But

(13:45):
there's more. Sammy's linguistic talents were nothing short of outstanding.
It wasn't enough for him to be fluent in English, Norwegian,
and German, so he also learned the languages of the
Native American communities in the area. But Sammy also had
a secret that only came to lights after he passed
away on December tenth of nineteen oh eight from what
some believed to be a stroke. The following day, undertaker

(14:08):
George R. Safley discovered that the beloved lumberjack was female.
Newspapers quickly spread the news of Sammy's death and the
discovery of his secret. Some attributed his choice to live
as a man to a failed love affair and a
desire to start a new life away from societal expectations.
Others wove of elaborate narratives drawing inspiration from popular dime

(14:30):
novels of the time, romanticizing his journey. Saffly, though, proposed
that Sammy had chosen to live as a man to
make a living more easily, taking on a male role
in a world that offered more opportunities to men, but
all of these theories failed to fully explain how at
ease he was living as a man. Some writers pointed
out Sammy's stereotypical masculine behavior, describing him as occasionally getting drunk, swearing,

(14:56):
chewing tobacco, and engaging in festive activities with the It
clearly wasn't just an act. Friends would later discovered letters
written to him over the years that revealed his life.
Before arriving in Montana, Sammy traveled quite a bit and
had lived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the Minneapolis area, and Castleton,

(15:16):
North Dakota. An insurance policy from eighteen eighty five, still
bearing his chosen name and gender, further demonstrated his commitment
to his identity. After his passing, Sammy's co workers and
community paid for a headstone and mourned the loss of
their friend. Outside the community, his story inspired newspapers to
discuss gender roles, with some even suggesting that women could

(15:38):
become unsexed like Sammy, while others wondered why more women
didn't seek the same freedom by assuming masculine roles. And look,
there will probably always be confusion. How people have seen
gender as an identity throughout history has constantly shifted and changed,
which complicates our struggle to define it. It's right there

(15:58):
in the pages of history, though, and to ignore it
is to be myopic and closed minded. What's clear is
that Sammy Williams led the life he intended, and those
who reflected on that life recognized the things that truly mattered,
his resilience, his kindness, and his impact on the community.

(16:25):
The story wasn't uncommon in the rugged American West, where
dreams and realities often collided head on, the lives of
people like Sammy Williams remained hidden. Newspapers of the era
reported on hundreds of stories of women who lived as
men and men who lived as women, and it's likely
that it was just the visible tip of a much
larger iceberg. And these stories didn't just take place in

(16:48):
the West either, but rather all over the world and
all throughout history. But like I said at the beginning,
when most of us think of the Wild West, we
think of how Hollywood and books have presented that era
to us, full of hardcore outlaws and stets in wearing cowboys,
and with a few exceptions, the women in those stories
have always been stereotypically feminine and subservient. But maybe those

(17:11):
assumptions are a lot farther from the mark than we've
ever realized. Take, for example, the story of Milton Matson.
He found himself in the public eye in eighteen ninety
five when authorities in San Jose threw him in jail
his crime. He had supposedly tried to deceive others for
financial gain in the process, Though the jailers realized the
Matson had been born female. It wasn't until he became

(17:35):
a media sensation that Matson confessed to feeling more like
a man than a woman. And as you'd imagine, the
press relentlessly chased his story, eager for juicy details. They
even dug into his relationship with his fiance Helen Fairweather,
who staunchly defended her love for Matson. And then there's
the story of Charlie Parkhurst. During the eighteen fifties, he

(17:55):
was known throughout California for his legendary courage and skill
as a stagecoach, he had bravely faced down dangerous outlaws
and saved lives. But after he died in eighteen seventy
nine and his friends prepared his body for burial, they
were shocked to learn that Charlie had been a female
at birth. And back in nineteen oh four, another story
caused quite a stir, grabbing headlines and the attention of

(18:18):
readers everywhere. Joe Monahan, a rancher from Idaho, had passed away. Now,
rumors had long circulated about Joe. The community had heard
curious things about him, but were never so bold as
to ask him to his face about the rumors. But
upon his death, it was confirmed Joe had been born female,
and the media, of course jumped on the story, creating

(18:39):
sensationalized tales about lost love and betrayal. In one theory,
they made Joe out to be a woman who had
once been wronged by a cruel lover. But these stories
were all heavily influenced by society's beliefs about what love
and tragedy should look like. The way most people saw
there were strict roles that everyone was supposed to fit
into and these folks simply refused to play along. They

(19:00):
just wanted to live their lives without having to share
every last detail with the rest of the world. And
I think the same can be said for all of us.
Like the television and film world that gave them life,
our perceptions of the wild West started out in black

