ABSTRACT

In 1980, Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller published their important essay, "The Gentle Tamers Revisited: New Approaches to the History of Women in the American West," and called for a more inclusive western history that would incorporate women within a multicultural approach. 1 Their impressive review of literature on western women demonstrated how much the field challenged older interpretations of women and of the West. Even calling this area of scholarship "western women's history" is problematic. What Anglos called the "West" was, after all, simply home for American Indians, the "East" for Asians, the "South" for Canadians, and "El Norte" or northwestern Mexico for Mexicans and Spanish-Mexicans. 2 It became the western United States only after extended conflict with American Indians and with Mexico, and calling the region "the West" reflects that history of conquest.