The Real American Frontier | Part 2 | The homesteaders trad wives would rather forget about (with Megan Kate Nelson)

In part 2 of our exploration of the American frontier, Megan Kate Nelson introduces two women who belie the homesteader image conservative "trad wives" like to harken back to. Polly Bemis was a Chinese immigrant who built a life and a community in Idaho, despite intense prejudice and stringent anti-Chinese immigration policies. Ella Watson was a self-made homesteader and small rancher, a so-called cattle queen who got on the wrong side of cattle barons in Wyoming and paid the price.

Read more: How Chinese women were barred from the American dream 

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On this episode:

• Isabelle Roughol - Host
• Megan Kate Nelson - Guest

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Jump to:

• (00:00) - 08 Megan Kate Nelson part 2
• (01:18) - Start of interview
• (01:46) - Introducing Polly Bemis
• (03:04) - The majority-Chinese American West
• (06:55) - Polly Bemis traveled without moving
• (09:12) - Chinese women were the first targets of US anti-immigrant policy
• (09:50) - The aggressive anti-Chinese immigration policies of the United States
• (12:13) - How big government made the West for white men
• (13:43) - Ella Watson's broken American dream
• (14:25) - The cattle queens
• (23:03) - A high tolerance for risk
• (24:30) - Why correcting the Frontier myth matters today
• (27:06) - How trad wives utilise the American Frontier
• (30:21) - What moment in history should we revisit from women's perspective?
• (34:30) - Outro

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Click here to view the episode transcript.