WEBVTT - The Wild West 11: Gender in the West 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.600 We can see it all so clearly, thanks to decades 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.400 of Hollywood films, our image of the wild West is 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:16.120 pretty defined. Chisel jawed cowboys riding high on horseback, maybe 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.560 a rugged teddy Roosevelt trudging across the Yellowstone Valley, guns 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.000 and leather and sweaty horses. You get the idea. But 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:28.400 it's not that accurate. In our American mythology, the West 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.600 was a rugged place filled with rugged people. It was 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.959 a place for tough guys and saucy ladies. But those 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.680 weren't the only kinds of folks who lived there. Of course, 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.120 during the pre contact days of Native America, boundaries blurred 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.920 and possibilities loomed. When it came to gender. Many Native 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.919 cultures had expansive views on what it meant to inhabit 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.760 a body, and over one hundred and thirty tribes across 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.440 North America showcased some type of gender nonconformity in their community. 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.600 They were known as two spirit people, and for many 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.160 Indigites groups, they were viewed as sacred. They often served 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.720 as healers and medicine folks. They had places of reverence 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:12.240 in society, but not all people were so accepting European colonizers, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.720 who came from a very different culture, sought to eradicate 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.960 those who didn't conform to their rigid understanding of what 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.520 it meant to be male and female and how one 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.759 should be playing out those roles. In fifteen thirteen, for example, 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.880 the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa sentenced around forty 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.560 gender non conforming indigenous people to death, and as the 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:39.800 late seventeenth century arrived, French colonizers further denounced and stigmatized 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.920 those practices, casting an oppressive paul over those who defied 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.600 their rigid norms. The dawn of the twentieth century saw 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:51.720 Western scientists and their creation of the taxonomic system. People 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.960 became obsessed with categories and classifications and figuring out how 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.000 to place animals, vegetables, and minerals in little, tiny boxes. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.560 This led to a lot of people assuming that there 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.000 were right ways to be and wrong ways to be, 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.800 with little room for anything else. Like I said before, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.080 we can see the wild West so clearly we have 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.480 specific assumptions, specific images that try to capture how the 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.440 people in that place and time might have looked and 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.480 dressed and carried themselves. But when it came to the 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.120 Wild Frontier, gender was a lot more complicated than any 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:33.080 of us could imagine. I'm Aaron Manke, and welcome to 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:41.919 the Wild West. In the vast expanse of the frontier 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.960 that is now west central New Mexico, there once lived 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.040 the Zuni tribe. Men and women were assigned distinct responsibilities, 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.920 and yet both enjoyed equal prestige and status. The Zuni 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.920 first encountered European colonizers in fifteen forty when Spanish explorers arrived, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.040 and those Spaniards didn't care much for the tribes traditions, 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.080 especially regarding gender roles. In fact, they were pretty confused. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.000 You see, while European society was firmly rooted in the patriarchy, 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:13.160 the Zuni followed matriarchal tradition. Men often knitted clothing or 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.840 may jewelry, while the women owned property and were seen 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.240 as the head of the household. But within all of 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.240 this was another important role in the Zuni culture, that 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:25.440 of a third, more ambiguous gender. Awana Walona, the Zuni 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.440 supreme being and creator of all life, was considered to 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.040 be both male and female. In fact, their foundational beliefs 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.840 celebrated blurred lines the in between, and then in eighteen 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.480 forty nine, a special child was born, we Wa. Wewa 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.840 would become the most renowned Zuni lamana, a person in 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.720 Zuni society who was assigned male at birth but would 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.160 grow up to take on both male and female roles 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.520 and dress for the Zuni people who held those liminal 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.480 in between spaces in such high regard, it was seen 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.640 as a great honor to welcome a lamana into their community. