Page 14 - 2015_Cabin Days curriculum booklet

pioneer myths often feature stories of heroic exploits connected with the so-called
Underground Railroad but ignore more important features of every day life. In no sense was
there equality for African-American Hoosiers. In many ways, in fact, there was less equality
as time passed, with the black codes of the 1830s, with Article XIII of the 1851 Indiana
Constitution (which stated that black newcomers could not reside within the borders of the
state), with a segregated school system, and on and on.

Nor was there equality for pioneer women. They could not vote. Their legal rights were
subsumed under those of their husband. As important, the celebrations and honors later
generations have bestowed on our pioneers tended to celebrate male accomplishment and
to take for granted female achievement. (We can be especially thankful for the clear and
wonderful fact of pioneer women's quilts--enduring artifacts that quickly remind us of
female achievement.)

The Constitution of 1816, then, is a hope for the future rather than a description of early
nineteenth-century Indiana. It promised far more than Hoosier pioneers could deliver.

There are other gaps between the claims made for heroic and wise pioneers and the
realities of their lives. These are the stories and myths that grew and spread after the
pioneer era had passed. At the center of these stories were tales of heroic achievement, of
hardy pioneers building a civilization in the wilderness with the sweat of their brows and the
muscle of their backs. Such stories were possible only when listeners allowed a romantic
haze to obscure the reality of pioneer Indiana.

The powerful pioneer myths began with the memories of old pioneers themselves. Sitting
around a comfortable iron stove in their front parlor, looking back on their early years, they
did what humans in middle age and old age often do. They celebrated their youthful
achievements. And perhaps they stretched the truth a bit so that it was uphill to school in
both directions. And perhaps they forgot or didn't bother to speak about less heroic parts of
their lives. By the 1850s and 1860s newspaper accounts appeared telling of pioneer
reunions and old settlers meetings and of the stories told. Time had already woven a
romantic haze over the pioneer story.

Parke County residents portray pioneers at their celebration for the centennial of statehood,
December 11, 1916.