I'll have to study more 19th Century letters to get the tone and vibe more accurate. Figured that after the Civil War, Janine would try to disappear into the Wild West, eventually settling next to a Native American tribe (research led me to the Zuni) who would be okay with having a maybe-undead transgender person in their backyard.
Plot-wise, this is to further establish not just Janine's ongoing situation with the other vampire clans, but also gives insight as to why, in the 1940s, she's totally okay with hanging out with a Lakota/Dakota guy, and is even knowledgeable of general Native American history and issues. (In the '40s, many white Americans genuinely believes all Natives to be dead. I know that belief still exists today, but it was a much greater extent back then. Those that did know Natives were still around wanted them to acclimate to American culture.)
Genuinely good, compassionate people do exist, but Janine was raised in the antebellum South, and plenty of abolitionists were racists, especially to Native Americans. I need to at least strongly imply some serious self-re-reducation that happened during her travels.