Native American women

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: Women have held more central and more powerful roles within Indian communities than outsiders have often realized, although in many cases their power was diminished after tribal contact with Europeans

The lives of Indian women have been as varied as those of any women. Not only have their experiences differed greatly among regions and tribes (and among individuals within those groups), but also Indian women’s lives have undergone significant changes historically, both before and after colonization.

Perhaps the most useful generalization one can make about Indian women is that they have often been overlooked and misunderstood by non-Indians. In popular films and novels, when included at all, Indian women typically have been depicted as more passive and less important than Indian men. Indian women have also often been missing from studies authored by historians and social scientists.

The few American Indian women who have gained widespread attention among non-Indians quite often have been those thought to have come to the aid of settlers. Probably the most famous of such women is Pocahontas, who popular legend has credited with saving the life of Captain John Smith and assisting the settlers of the Jamestown colony. In visual images of the colonial era, Pocahontas was used to embody the New World—imagined as a welcoming, feminine, and fertile body. Other women remembered by non-Indians for their aid to whites include Sacajawea of the Shoshone, Winema of the Modoc, and Nancy Ward of the Cherokee—women whose lives were much more complex than one might guess from their popular reputations as charitable maidens and princesses.

Also not very well known is the fact that Indian women were often the most determined to resist European influence. Seventeenth century Huron women, for example, proved far more difficult than Huron men for Jesuit missionaries to convert to Christianity. One of the main reasons the Huron women gave for their resistance was that they could not imagine how they could agree to make a lifetime commitment of marriage. Many women in the Huron tribe rightly suspected that the missionaries were offering women the possibility of salvation in exchange for less freedom and control over their lives than they had previously enjoyed.

Economic and Social Contributions

Early European and European American accounts of Indians frequently characterized Indian women as subservient drudges, as poor “squaws” who were abused by Indian men. Such characterizations should be understood in relation to the expectation of many European Americans, especially prevalent during the nineteenth century, that in their own societies virtuous women were incapable of and demeaned by physically demanding labor, particularly labor performed outdoors. When European Americans observed native women vigorously hauling firewood, planting and harvesting crops, or tanning hides, they erroneously inferred that Indian women occupied a lowly position in society. Outside observers frequently failed to recognize that women often took great pride in their work and acquired significant respect within their communities as a result of it. Moreover, the work of Indian men was often less visible from the perspective of a village or camp, if, as was often the case, it focused on hunting.

The specific tasks performed by men and women varied considerably among tribes, and there were exceptions to the typical patterns—in many Plains societies, for example, there were women who departed from the norm and became known as warriors, hunting big game and leading war parties. In general, however, women tended to have greater responsibilities than men in caring for children and preparing food. Among some groups, such as the Iroquois, women not only prepared food, but were responsible for farming, fishing, and gathering wild plant products valued for medicinal as well as nutritional purposes; many Indian women also maintained the right to distribute any food, even that procured by men.

Throughout Indian history, Indian women have gained great admiration and personal satisfaction from producing and designing objects; in pre-contact societies, much of women’s everyday labor involved creative, artistic abilities. In the Southwest, for example, many women were highly skilled potters, who made wares valued for their aesthetic and religious importance as well as for their practical usefulness. Especially among Plains Indians, many women took great pride in decorating leather and designing clothing. In many areas, women wove extraordinarily beautiful and functional baskets. Although in the twentieth century Indian women have much less often produced objects such as pots and baskets for use within their own communities, many Indian women have established successful careers as artists; two of the most renowned include Hopi potter Nampeyo and San Ildefonso potter María Martínez. In parts of the Southwest, pottery and basketry, still made by women more often than men, currently provide significant sources of income for Indian communities as well as a sense of continuity, with designs and techniques handed down among generations of women. In the twentieth century, many native women have also developed artistic skills in fields not typically associated with Indian people— including oil painting, photography, and performing arts such as ballet.

