Anne Hyde, Colorado College

“Mixed Blood Americans, Passing, and Gender in the 19th Century West”
Anne Hyde, Colorado College

This is an excerpted chapter draft for a book describing mixed blood children in the American West. The book explores the categories of “mixed blood” and “half-breed” as they evolve as racial categories over nineteenth century. Focusing on one extended family, this chapter tracks the children and grandchildren of two Native women, both married to a Euro-American trader who lived on the Missouri River. The marriages range between 1820 and 1880 and the children they produce give us a window into the changing world of the middle Missouri frontier.

Commentator: Susan Sleeper-Smith, Michigan State University