Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands

by Juliana Barr

Revising the standard narrative of European-Indian relations in America, Juliana Barr reconstructs a world in which Indians were the dominant power and Europeans were the ones forced to accommodate, resist, and persevere. She demonstrates that between the 1690s and 1780s, Indian peoples including Caddos, Apaches, Payayas, Karankawas, Wichitas, and Comanches formed relationships with Spaniards in Texas that refuted European claims of imperial control.

Barr argues that Indians not only retained control over their territories but also imposed control over Spaniards. Instead of being defined in racial terms, as was often the case with European constructions of power, diplomatic relations between the Indians and Spaniards in the region were dictated by Indian expressions of power, grounded in gendered terms of kinship. By examining six realms of encounter--first contact, settlement and intermarriage, mission life, warfare, diplomacy, and captivity--Barr shows that native categories of gender provided the political structure of Indian-Spanish relations by defining people's identity, status, and obligations vis-a-vis others. Because native systems of kin-based social and political order predominated, argues Barr, Indian concepts of gender cut across European perceptions of racial difference.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Indigenous, Grad School, American History, 18th Century, Read For School

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Ai Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say that ultimately this is closer to a 3.5 stars, and that my rating is heavily informed by the fact that I read this in 30 minute bursts over the course of a number of weeks. I will say Barr is extremely thorough and so attentive to differences between the different nations and groups she talks about; she doesn't generalize, and she really digs in deeply to the relationships that the Spanish had with each group. Sometimes it kind of all melded together and I wasn't sure what was happening any more, but it felt consistent enough that I understood the general arc of her argument fairly well. Would love to revisit this in a classroom or other group setting!

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barr’s book reverses common conceptions of European colonization. Many historians of focus on European victory and depict Indians as on the defensive in relation to Europeans. Barr suggests that casting Indians solely in positions of resistance implies the inevitability of the U.S. and Anglo dominance. Against this, Barr demonstrates admirably that for a very long time, at least in the area that came to be known as Texas, Indians set the terms of interactions with Europeans. This is important. I’m not familiar with the historiography in this field outside of Barr’s work, but I’m reasonably sure that this is an innovation on her part.

The dominant role which Indians played in relation to Europeans required Europeans to interact on Indians’ cultural terrain. More specifically, Barr argues that Europeans had to adapt to and act within Indians’ gender norms and the gendering of politics within Indians’ cultures. Thus, Europeans had to accept delegates of Indian women diplomats who sought to forge peace treaties, because of the associations Indians had between women and peacemaking. Barr claims that gender was such a strongly determining force (or, logic of social ordering) within Indian communities that gender-based explanations are more useful for understanding the Texas borderlands than race- and class-based analyses. I like this claim, in part because it is a strong one. Barr does not merely say that gender is an interesting mode of analysis and an optic for historians, but argues that in this case gender as a social force was the more important causal factor in Indian-European relations than many other social forces historians often appeal to. Barr’s work would pair well with other works of gender history that make smaller claims about gender, as a way to teach students different ways historians can think about gender, as an analytical category and as a social reality in different historical moments.

All of that said, I had two problems with the book. On the one hand, as someone without any background in early North American or Indian history, I had a hard time making links between Barr's narrative, in which Indians dominated politically, my very imperfect sense that Indians did in fact eventually become subordinated. Presumably somewhere in that story Indians shifted from a position of dominance to a position of subordination and resistance. As such, while I take Barr’s point that a presumption that Indian history can only ever be told as a narrative of resistance, I think her story of Indian dominance might be more powerful if it dealt with the transition from Indians as dominant to Indians as resistant subordinates. Of course, if Barr’s work is really groundbreaking in her depiction of Indians then I’m asking too much and another historian will have to do that.

On the other hand, I was uncomfortable with Barr's discussion of female captivity. Barr rightly and fairly criticized the Europeans, but seemed more closemouthed when it came to gender relations – understood as power relations – among Indians. She did not criticize Indian practices of the capture and sale of women in the same way she criticized the Europeans.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

*read for class
This was... okay. It was well-organized and I appreciated the effort put into trying to flip the narrative, but for a book about women... welp I wish it a focused a whole lot more on women.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’d think there’d be more women. Juliana Barr reimagines the history of colonial Texas by centering themes of kinship, gender, cultural imbalances, and indigenous systems of diplomacy as forces that structured power relations in the region.

[Chelsee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A in depth look at the different perspectives of the role of women within both Spanish and Native American relations. While women are mainly seen as weak political actors, Barr shows the intricate place women had within politics and how their prominence allowed the Southern Natives to retain power over the Spaniards for decades. Definitely has it's slow parts, but trudging through them is worth it!

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating treatment of the ways gendered language (as defined in the broader sense of Joan Wallach Scott and others) figured in the cultural interplay of Europeans and native peoples in a hitherto neglected region, the Texas Borderlands.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

turning the tables on the old story of colonizer vs. colonized.