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.080 Now let me pause here for a moment. The historical 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.520 records show both male and female pronouns have been assigned 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.400 to Weewa's story. In fact, go online and watch or 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:12.680 listen to modern Zuni historians talk about Weewa, and you'll 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.640 hear either of them used interchangeably. For our journey today, 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.840 though we'll be using the gender neutral singular they them, 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.680 which yes, is grammatically correct for anyone who might be 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.640 suddenly worried about the integrity of the English language. Orphaned 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.240 at a young age, Wewa and their brother lived with 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.039 a wealthy and influential aunt within the tribe. The siblings 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:39.039 received an education in Zuni traditions, gaining specialized ceremonial knowledge 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:44.000 and participating in revered cultural rituals. Over time, we Wa 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.440 became skilled in various crafts, excelled in Zuni pottery and weaving, 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.640 eventually bolstering native arts by selling that pottery in those textiles. 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:57.719 According to anthropologist Matilda Cox Stevenson, we WA's extensive knowledge 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.240 of Zuni history and culture are earned them recognition as 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.920 one of the most intelligent individuals in the Peblo. The 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:10.120 Zuni culture placed great importance on Kachina's, their ancestral spirit beings. 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.040 During Kachina ceremonies, we Wa embodied the spirit of ko Lamana, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.760 symbolizing the harmonious combination of male and female traits and wisdom. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.200 Of course, those traditions were foreign to a lot of 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.839 other people, especially the curious white anthropologists who came to 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.640 study them. Matilda Cox Stevenson and her husband James were 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.880 two of those people. Matilda and we Wa struck up 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:38.080 what was, depending on your perspective, an unlikely friendship or 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.960 a mutual sense that the other could be useful to them. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.240 Matilda wanted to make a name for herself by documenting 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.479 Zuni culture and introducing Wewa to Washington, d c. Society 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.880 and Wewa wanted to secure protection for their shrinking tribal lands, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.680 which is why together in eighteen eighty five, they embarked 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:58.920 on a trip to the nation's capital to see what 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.080 could be done in the name of tribal preservation. During 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:05.320 their stay, which extended into the summer of eighteen eighty six, 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.360 Wewa learned to speak English and lived under the Stevenson's roof, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.159 But Washington society was unsure of what to think about 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.599 we Wa. Standing roughly six feet tall with long black 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.760 hair gathered into a thick braid and adorned with feathers, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.560 paired with a traditional calico dress and a dark colored 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.080 woven blanket called a manta, Wewa didn't look like a 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.039 typical diplomat. In fact, many people mistook the Lamana for 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:35.400 a Zuni princess or a high priestess. On June twenty 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.719 third of eighteen eighty six, the delegation visited the White House, 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:41.839 and in doing so, Wewa became the first Lamana on 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.560 record to shake hands with an American president. President Cleveland 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.680 and his wife even presented them with a gift, and 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.840 despite the language barrier, they asked the President to help 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.720 protect the Zuni's interests from American and Mexican settlers who 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:00.640 were encroaching on their land, and President Cleveland agreed. In 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.280 the end, Wewa brought the Zuni culture into the public eye, 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.600 helping Americans to understand the importance of the tribe's heritage, history, 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.720 and way of life, making Wewa one of the most 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:22.880 well known Native Americans of the nineteenth century. Custer had 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.320 a secret. In eighteen seventy four, the military leader, then 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.920 a lieutenant colonel, returned from South Dakota's Black Hills, and 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.640 he carried with him some news that would ignite a frenzy, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.120 the discovery of gold on Native American land. The territory 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.200 where the gold had been found was protected by the 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.320 Treaty of Fort Laramie, an agreement made six years earlier 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.400 in eighteen sixty eight between the Lakota Sioux and the 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.240 US government. Some tribal leaders, though, like Sitting Bull and 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.680 Crazy Horse, didn't agree with the treaty. It asked the 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:56.000 tribes to give up their nomadic lifestyle and instead depend 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.840 on government aid. As you can imagine, this led to 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.720 conflicts between Settle and people from those tribes. The US 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.520 government had been pressing the Lakota Sioux to sell their 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.560 sacred land to them, but the native peoples had refused, 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.120 so in late eighteen seventy five, the government basically just 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.960 demanded that all Lakota report to reservations, with a deadline 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.960 of January thirty first of eighteen seventy six. If they refused, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.200 they risked