Matrons and Maids
Regulating Indian Domestic Service in Tucson, 1914-1934
Will be published approx. on 30. January 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-8165-3655-9 (ISBN)
Description
From 1914 to 1934 the US government sent Native American girls to work as domestic servants in the homes of white families. Matrons and Maids tells this forgotten history through the eyes of the women who facilitated their placements. During those two decades, "outing matrons" oversaw and managed the employment of young Indian women. In Tucson, Arizona, the matrons acted as intermediaries between the Indian and white communities and between the local Tucson community and the national administration, the Office of Indian Affairs.
Based on federal archival records, Matrons and Maids offers an original and detailed account of government practices and efforts to regulate American Indian women. Haskins demonstrates that the outing system was clearly about regulating cross-cultural interactions, and she highlights the roles played by white women in this history. As she compellingly argues, we cannot fully engage with cross-cultural histories without examining the complex involvement of white women as active, if ambivalent, agents of colonization.
Including stories of the entwined experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women that range from the heart-warming to the heart-breaking, Matrons and Maids presents a unique perspective on the history of Indian policy and the significance of "women's work.
Based on federal archival records, Matrons and Maids offers an original and detailed account of government practices and efforts to regulate American Indian women. Haskins demonstrates that the outing system was clearly about regulating cross-cultural interactions, and she highlights the roles played by white women in this history. As she compellingly argues, we cannot fully engage with cross-cultural histories without examining the complex involvement of white women as active, if ambivalent, agents of colonization.
Including stories of the entwined experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women that range from the heart-warming to the heart-breaking, Matrons and Maids presents a unique perspective on the history of Indian policy and the significance of "women's work.
Reviews / Votes
It is rare to encounter a study of cross-cultural relations especially devoted to women. Within the constraints imposed by the extant records, Haskins' book represents a thoughtful and lucid study of a complex social world wherein the Tohono O'odham were constantly adapting to changing colonial hierarchies."" - AlterNative""Haskins plays the day-to-day experiences of those women involved in the 'outing program' against assumptions about the responses of Native women to gendered acculturation politics. This book makes a real contribution to the twentieth-century history of American Indians."" - Lisa E. Emmerich, Chico State University
""This clearly written analysis traces the careers of the 'outing matrons' who found domestic work for young Indian women in Tucson from World War I into the 1930s. Haskins shows them as the focus for colonization while they held only a low level position in society themselves. Along with studies of Indian boarding schools, this careful look at the 'outing matrons' demonstrates the changes in American Indian policy in the early twentieth century."" - Roger L. Nichols, author of American Indians in U.S. History
""Victoria Haskins' exceptional book examines a special group of female employees of the Indian Service in Tucson during the early twentieth century. Her strong research and revealing analysis sheds new light on gender and race in the urban southwest, and the Native and non-Native women who lived, worked, and negotiated the terms of labor between white Tucson and the Tohono O'odham communities."" - Brenda J. Child, author of Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of the Community
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tucson
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
295 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8165-3655-9 (9780816536559)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Victoria K. Haskins is an associate professor at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, where she is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in History. She is the author of One Bright Spot and co-editor of Uncommon Ground: White Women in Aboriginal History.