The Princess and the Squaw

Abstract

This chapter examines the representation of Indian women—also overlooked in most previous studies of the pictorial press—contrasting the romantic “Indian princess” stereotype with a harsher set of qualities often associated with Indian women in the pictorial press. Many Indian women in the pictorial press were placed in one of two culturally constructed categories: princesses or squaws. Either way, Indian women were marked as different from whites, a safe and controlled “cultural other.” Young, beautiful Indian women and mothers could be cast as “princesses,” while old, poor, and “uncivilized” Indian women were depicted as “squaws.” Both Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Harper's Weekly employed these categories routinely, though there were differences between these papers. Harper's emphasized the poverty and hardship of Indian women, often suffering at the hands of Indian men, while Leslie's sometimes ridiculed Indian women for their silliness or grooming habits.