being labeled as hostiles. And still the Lakota 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.880 remained defiant, which is why Custer led his troops into 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.800 the Black Hills in eighteen seventy six. He was there 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.559 to force the Sioux onto reservations and claim the gold 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.280 rich land for the United States, and as we all know, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.400 Custer's last stand was a victory for the Native American 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.240 people and is still remembered today as the US Army's 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:47.080 most devastating defeat in the Plains Indian War. There was 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.600 a survivor, though, a guy named Sergeant John Noonan. He'd 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.840 been left behind at the Yellowstone Depot, ordered to tend 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.600 the cattle there while Custer led the rest of the battle. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.640 Noonan had joined the cavalry in eighteen seventy Tioo, and 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.680 his dedication and efficiency helped him rise through the ranks. 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.680 But he also had something else going for him, his 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.800 good looks. General Custer's wife, Elizabeth, praised the man's appearance, 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.960 describing him as the most handsome soldier in his company. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.560 With his deep blue eyes, dark hair, and fair complexion, 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.640 he caught the attention of everyone who met him. Following 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.840 the Battle of Little Bighorn, Noonan returned to Fort Abraham 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.960 Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, where he was reunited with 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.040 his wife. Now, if you dig through the records, you'll 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.280 only see the name missus Nash. Were not clear on 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.600 a lot of her background, but historians think that she 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.760 had been married twice before, so perhaps the last name 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.360 came from one of those previous husbands. Now, by all accounts, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.040 Missus Nash kept an immaculate home. Specifically, her talents with 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.280 laundry earned immense respect with other officers wives, all viying 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.120 for her expertise in cleaning delicate materials. On top of that, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.000 her culinary skills were celebrated and her presence became required 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.760 at social gathering. And if that weren't enough, missus Nash 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.600 was also a skilled midwife. Her meticulous care and tenderness 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.400 with newborns endeared her to the community. Between her husband 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.679 John's dashing good looks and her tall, thin frame with 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.880 dark skin and black hair from her Mexican heritage, they 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.080 seemed quite happy to everyone who knew them. The perfect couple, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.760 if ever there was one, But tragedy struck. When John 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.040 was away on an extended campaign, his wife fell ill 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.880 and passed away on the morning of October thirtieth of 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.000 eighteen seventy eight. We've talked about it before. Of course, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.720 medicine was more of an art than a science back then, 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.080 and sometimes illness just broke in and stole people from you. 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.400 It was sudden and tragic now, as the story goes, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.640 Before her death, missus Nash requested that she be buried 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.520 in the clothes she was wearing, but her friends couldn't 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.400 imagine laying her to rest forever in the ratty clothes 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.640 she'd been wearing on her deathbed, so they broke their promise. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.280 And that's when something unusual happened. You see, during the 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.400 preparation of her body, it was discovered that missus Nash 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.959 was not a woman at all. When John returned the 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.000 following month, he was naturally devastated by the news of 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.760 his wife's death, but he was also unprepared for the 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.079 rumors regarding his wife's sex. The men at the fort 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.040 ridiculed and mocked him about it the moment he arrived. Now, 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.760 John insisted that his wife had been a woman, but 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.679 no matter what he said, the rumors persisted, and it 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.960 wasn't long before someone reportedly disturbed his wife's grave in 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.720 search of answers, and a short time later a few 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.839 newspapers wrote that they believed John's story. But for John 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.120 it was too late. Tormented by the relentless and cruel 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.880 harassment from the men of the fort, and unable to 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.400 find peace in the community that he once called home, 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.600 he withdrew from society and eventually fell ill. And then, 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.320 one day, not long after, John walked into a blacksmith 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.200 shop at Fort Lincoln, where many of his fellow soldiers 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.480 were already present. As expected, they resumed their usual verbal abuse, 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.680 Unable or unwilling to see the damne and the pain 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.800 that they were causing him. Without warning, he pulled out 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.560 his gun and shot himself in the heart. Sadly, it 