The caption reads, "Arizona female scout /86." Captivating, and rare, this photo shows a woman dressed as an Army scout with pants, chaps, and rifle. Perhaps she is of Native or Latina ancestry; we are not told. Nor do we know her name. Yet, she must have been a brave person, as very few women dared to dress like men in the 19th century, whatever sort of work they actually did. In The Cowgirl Way: Hats Off to America's Women of the West by Holly George-Warren, the experience of one intrepid Montana cowgirl of the 1880s, Evelyn Cameron, describes the threat she received just for wearing a split skirt, "So great was the prejudice against any divided garment in Montana that a warning was given to me to abstain from riding on the streets of Miles City lest I might be arrested!" Historical photos show women riding the range sidesaddle, roping calves, and even branding stock -- all in long skirts. Not to be held down, however, were the bold women like the scout above and the famous "Calamity Jane," real name Martha Jane Can(n)ary, that defied the restrictive and often impractical dress code of the Old West. Desperation, too, may have played a role in their resistance and their willingness to take the threats, jeers, and sexual harassment that came with "wearing the pants." We know Martha Jane's childhood was tragic, marred by frequent moves led by her father, the death of her mother, and her parents' disreputable lives as a gambler and a prostitute, respectively. When her father also died in 1867, the 14-yr-old Martha loaded her 5 younger siblings into a wagon and moved farther west, to Wyoming. She then took any job she could find, including prostitution, to support her family. In time, the desperate teenage girl grew into a determined and fearless woman. She shifted her work choices to those that were better paid and allowed her some degree of autonomy -- "men's work." For these jobs, she adopted traditionally male dress. But the pain she must have suffered beneath her tough exterior -- pain caused by the aggressive male dominated culture -- led to alcohol addiction. She went through a series of failed relationships and had several children that were placed in various foster homes. Even the exploits she related in her autobiography were often denied by the men who saw them. As "Calamity Jane," she was caricatured into an Amazon of the West, an aberration that could be laughed off and dismissed. Yet it is precisely those qualities of defiance and bravery that have kept her famous long after the men who used, abused, and tried to silence her have died. For all the bold women of the West, it's time we heard them roar.
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