In the last century, thousands of people have moved to the American West hoping to find the economic opportunity and personal satisfaction that eluded them in other regions of the country. Stability and economic success were rarely found immediately upon arrival in the west. People often moved numerous times in hopes that their next stop would bring them to their destiny. The unending search for the mythic west caused a great deal of migration and transiency in the region. Although Hale and Barnes were both native westerners, transience also greatly affected their lives. Barnes usually moved seasonally and for better jobs for her dad. Reflecting on her childhood, Barnes recalled, “So much had changed since the first years of my life, spent living in the woods, years when we moved from one logging site to another.” Unlike Barnes, economic opportunity was not the motivation for Hale’s migration, but her life of movement revolved around her mother’s need to flee.

Unlike Barnes, Hale’s stories included a great deal of information about other periods in her life than her teenage year. Several of Hale’s stories focus on the importance of her ancestors, both Indian and White. In “The Only Good Indian,” Hale described that her “great-great grandfather, Dr. John McLoughlin, founded Oregon City.” Hale placed a great deal of importance on her ancestor roles in major events in history, her paternal grandmother in the “Great Fight of 1877” at Bear Paw and the traditions of her tribe. Beyond discussing the role of her ancestors in her life, Hale depicted various periods of her own adult life. In “Transitions,” she wrote about her years in San Francisco with a young son, running from an abusive husband and attempting to get on her feet. The tales that Hale offered insights to a complete history of her life in the American West.

Hales relationship with her mother was very detrimental to her development and caused her a great deal of anguish. According to Hale, her mother was the “master, an absolute master, of verbal abuse.” Her mother constantly belittled Hale and made her an outsider in her own family. Mrs. Campbell blamed nearly everything that had gone in her life on Janet. Even as an adult, Hale could not communicate with her mother about her childhood. Hale described that her mother “would never discuss anything with [her] having to do with [her] early life with her. Unless [her] wanted to tell me what a horrid child [she] had been.” Although her mother usually treated her with such disregard, Hale wrote about a few occurrences in which her mother was kind to her. One of Hale’s most favorable memories of her mother when she was a child came from times when she was ill: “She used to read to me when I was sick. Sometimes, if I was very sick, she would stay up all night reading to me.” Even though Hale described an overwhelmingly horrid childhood with her mother, when her mother became sick in her old age, Hale traveled to be by her mother’s side in her time of need. After recounting numerous stories of the treatment she received as a child, Hale described her inability to challenge her mother’s actions: “Confronting my mother was always out of the question. It was ridiculous even to consider doing it now with her in this condition.” While Hales’ relationship with her mother was very abusive and troubled, by the time her mother was dieing, Hale put her resentment aside in order to have peaceful moments with her mother before her passing. Hale and Barnes each had intense, most often disagreeable interactions with their mothers.

Hale’s mother dragged her from city to city attempting to escape her father. In one section of her writing, “Daughter of Winter,” Hale described what a video of her childhood would look like: “I would show, among other things, a montage of my mother and myself on the run. . . . We’re runnin’ from Dad and his d

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