Start Date
4-10-2021 10:45 AM
End Date
4-10-2021 12:00 PM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
Molly Gloss. The Jump-Off Creek -- Criticism and interpretation, Citizenship -- Oregon Territory -- History, Women pioneers -- Oregon, West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs -- Sources
Description
Molly Gloss’s 1987 novel, The Jump-Off Creek, is considered a classic work of literature on settler history in Oregon. Her depiction of the main character, Lydia Sanderson, is one of grit and generosity in the face of remarkable challenges. Having read accounts of women homesteaders in preparation for writing the book, Gloss addresses several of the themes that come out of historical studies of such women, such as the opportunity for them to own land and the resulting empowerment that they experienced. Perhaps inadvertently, she also recognizes that by doing so, they contributed to a larger system of structural violence against indigenous peoples. By examining the historiography of settler women, then adding to the narrative with case studies from the North Coast of Oregon, there lies an opportunity to break ground on a new version of remembering homesteading women in a way that honors their considerable labor in search of “boundless possibilities,” while recognizing their foundational role in an oppressive system.
PART OF SESSION 6C. THE STATUS OF WOMEN
Comment: Ellen Kittell, University of Idaho
Chair: Theresa Earenfight, Seattle University
Hana Cooper, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“The Voices Left Out: Women and the King-Crane Commission”
Tyler Holman, Idaho State University, undergraduate student
“Women in Burmese Society: The Traditional High Status of Burmese Women and the Aftermath of Colonization”
Hannah A. Reynolds, Portland State University, graduate student
"'I just had to do most everything': Colonial Implications of Settler Women’s Roles in Nineteenth-Century Oregon"
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35235
Included in
‘I just had to do most everything’: Colonial Implications of Settler Women’s Roles in Nineteenth-Century Oregon
Molly Gloss’s 1987 novel, The Jump-Off Creek, is considered a classic work of literature on settler history in Oregon. Her depiction of the main character, Lydia Sanderson, is one of grit and generosity in the face of remarkable challenges. Having read accounts of women homesteaders in preparation for writing the book, Gloss addresses several of the themes that come out of historical studies of such women, such as the opportunity for them to own land and the resulting empowerment that they experienced. Perhaps inadvertently, she also recognizes that by doing so, they contributed to a larger system of structural violence against indigenous peoples. By examining the historiography of settler women, then adding to the narrative with case studies from the North Coast of Oregon, there lies an opportunity to break ground on a new version of remembering homesteading women in a way that honors their considerable labor in search of “boundless possibilities,” while recognizing their foundational role in an oppressive system.
PART OF SESSION 6C. THE STATUS OF WOMEN
Comment: Ellen Kittell, University of Idaho
Chair: Theresa Earenfight, Seattle University
Hana Cooper, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“The Voices Left Out: Women and the King-Crane Commission”
Tyler Holman, Idaho State University, undergraduate student
“Women in Burmese Society: The Traditional High Status of Burmese Women and the Aftermath of Colonization”
Hannah A. Reynolds, Portland State University, graduate student
"'I just had to do most everything': Colonial Implications of Settler Women’s Roles in Nineteenth-Century Oregon"