Shaping the Public Good: Women Making History in the Pacific Northwest by Sue Armitage

Abstract

488 OHQ vol. 117, no. 3 that much of the limited violence that occurred between emigrants and Natives revolved around errant livestock. This analysis would have bolstered Ahmad’s argument that the emigrants were completely dependent on these animals, by showing that any perceived threat could lead to desperation and even violence. Success Depends on the Animals will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of Overland Trail devotees looking to understand the significant role that animals played in making that journey happen. In her acknowledgments, Ahmad pays homage to the stuffed animals that lined her desk as she wrote. It is important for all historians to consider the range of players involved in making history, animals included. Catherine McNeur Portland State University SHAPING THE PUBLIC GOOD: WOMEN MAKING HISTORY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST by Sue Armitage Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2015. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 352 pages. $22.95 paper. Sue Armitage’s study of Pacific Northwest women from pre-contact to the present profits from her more than thirty years engaged in the subject. It represents a synthesis of current scholarship, but it is more than that. Armitage is undaunted by periods and topics where source material is limited because her experience allows her to make the most of both traditional and non-traditional sources. The result is a satisfying survey of the history of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia, and western Montana from the perspective of “women as history-makers” (p. 14). The overarching framework of this study is that women have been “watchful guardians and active shapers of the public good” (p. 11). The history of the region has not always credited these contributions, and Armitage sets out to remedy that situation. In doing so, she emphasizes the collaborative nature of women’s approach to both their families and the larger world because “women rarely acted alone” (p. 323). Three themes define this study. First, Armitage explains how unsettled the history of the greater Northwest has been when seen from the perspective of women, and she provides examples across time. Domesticity is the second theme because women’s roles in families and households transcend race and time. Finally, throughout the years, women’s work has encompassed both efforts at home and as part of the overall workforce. Native American women are not confined to the early periods; Armitage is attentive to their continuing roles. It is often particularly difficult to document the story of Native women, but Armitage perseveres. She uses extant case studies to examine early interactions between white men and Native women, and she carefully goes beyond the traditional male-explorer and fur-trader accounts, which she rightfully points out provide biased views. Her sympathetic and insightful discussions of these women navigating between two cultures adds much to our understanding of a complicated set of relationships. Armitage pieced together scraps of evidence to examine the intricacies of the missionary women’s roles. She clearly points out that these women sought to impose an “alien set of values that had no meaning to the Native cultures” (p. 55). Their communities came first for Native women, and white women were responsible for destroying and rearranging those communities. The life of Florence Edenshaw Davison (1896–1992), a Haida woman, “illustrates the tensions between enforced change and cultural persistence” (p. 123). While gold rushes are the stuff of western myth, Armitage points out their detrimental effect on both Native women and white women. They were a “disaster” for Native women and “seriously disrupted the stable settlements that white women hoped to achieve” (p. 87). The experience of Chinese women does not escape Armitage’s notice. 489 Reviews “The abrupt transition of the 1880s transformed the Greater Northwest from a remote, primarily agricultural hinterland into a naturalresource bonanza” (p. 157). In fact, the extractive industries that dominated the region, especially mining and timber, “developed a distinctively masculine spirit of toughness and bravado that suited the physically demanding new industries and the violent confrontations between labor and capital that ensued” (p. 137). While differences in race and class separated women, they learned to cooperate with other group members to maintain communities in this masculine landscape. Pacific Northwest women were...