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.320 took John Noonan's death by suicide for those men to 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.840 see what they had done to see the power that 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.560 their words and cruelty had over the well being of 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.800 a member of their community. But in the end, any 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:33.360 remorse they finally summoned had arrived too late. Tragedy roamed 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.679 free across the wild West. But thankfully there are happier 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.760 stories too. In the late eighteen hundreds, for example, one 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.160 particular logger led a fascinating life filled with courage, generosity, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.960 and a well guarded secret. Sammy Williams worked in the 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.400 logging industry in Montana for almost twenty years, and over 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.280 those years, as the logging frontier expanded westward, rough camps 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.720 were set up to accommodate the needs of the lumberjacks 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.920 who made it all happen. Now. Initially, Sammy served as 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.240 both a lumberjack and a cook. As you'd imagine, feeding 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.320 the crew was important, which is why it was a 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.280 role seen as only second place to the superintendent of 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.680 the entire camp. The reputation of any camp often hinged 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.440 on the quality of the food they provided, and as 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.200 it turns out, Sammy's popularity among the lumberjacks attested to 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.839 his culinary talents. Life was good during his time in 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.200 the logging industry. Sammy accumulated significant wealth and property, but 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.960 his affluence wasn't self serving. He generously cared for the 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.800 sick and the destitute. In fact, many of the loggers 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.800 were called discovering that Sammy had silently placed unexpected sums 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.120 of money in their pockets during times of need. A 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.200 hard worker, an excellent cook, and a generous spirit. But 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.160 there's more. Sammy's linguistic talents were nothing short of outstanding. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.199 It wasn't enough for him to be fluent in English, Norwegian, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.040 and German, so he also learned the languages of the 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.720 Native American communities in the area. But Sammy also had 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.520 a secret that only came to lights after he passed 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.480 away on December tenth of nineteen oh eight from what 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.319 some believed to be a stroke. The following day, undertaker 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.320 George R. Safley discovered that the beloved lumberjack was female. 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.240 Newspapers quickly spread the news of Sammy's death and the 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.960 discovery of his secret. Some attributed his choice to live 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.320 as a man to a failed love affair and a 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.960 desire to start a new life away from societal expectations. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.000 Others wove of elaborate narratives drawing inspiration from popular dime 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.480 novels of the time, romanticizing his journey. Saffly, though, proposed 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.560 that Sammy had chosen to live as a man to 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.680 make a living more easily, taking on a male role 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.800 in a world that offered more opportunities to men, but 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.000 all of these theories failed to fully explain how at 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.400 ease he was living as a man. Some writers pointed 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:55.840 out Sammy's stereotypical masculine behavior, describing him as occasionally getting drunk, swearing, 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.920 chewing tobacco, and engaging in festive activities with the It 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:05.240 clearly wasn't just an act. Friends would later discovered letters 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.120 written to him over the years that revealed his life. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.920 Before arriving in Montana, Sammy traveled quite a bit and 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.080 had lived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the Minneapolis area, and Castleton, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.920 North Dakota. An insurance policy from eighteen eighty five, still 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.840 bearing his chosen name and gender, further demonstrated his commitment 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.760 to his identity. After his passing, Sammy's co workers and 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.680 community paid for a headstone and mourned the loss of 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.760 their friend. Outside the community, his story inspired newspapers to 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.240 discuss gender roles, with some even suggesting that women could 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.560 become unsexed like Sammy, while others wondered why more women 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.840 didn't seek the same freedom by assuming masculine roles. And look, 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.480 there will probably always be confusion. How people have seen 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.720 gender as an identity throughout history has constantly shifted and changed, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.280 which complicates our struggle to define it. It's right there 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.000 in the pages of history, though, and to ignore it 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.720 is to be myopic and closed minded. What's clear is 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.960 that Sammy Williams led the life he intended, and those 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:12.040 who reflected on that life recognized the things that truly mattered, 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.320 his resilience, his kindness, and his impact on the community. 