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
“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
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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."
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