Mythmaker
The U.S. Census Bureau declared the western frontier closed in 1890, eight years after Grace Hebard’s arrival in Cheyenne at 21 years of age. Yet for Grace Hebard, the grand sweep of the mythic West stretched wide open to interpretation, resulting in Hebard placing her research subjects in a "highly romanticized" West.
Critics such as author Mike Mackey assert that "Hebard's 'histories' have resulted in many interpretations in Wyoming of past events which never took place, but are now believed by many in the state to be facts." He adds that "Often when the facts did not support her thesis, Hebard made up her own 'facts.'"
In particular, Hebard's 30 years of research which lead to the 1933 biography of the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition is called in to question by critics. Hebard presents a stout-hearted woman in a biography that is “undeniably long on romance and short on hard evidence, suffering from a sentimentalization of Indian culture".
Hebard crafts a picture of Sacajawea as a restless spirit who wandered to Canada, Washington State, California, Arizona, Wyoming, and beyond. A person, according to testimony gathered by Hebard, so revered by the Whites that she rode stagecoaches for free and who "rendered great service both in urging the Shoshones to learn to farm ... and that the buffalo and other game animals would soon be gone."
If Sacajawea appears as a grand figure in Hebard's writings, so do Sacajawea's descendants. Consider for instance the heroic imagery Hebard uses in "Sacajawea" when she describes 90-year-old Maggie Bazil Large, whom Hebard contends was the granddaughter of Sacajawea. Hebard, without citing a source, recounts when Large reportedly attended the funeral of a person who was, according to Hebard, another descendant of Sacajawea. Hebard describes Large as a woman who "exhibited great energy in an emergency" when the ropes used to lower a coffin became fouled. Hebard further expands on the actions of the valiant Large:
"An ancient, white-haired woman sprang forward, took the ropes in her own hands, and, bracing herself, successfully lowered the box to its resting place with a dexterity that challenged the skill of the young men present. She seems to have possessed something of the alertness, power to do, and energy of her grandmother .
Hebard reveals the lens through which she viewed the subject of her research during a 1915 visit to Sacajawea's reported grave in isolated Central Wyoming:
"In August, 1915, the author made a pilgrimage to the cemetery of the Wind river reservation for the purpose of paying humble tribute to Sacajawea. ... A well-beaten path from the wooden stile to Sacjawea's grave makes no guide post necessary. Annually thousands of people journey to this last resting place... ."
In retrospect, Hebard's reputation as a historian is diminished by her reliance upon unsubstantiated oral histories she gathered from Native Americans as she "prosecuted her search for authentic historical material which would enable her to rescue Sacajawea from the semi-oblivion into which her name had fallen, and give to her legitimate place in the history of the great northwest." However, the claim continues today that Hebard's research placing Sacajawea at the Wyoming Indian Reservation was largely one of mistaken identity.
Nonetheless, Hebard stood firm regarding her Sacajawea findings. She held to her viewpoint that she had demonstrated, "beyond a question of doubt", the true identify of Sacajawea. Hebard had a final piece of evidence to present. About one year before her death in 1936 Hebard revealed a "secret" to her protégé Agnes Wright Spring that she asked Wright not to reveal until after Hebard's death. Hebard shared that the Indians had given her a name while doing research on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The Indians, Hebard said, had named her Zont-Tumah-Two-Wiper-Hinze, meaning: the good white woman, the woman with one tongue. "They felt, she said, that she was telling the truth about their Indian ancestor."
Hebard is still an important figure, according to historian Phil Roberts, despite shortcomings in her research. Roberts notes that Hebard "was conscious of the need to chronicle the history of Wyoming while many of the actors were still alive. Unfortunately, she was constrained by the same problems faced by today’s historians. Without dependable source materials, one can make false assumptions that may not reflect the historical record."
Read more about this topic: Grace Raymond Hebard