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.440 The story wasn't uncommon in the rugged American West, where 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.880 dreams and realities often collided head on, the lives of 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.760 people like Sammy Williams remained hidden. Newspapers of the era 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.640 reported on hundreds of stories of women who lived as 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.760 men and men who lived as women, and it's likely 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.160 that it was just the visible tip of a much 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.720 larger iceberg. And these stories didn't just take place in 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.240 the West either, but rather all over the world and 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.160 all throughout history. But like I said at the beginning, 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.520 when most of us think of the Wild West, we 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.320 think of how Hollywood and books have presented that era 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.359 to us, full of hardcore outlaws and stets in wearing cowboys, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.960 and with a few exceptions, the women in those stories 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.680 have always been stereotypically feminine and subservient. But maybe those 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.400 assumptions are a lot farther from the mark than we've 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.560 ever realized. Take, for example, the story of Milton Matson. 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.280 He found himself in the public eye in eighteen ninety 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.879 five when authorities in San Jose threw him in jail 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.520 his crime. He had supposedly tried to deceive others for 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.560 financial gain in the process, Though the jailers realized the 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.359 Matson had been born female. It wasn't until he became 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.439 a media sensation that Matson confessed to feeling more like 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.960 a man than a woman. And as you'd imagine, the 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.919 press relentlessly chased his story, eager for juicy details. They 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.520 even dug into his relationship with his fiance Helen Fairweather, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.359 who staunchly defended her love for Matson. And then there's 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.439 the story of Charlie Parkhurst. During the eighteen fifties, he 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.800 was known throughout California for his legendary courage and skill 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:03.359 as a stagecoach, he had bravely faced down dangerous outlaws 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.679 and saved lives. But after he died in eighteen seventy 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.600 nine and his friends prepared his body for burial, they 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.000 were shocked to learn that Charlie had been a female 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.240 at birth. And back in nineteen oh four, another story 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.000 caused quite a stir, grabbing headlines and the attention of 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:23.400 readers everywhere. Joe Monahan, a rancher from Idaho, had passed away. Now, 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.960 rumors had long circulated about Joe. The community had heard 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.480 curious things about him, but were never so bold as 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.119 to ask him to his face about the rumors. But 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.760 upon his death, it was confirmed Joe had been born female, 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.240 and the media, of course jumped on the story, creating 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.399 sensationalized tales about lost love and betrayal. In one theory, 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.080 they made Joe out to be a woman who had 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:48.000 once been wronged by a cruel lover. But these stories 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.280 were all heavily influenced by society's beliefs about what love 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.600 and tragedy should look like. The way most people saw 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.240 there were strict roles that everyone was supposed to fit 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.479 into and these folks simply refused to play along. They 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.120 just wanted to live their lives without having to share 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.399 every last detail with the rest of the world. And 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.400 I think the same can be said for all of us. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.560 Like the television and film world that gave them life, 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.640 our perceptions of the wild West started out in black 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.960 and white, but time and research have added color and 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.720 depth to those flat assumptions. Don't worry if your favorite 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.800 Western characters are those half shaven cowboy law men and 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.080 powerful elegant ladies back at the saloon, you will never 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.239 run short on examples. But I hope today's journey has 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.960 helped you see that the stories never end there. There's 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.760 always nuance, always depth, and always variety, and that is 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.160 a good thing. But we're not done just yet. We've 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.520 saved one more tale to share with you, and if 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.360 you stick around through this brief sponsor break, my teammates 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.920 Ali Stead will tell you all about it. 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.480 Newspaper and media sensationalism aside, scholars also set out to 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.280 better understand the experiences of those who lived as a 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.119 gender different from the one they'd been assigned at birth. 