In interpreting early written accounts of Indian women’s labor, in addition to considering the possible biases of outside observers, it is useful to consider how perceptions of Indian women as hapless drudges might reflect how women’s lives may already have been transformed by interactions with Europeans. For example, during periods when Indian people were trading vast quantities of furs and skins to Europeans, the workloads of many native women increased dramatically. Furthermore, social changes brought about by increased warfare, famine, dependence on trade, and disease epidemics often had a negative influence on the position women occupied within their communities. In the twentieth century, the social problems endemic to many Indian communities have added to women’s domestic and economic responsibilities; many Indian women rear families single-handedly. Some researchers have suggested, however, that Indian women’s great responsibilities for home and family, while difficult, have also been an important source of strength, stability, and determination.

Religion, Healing, Myth, and Storytelling

Among many Indian communities, past and present, women have been as likely as men to serve as spiritual leaders and doctors. Women have been powerful members of religious societies—some composed of women only, others including both women and men—within tribal communities. Many Indian communities have also held their most powerful and sacred ceremonies centering around female rites of passage, such as a girl’s first menstruation. Yet even when indigenous religious practices might appear to be more men’s affairs than women’s, beliefs about power, deities, and the nature of the universe have tended to emphasize and venerate women. Among Pueblo Indians in the Southwest, for example, even though women have been excluded from many of the most significant religious activities, the most important deities are female. Many Southwestern Indian people tell sacred stories of female creators and teachers, such as Thought Woman, Changing Woman, Salt Woman, or Spider Woman. Lakota people tell of Falling Star, who on earth became White Buffalo Calf Woman and gave the Lakotas their sacred ceremonies. Similar stories of divine female beings can be found throughout native North America; such beliefs contrast sharply with Christian notions of a single, all-powerful, male creator.

Nevertheless, in many cases Indian women have responded enthusiastically to Christianity, often blending Christian traditions with indigenous ones. They also have taken up powerful positions in many religious revitalization movements that combine Christianity and indigenous beliefs and practices. Among California Indians, for example, women have been among the most prominent leaders in the Bole Maru movement, frequently serving as “Dreamers,” a role with political as well as spiritual dimensions. Women have also held important roles within the Native American Church.

In addition to occupying specialized roles within religious systems, Indian women have an ancient history of passing down knowledge and values as storytellers and as family and community historians. In the twentieth century, many Indian women continue to be especially revered for their formal and informal storytelling. Some have incorporated oral traditions into written literature; writing for Indian and non-Indian audiences, Native women—including Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Joy Harjo—have become renowned novelists and poets. Others, such as Ella Cara Deloria and Beatrice Medicine, have made significant contributions to anthropology and history.

Politics and Policies

In precolonial societies, Indian women usually had their own particular ways of exerting political authority. Among the Iroquois, for example, women did not serve on the Council of Elders, but the men who served were appointed and could always be deposed by Iroquois matrons. In Cherokee council meetings, women tended to observe rather then actively contribute, voicing their opinions outside of the public forum. Occasionally, women departed from the usual political roles and occupied leadership positions typically taken by men. In many societies, women’s authority was strengthened by matrilineal and matrilocal kinship systems, in which property and land-use rights were inherited through women and which required a man to live with his wife’s family after marriage. Kinship and politics were often inseparable, and women often retained the right to arrange marriages for their children; divorces typically could be initiated by men or women.

During the colonial and early reservation periods, the political authority of Indian women was undermined in a number of important ways. Missionary and government agents tended to encourage patrilineal systems of naming and inheritance and often did not recognize the ways in which women had previously influenced political appointments and decisions. For example, in contrast to the way that many Indian Communities traced inheritance and identity through mothers, the Canadian Indian Act of 1876 denied an official native identity to native women and their children who married men from outside their band; native men who married non-native women, however, suffered no similar loss of identity or recognition.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Indian women in the United States and Canada were subject to federal education policies designed to train native women as domestic servants and housekeepers. Among tribes where women had once carried out all the farming, government programs attempted to teach men to farm, while women were trained in such domestic skills as cooking and sewing.