(19:21):
and white, but time and research have added color and
depth to those flat assumptions. Don't worry if your favorite
Western characters are those half shaven cowboy law men and
powerful elegant ladies back at the saloon, you will never
run short on examples. But I hope today's journey has
helped you see that the stories never end there. There's
always nuance, always depth, and always variety, and that is

(19:45):
a good thing. But we're not done just yet. We've
saved one more tale to share with you, and if
you stick around through this brief sponsor break, my teammates
Ali Stead will tell you all about it.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Newspaper and media sensationalism aside, scholars also set out to
better understand the experiences of those who lived as a
gender different from the one they'd been assigned at birth.
Instead of writing headlines designed to sell papers, they took
a more scientific approach in an attempt to explain the
deviation from what was considered sexual norms. At the turn

(20:25):
of the twentieth century, the emerging field of sexology sought
to dissect and pathologize gender differences. If researchers could define
what normal looked like, they could better define what was deviate.
In one of those academic texts, we learn about the
life of an individual simply known as m uc M

(20:47):
was one of four case studies presented under pseudonyms in
an article titled Transvestism, A Contribution to the Study of
the Psychology of Sex, published in the New York Medical
Journal in nineteen fourteen. At the time, em was sixty
two years old. His age suggests that he had a
lifetime of experiences that shaped his understanding of his identity.

(21:12):
From an early age, m regarded himself as a man
who had a strong affinity for wearing women's clothing, which
was clear from a letter he wrote about his childhood memories.
He'd always known who he was. He wrote that his
playmates were always girls, and that his preferred toys were dolls, ribbons,
and miniature household items. He even possessed a talent for

(21:35):
making dolls and crafting clothes for his sisters and other girls,
and at the age of ten, he showed a remarkable
experience for cooking and meal preparation that far surpassed those
of older boys. He also had a protective side and
readily defended his girlfriends against teasing or harassment. Though his
behavior might have been less masculine than society thought was proper,

(21:57):
all was still well. It's n clear from his writings,
but Em might have been allowed to wear girl's clothing
at home, at least when his parents didn't have company.
He was fifteen when his uncle came to visit in
eighteen sixty seven. Again we're unsure of the specifics, but
it appears m might have worn boy's clothing during his
uncle's stay. But that wasn't enough to hide his secret.

(22:21):
It didn't take long for his uncle to find the
hidden stash of dresses, and to say the discovery made
him upset would be an understatement. His uncle took the
matter up with his brother, ranting on and on about
his nephew's sinful ways. The aftermath was a disaster. After

(22:41):
receiving a scathing scolding, EM's father demanded that every piece
of girl's clothing he owned be burned. He also issued
a dire warning any future sightings of his son wearing
or keeping female attire would be met with severe consequences.
If m he valued the ability to walk without crutches,

(23:02):
he'd do what he was told. From here on out,
he would become more masculine. Distraught at the ultimatum, M
made the decision to leave home and make his way westward.
By the spring of eighteen sixty seven, M's travels brought
him to Grand Isle, Nebraska, where he found a job
driving a team of horses while a railroad was being built.

(23:24):
As the fall arrived, he ventured out onto the Nebraska
prairie and took up buffalo hunting and staying true to himself,
he privately continued to dress in women's clothing. In his
own words, he said that when he dressed as a woman,
he experienced enhanced logical thinking, a liberated sense of being,
and an ability to solve complex problems that eluded him

(23:47):
under different circumstances. He'd run away west and found a
better life, but m still desperately wanted the freedom to
wear women's clothing Whenever he chose Unfortunately, he knew he'd
be ridiculed or worse. His adventures on the frontier came
in many forms and jobs. He was once a sheriff,

(24:08):
a newspaper publisher, a justice of the peace, and a
detective for the U. S. Marshal's Office. M proudly declared
his contribution to westward expansion. His legs carried the scars
of bullets, wounds he had covered with petticoats. Whenever the
opportunity arose, Despite the dangers presented, all his troubles seemed

(24:29):
to fade away when he dressed in the clothing he preferred.
Will likely never know M's true identity, but we do
know that even in the Wild West, where we've painted
a picture of the most square jawed and masculine men
in the vein of John Wayne, in real life there
were those who had to pretend to be someone they

(24:50):
were not, and a fortunate view were able to live
an authentic life, regardless of the secrets they felt compelled
to hide.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Grim and mild Presents The Wild West was executive produced
by me Aaron Mankey and hosted by Aaron Mankey and
Alexandra Steed. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle
Mudo with research by Alexandra Steed, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de
Alba and Harry Marx. Fact Checking was performed by Jamie Vargas,
with sensitivity reading by Stacy Parshall Jensen. Production assistance was

(25:22):
provided by Josh Stain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
To learn more about this and other shows from Grimm
and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com