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.600 Instead of writing headlines designed to sell papers, they took 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.960 a more scientific approach in an attempt to explain the 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.359 deviation from what was considered sexual norms. At the turn 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.560 of the twentieth century, the emerging field of sexology sought 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:34.200 to dissect and pathologize gender differences. If researchers could define 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:38.440 what normal looked like, they could better define what was deviate. 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.240 In one of those academic texts, we learn about the 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:47.320 life of an individual simply known as m uc M 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.760 was one of four case studies presented under pseudonyms in 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:55.280 an article titled Transvestism, A Contribution to the Study of 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.639 the Psychology of Sex, published in the New York Medical 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:03.479 Journal in nineteen fourteen. At the time, em was sixty 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.920 two years old. His age suggests that he had a 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:11.880 lifetime of experiences that shaped his understanding of his identity. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.600 From an early age, m regarded himself as a man 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.400 who had a strong affinity for wearing women's clothing, which 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.280 was clear from a letter he wrote about his childhood memories. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.239 He'd always known who he was. He wrote that his 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.680 playmates were always girls, and that his preferred toys were dolls, ribbons, 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.439 and miniature household items. He even possessed a talent for 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.719 making dolls and crafting clothes for his sisters and other girls, 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.720 and at the age of ten, he showed a remarkable 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.320 experience for cooking and meal preparation that far surpassed those 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.719 of older boys. He also had a protective side and 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:53.320 readily defended his girlfriends against teasing or harassment. Though his 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.320 behavior might have been less masculine than society thought was proper, 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:01.080 all was still well. It's n clear from his writings, 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.600 but Em might have been allowed to wear girl's clothing 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.400 at home, at least when his parents didn't have company. 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.560 He was fifteen when his uncle came to visit in 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.639 eighteen sixty seven. Again we're unsure of the specifics, but 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.000 it appears m might have worn boy's clothing during his 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.280 uncle's stay. But that wasn't enough to hide his secret. 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.159 It didn't take long for his uncle to find the 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:26.720 hidden stash of dresses, and to say the discovery made 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:31.560 him upset would be an understatement. His uncle took the 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:34.879 matter up with his brother, ranting on and on about 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:41.119 his nephew's sinful ways. The aftermath was a disaster. After 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:46.560 receiving a scathing scolding, EM's father demanded that every piece 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:50.240 of girl's clothing he owned be burned. He also issued 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.040 a dire warning any future sightings of his son wearing 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:58.640 or keeping female attire would be met with severe consequences. 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.320 If m he valued the ability to walk without crutches, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:05.919 he'd do what he was told. From here on out, 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.560 he would become more masculine. Distraught at the ultimatum, M 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.400 made the decision to leave home and make his way westward. 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.200 By the spring of eighteen sixty seven, M's travels brought 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.400 him to Grand Isle, Nebraska, where he found a job 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.520 driving a team of horses while a railroad was being built. 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.280 As the fall arrived, he ventured out onto the Nebraska 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:31.400 prairie and took up buffalo hunting and staying true to himself, 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:35.080 he privately continued to dress in women's clothing. In his 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.280 own words, he said that when he dressed as a woman, 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.879 he experienced enhanced logical thinking, a liberated sense of being, 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.000 and an ability to solve complex problems that eluded him 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:51.199 under different circumstances. He'd run away west and found a 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:55.240 better life, but m still desperately wanted the freedom to 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.400 wear women's clothing Whenever he chose Unfortunately, he knew he'd 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:05.120 be ridiculed or worse. His adventures on the frontier came 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:08.280 in many forms and jobs. He was once a sheriff, 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.800 a newspaper publisher, a justice of the peace, and a 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:16.720 detective for the U. S. Marshal's Office. M proudly declared 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.880 his contribution to westward expansion. His legs carried the scars 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:23.840 of bullets, wounds he had covered with petticoats. Whenever the 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:29.600 opportunity arose, Despite the dangers presented, all his troubles seemed 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:32.520 to fade away when he dressed in the clothing he preferred. 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:37.679 Will likely never know M's true identity, but we do 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:41.119 know that even in the Wild West, where we've painted 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:44.560