Glenda Riley

Writing, Teaching, and Recreating Western History through Intersections and Viewpoints

Writers, teachers, and public historians are currently struggling to make books, teaching units, exhibits, tours, and other materials more inclusive; they need and want to find practical ways of broadening the scope of western American history to include such groups as Native Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans.1 While professional organizations of historians and teachers try to devise an inclusive approach that will garner general acceptance in the United States, individual historians and teachers grasp at ways to incorporate non-Anglo groups now. Currently, two types of solutions typically dominate this quest: one brings into a standard topic area representatives of

Not Gainfully Employed: Women on the Iowa Frontier, 1833-1870

to expand on Bogues analysis in significant ways. It shows that most of the new arrivals lived in households which averaged 5 to 6 members and with a ratio of 4 men to 3 women. This census also indicates that most people were attached to some type of family and that few people lived alone.2 The next territorial census in 1840 demonstrates that the preponderance of pioneers were engaged in agricultural pursuits. There were,