[Jacob Hiserman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barr contends in Peace Came in the Form of a Woman that the heart of Spanish-Indian politics in eighteenth century Texas was the gender-based kinship networks of various Indian tribes that underlay native concepts of economic, political, and social power. Native women stood for peace and diplomacy as physical females but also through their role in marriage and food culture in their matriarchal societies. Barr’s main historiographical innovation remains a two-pronged attack: (1) moving the contact narrative away from the European pole to the Indian one; and (2) placing gendered power over and with Spanish in the kinship-focused avenues of native society. Her work relies heavily upon the notion of performativity enumerated by cultural theorist Judith Butler. Performativity for Barr highlights gender through material culture and bodily gesture. I greatly admired Barr’s innovative approach to Indian streams of power. However, I do think her narrative would benefit from a clearer sense of female honor for native peoples. Honor was the hinge for peace and war in Barr’s reading but it was almost solely masculine. Studies of honor in other cultures and places, such as Bertram Wyatt Brown’s writings on the colonial and antebellum Southern U.S., elucidates female participation in honor culture there. Nevertheless, her use of masculinity and martial valor and matriarchial power reminded me of African histories of Queen Mothers and the work of Alicia Decker on masculinity, militarism, and male-female gender in twentieth-century Uganda.

[Alex Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most colonial histories have centered men in the diplomacy between Europeans and Native American bands. Juliana Barr’s Peace Came in the Form of a Woman focuses on the role of women in the diplomatic relationship between Spanish colonists and Native American peoples, focusing primarily on diplomatic relations with Comanche, Caddo, and Kiowa bands throughout eighteenth century Texas. Engaging primarily with Spanish military and government records within United States archives, Barr effectively reads into indigenous power over diplomacy in Spanish Texas. The book centers indigenous power, arguing that that regional kinship practices by Native American bands placed women at the center of negotiations. Women who married into different bands served as both negotiators and translators. Barr further argues that women were central in Native American diplomacy with Spanish people as the presence of women in groups served as a symbol of peaceful intentions within both groups. Barr’s book serves as a powerful contribution in understanding gender dynamics and the role of women in early colonial North America.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a wonderful read. Chronicling the relations between Indians and Spaniards in the colonial era, Barr forms a well rounded argument that women came to be known for many things during this era, including diplomacy and, as the title states, reflections of peace. This stemmed from initial meetings with the Spanish and French.

All in all, the book was a wonderful introduction to what borderlands studies entails. I look forward to reading more about it.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

an excellent history on the role of gender in the Texas borderlands from different Native American groups and the Spanish. The interactions between Native American groups in this region were clearly dictated by the Caddo, Wichita, Apache, and Comanche amongst others. I definitely felt that the early chapters were the strongest, but this work definitely will definitely have me on the lookout for more from Dr. Barr.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barr treats everything with the nuance it deserves -- which makes pieces of this really dense, but always worthwhile! The beginning was hard to work through, but by the time I got to what would become my favorites (sign language, gendered Catholic imagery, captivity, agricultural abundance) it was hard to put it down!

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

read for class

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting historical take, I can appreciate the interdisciplinary (anthropological) approach to understanding indigenous forms of kinship and relationships.

[Ashley Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Counter to popular belief, not all Native American tribes were dominated by Colonists in the Colonial period. In the case of Texas, Spanish inhabitants in and around San Antonio were at the mercy of Indian tribes such as the Caddo and the Lipan Apache. When peaceful negotiations failed, (which they often did) the Texas missions were plagued with warfare and raids. In retaliation, Spanish men raided Indian villages and captured women and children for collateral against their Indian counterpoints. Consequently, women became bargaining chips for Spanish and Native men and served as diplomats between the two hostile groups.

Peace Came in the Form of a Women will change your perspective of Texas Indian and Colonial history. Not only does it challenge popular conceptions of how European conquest functioned in the New World, but it puts women at the center of the conflicts, there to mediate, maintain, and nurture peace while on the other hand, fighting brutal treatment of their Spanish captors and serving as slaves. Ultimately, it was the Natives who were able to negotiate deals, free some, though not all, of their family members, and continue to control the region.

[MZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

we're often taught in school that when europeans landed in america, they completely overpowered and immediately conquered the natives. while this is unfortunately ultimately true, it wasn't how it was at the beginning. not to spoil it, but the natives actually held a position of power as people that knew the geography of the land and the difference between all the tribes, which they used to play the different european colonizers against each other. women also had a crucial role in diplomatics. i had to read a chapter of this for a class, and it was probably the first book for a class that i read all the way through on my own. 10/10, totally recommend. barr also makes it easy to follow and tells it in a story-ish format, which keeps you engaged.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A daunting read. Although it brought a new perspective to Native American interactions with foreign peoples, there was a hard time understanding the geographic locations of said interactions and who was interacting. The numerous names blend together and aren't always well accounted for.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book that certainly takes a different look at Spanish and Indian relations.