Despite such misguided policies, many Indian women emerged in this period as influential proponents of Indian rights and policy reform. These women included Sarah Winnemucca, who worked as a scout and interpreter for the U.S. Army in the 1870’s before writing a book and giving lectures to audiences around the country urging public support for her people, the Northern Paiutes. In the early twentieth century, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin wrote books and articles based on her experiences as a Sioux and devoted much research, writing, and public speaking to issues important to Indian people throughout the United States. Other influential women of this period include writer and administrator Ruth Muskrat Bronson, anthropologist Ella Cara Deloria, and physician Susan La Flesche Picotte.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, many women took part in Indian-related activism, such as the Trail of Broken Treaties, the stand-off with the FBI at Wounded Knee, and the occupation of Alcatraz. Although women tended to be less prominent than men in such activities, many women who took part in them went on to become especially influential leaders. One such woman was Wilma Mankiller, who in 1985 became the chief of the Cherokee Nation. Increasingly, native women are being elected to tribal councils and are filling other politically important roles as policymakers, judges, and lawyers.

In the twentieth century, Indian women leaders have been most concerned with issues that pertain to both men and women in Indian communities. Their identities as Indian people—or as members of particular Indian communities—have tended to take precedence over identities as women. Since the 1970’s, however, native women have begun to organize politically around concerns specifically identified with Indian women—including their representation in tribal politics, problems with domestic violence, health care, and access to legal services. The Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was formed in 1978; many other native women’s organizations have been formed since, both national and local.

Although the polar stereotypes of Pocahontas and lowly squaw continue to survive in non-Indian thinking, they have been continually challenged by Indian women. The stereotypes have also been challenged by a growing body of scholarship and writing, which increasingly is being produced by Indian women themselves.

Bibliography

Albers, Patricia, and Beatrice Medicine, eds. The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indian Women. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1983. A volume of essays offering diverse perspectives on Plains women. The essays cover topics such as women’s work, the persistent biases of outside observers, and historical changes in Plains Indian women’s lives.

Allen, Paula Gunn, ed. Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native North American Women. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1989. An anthology of works written and told by native women. Informative introduction by Allen, who has written widely on native women’s literature.

Anderson, Karen L. Chain Her by One Foot: The Subjugation of Women in Seventeenth-Century New France. New York: Routledge, 1991. A study of how Huron and Montagnais women responded to Europeans, particularly Jesuit missionaries, and how religious conversion involved dramatic changes in beliefs about women.

Bataille, Gretchen M., and Kathleen Mullen. American Indian Women: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland, 1991. An extensive annotated bibliography of writing and films pertaining to North American Indian women, including more than 1,500 citations.

Bataille, Gretchen M. and Kathleen Mullen Sands. American Indian Women: Telling Their Lives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. Much can be learned about native women’s lives from their autobiographies, but it is useful to know something about the context in which these autobiographies were produced. This guide to native women’s autobiographical narratives includes an annotated bibliography.

Underhill, Ruth M. Papago Woman. 1936. Reprint. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979. The life story of a Papago (Tohono O’odham) woman with particular skills as a healer, born in 1845. Includes songs, stories, and descriptions of tribal life.

Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. A fictional portrayal of nineteenth century Sioux women. Written in the 1930’s by a Sioux historian and anthropologist who devoted her career to combatting popular stereotypes of Indians.

Devens, Carol. Countering Colonization: Native American Women and the Great Lakes Missions, 1630-1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. A study of the diverse ways in which women among the Ojibwa, Cree, and other tribes of the Great Lakes region responded to and were affected by colonization.

Katz, Jane, ed. I Am the Fire of Time: Voices of Native American Women. New York: Dutton, 1977. A wide-ranging collection of material, including songs, prayers, and essays, from various tribes and historical periods.

Powers, Marla N. Oglala Women: Myth, Ritual, and Reality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. A study of Oglala Sioux women, past and present, illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Emphasizes the central role of women in Sioux myth and cosmology and women’s perspectives on the important changes in their lives.