Glenda Riley: The Women Of The Frontier

Chapter 3 will cover the women of the frontier have been studied extensively by Glenda Riley, writes generally on the women of the frontier and their relations with Indians. Other historians have considered pioneer women, these monographs focus predominately on the social and cultural interactions of women in the West. Riley’s publications contrast with others as she discusses more thematic and comparative areas of women’s frontier history: discussing the oversight in Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis towards women. Joanna L. Stratton, Mattie Lloyd Wooten and Lillian Schissel, have all contributed to the gender history literature regarding the Frontier and idea of Pioneer Women. Margaret Walsh is another forerunner in pioneer women’s history; she argues that women are now becoming more central to a full understanding of the roles of women on the frontier. Moreover Walsh examines …show more content…
There is so much evidence surrounding this topic, that there is a Santa Fe Trail research website that encourages research and provides many resources. Similarly the National Parks Organisation in the United States maintains that the Santa Fe historic Trail can still be travelled by the modern day tourists. There is still an air of mystery surrounding this Trail, evolving questions such as why did such individuals travel across a barren wasteland and what did they hope to find? Some of these questions can be answered from the contemporary accounts that survive. These answers are however not universal, thus studying of individual accounts are required to understand people’s differing experiences. The different accounts allow modern researchers to compare and contrast to be able to understand the common details as well as those that are possibly exaggerated. The Public history image of the trail is maintained by the National Parks it is possible to recreate the Trail itself by following various