In this Book

  • White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940
  • Book
  • Margaret D. Jacobs
  • 2009
  • Published by: University of Nebraska Press
summary
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indigenous communities in the United States and Australia suffered a common experience at the hands of state authorities: the removal of their children to institutions in the name of assimilating American Indians and protecting Aboriginal people. Although officially characterized as benevolent, these government policies often inflicted great trauma on indigenous families and ultimately served the settler nations’ larger goals of consolidating control over indigenous peoples and their lands.

White Mother to a Dark Race takes the study of indigenous education and acculturation in new directions in its examination of the key roles white women played in these policies of indigenous child-removal. Government officials, missionaries, and reformers justified the removal of indigenous children in particularly gendered ways by focusing on the supposed deficiencies of indigenous mothers, the alleged barbarity of indigenous men, and the lack of a patriarchal nuclear family. Often they deemed white women the most appropriate agents to carry out these child-removal policies. Inspired by the maternalist movement of the era, many white women were eager to serve as surrogate mothers to indigenous children and maneuvered to influence public policy affecting indigenous people. Although some white women developed caring relationships with indigenous children and others became critical of government policies, many became hopelessly ensnared in this insidious colonial policy.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontmatter
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Illustrations
  2. p. ix
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Maps
  2. p. x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xvi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Note on Terms
  2. pp. xvii-xviii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Abbreviations
  2. pp. xix-xx
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Prologue
  2. pp. xxi-xxxii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Gender and Settler Colonialism in the North American West and Australia
  2. pp. 1-24
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Designing Indigenous Child Removal Policies
  2. pp. 25-86
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. The Great White Mother
  2. pp. 87-148
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. The Practice of Indigenous Child Removal
  2. pp. 149-192
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Intimate Betrayals
  2. pp. 193-228
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Groomed to Be Useful
  2. pp. 229-280
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. Maternalism in the Institutions
  2. pp. 281-328
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. Out of the Frying Pan
  2. pp. 329-370
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. Challenging Indigenous Child Removal
  2. pp. 371-424
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue
  2. pp. 425-434
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Afterword
  2. pp. 435-438
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 439-498
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 499-528
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. p. 529
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.