Dear HCN,
I appreciate your essay
about the need for historically accurate monuments and markers
across the West (HCN, 9/25/00: Truth-telling needs a home in the
West). Someone who is very eloquent on this issue is James Loewen,
who wrote Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers
and Monuments Get Wrong. Unfortunately, the marker which
you present as “the bald-faced truth” ignores the fact that it
would have been very unlikely “for a man to arrive, build a house,
fence some land, plow it, put in a crop, wait in vain to harvest,
lose his money, get tired of jackrabbit stew, and leave” without a
woman to help him.
The subtle ways in which
women have been left out of the historical record is something that
James Loewen documents quite well. I urge people to read his book!
Kate Monk
Boulder,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘Honest markers’ still miss the mark.
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