Winona, the Child-Woman (Sioux folktale)

Author: Traditional Sioux

Time Period: 1851 CE–1900 CE

Country or Culture: North America

Genre: Folktale

Overview

The story of “Winona, the Child-Woman” is a traditional American Indian folktale retold by pioneering Sioux author Charles Alexander “Ohiyesa” Eastman (1858–1939) in his 1907 book Old Indian Days. Eastman’s version of the story was informed by traditional legends and oral mythology common to the Santee Sioux tribe of Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota. Eastman was born in a traditional Sioux village in 1858; he then became one of the first American Indians trained as a physician in American universities. Eastman was also a prolific writer and one of the first to translate traditional Sioux legends and traditions for audiences of white readers. In his autobiography From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916), Eastman wrote that he wanted to convey “the soul of the Indian” to his readers.

Matasopa has loved Winona since the time he saw her in her lakeside parlor among the pines. But he has not had much opportunity to speak until on such a night, after the dances are over. There is no outside fire; but a dim fire from within the skin teepees sheds a mellow glow over the camp, mingling with the light of a young moon. Thus these lovers go about like ghosts.

Old Indian Days

“Winona, the Child-Woman” focuses on the lives of women living in pre-reservation era Sioux villages, specifically describing the differences in behavior between men and women in relation to courtship rituals. The principal character, Winona, has just reached marriageable age. Eastman uses her story to describe the typical lives of young women within the Sioux villages and how they behave when young men begin to court them. Through her story, Eastman explains the function and virtues of the traditional behaviors ascribed to Sioux women, contrasting these behaviors with women in white culture. Within this folktale, Eastman provides another example of womanly virtue in the story of Dowanhotaninwin, a Sioux maiden who creates peace between the Sioux and the Sac and Fox tribes by marrying a young warrior from the rival tribe, even though Sac and Fox Indians were responsible for the death of her parents.

Among the Sioux, the name Winona is often given to the firstborn female child of a family, and the name is therefore common in the history and mythology of the tribe. In addition to the stories within Old Indian Days, there is another common story among the Sioux, known as “Princess Winona,” in which the protagonist leaps to her death from an outcrop of rock over Lake Pepin—located along the Mississippi River, close to St. Paul, Minnesota—because her family refuses to allow her to marry her “true love.” The rock formation over Lake Pepin is called Maiden Rock in honor of Winona’s story.

“Winona, the Child-Woman” touches on a variety of themes related to feminism, gender roles, and courtship rituals. Winona is a maiden behaving in a traditional manner and observing the proper customs expected of women in Sioux culture; she is described as having found fulfillment and love through this process. Simultaneously, the story touches on other aspects of Sioux life, including the spiritual relationship with “the Great Mystery” and the power and influence of nature on the lives, physical attributes, and behavior of the Sioux people. Through “Winona, the Child-Woman,” readers gain an understanding of the ways in which Sioux women participated in the continuation of their culture and gain some understanding of how the traditional roles of men and women were perpetrated through the society’s myths and folktales.

Summary

Eastman’s 1907 collection of Santee Sioux folktales, Old Indian Days, is divided into two sections. The first covers the lives and traditions of Sioux men, while the second, called “The Woman,” explores the lives of women in the Sioux tradition. “Winona, the Child-Woman” follows the related story of “Winona, the Woman-Child,” which provides background and cultural information helpful in understanding the folktale. The first Winona tale, (“The Woman-Child”) describes the upbringing and socialization of a child in the Sioux culture, while the second (“The Child-Woman”) tells the story of a woman reaching adulthood and creating a new family through marriage.

In Winona, the Woman-Child,” readers are introduced to a newborn whom the mother has decided to name Winona, a traditional title given to the firstborn female child of a family. However, Eastman describes how the name carries significant honor and that those who have the name are expected to be “charitable, kind, helpful; all that an eldest sister should be!” (Old Indian Days 172–73). Eastman further explains that, even if the parents wish to bestow this name on their child, the child must display qualities in keeping with the name if the name is to be considered permanent. The young Winona is therefore called by the individual name of Tatiyopa (173). Throughout the story, the young Tatiyopa is trained in the traditional tasks and roles expected of Sioux women. She also receives instruction in “proper ways of behavior.” Tatiyopa’s mother tells her that she “must have a good heart, be patient, and speak but little. Every creature that speaks too much is sure to make trouble” (177–78).

“Winona, the Woman-Child” ends with the acknowledgement that Tatiyopa has successfully embodied the qualities of her name and that most in the tribe now refer to her as Winona in honor of her charitable and kind nature. This story sets up “Winona, the Child-Woman,” which expands on female life in Sioux culture, focusing on the period in which the young women prepare to marry and start a family of their own. As the story opens, Winona and her childhood friend Miniyata are sitting in a small forest clearing, between a birch and pine tree. Eastman provides a poetic description to set the scene: “The sky is blue overhead, peeping through the window-like openings in a roof of green leaves” (181).

As explained in the preceding story, the young woman Winona is the eldest female child of her family and must have embodied the characteristics of the name such that the members of the tribe have accepted it as her designation. Eastman explains that women of Winona’s age begin to seclude themselves from the other members of the tribe, especially from men, and spend more time alone in the surrounding forest or with a close female friend. During this period, Eastman states, a young woman is “expected to develop her full womanly qualities” (181).

At the beginning of the story, Miniyata and Winona are in the process of making moccasins. Winona, like all Sioux women, is expected to be skilled in making clothing, and the process of making moccasins for the men of the tribe is among a woman’s most prized qualities. Eastman also describes the traditional dress of the Sioux women, who typically wear doeskin robes and take great care in fashioning outfits that are attractive, but reserved and unostentatious. While in the forest clearing, Winona and Miniyata also practice the sacred dance and songs.

Winona and Miniyata are interrupted in their singing by the sight of two young Sioux men approaching on the lake in a canoe. Winona and her friend resume their needlework, remaining modest despite their curiosity about the young men who approach with a freshly killed deer. The young men chance upon Winona and Miniyata in the clearing. They acknowledge each other silently, after which the men hurry toward the village. The young men are later identified as Matosapa, a young warrior who has become entranced by his brief meeting with Winona at the lakeside, and his “brother-friend” Brave-Elk.

Eastman follows with a detailed description of the lives of young women among the Sioux, delving into the particulars of their dress and customs, as well as their expected behavior among other women and in the company of men. Particular attention is paid to the notion that men are expected to dress and behave in ways that will attract women, while the women must remain modest in both dress and manner and must always attend to their duties of keeping home and family—making clothing, cooking, and caring for children.

The reader is told that Winona has attended her first “maidens’ feast,” making her eligible for marriage. What follows is a detailed description of the Santee Sioux courtship customs, during which a man must seek out a woman’s attention, attempting to engage the young woman in private conversation. The woman only needs to respond to the man if she is interested. It is made clear that a woman is permitted the freedom to accept or reject the courtship of nearly any man she chooses. Both men and women attend dances in the summer evenings, where men woo women by singing and giving “love-calls,” while the women respond with demure laughter and smiles.

Matosapa begins his courtship by visiting Winona at night, while her family is sleeping. With the help of his friend Brave-Elk, Matosapa sneaks into the family teepee and into the private room within where Winona stays. There, he awakens her and “tells his love in a whisper” (191). Though she shares his feelings, Winona does not reply, as it is custom that the woman leaves the suitor not knowing whether his feelings are reciprocated. Over the following year, Matosapa must seek out Winona’s attentions whenever the situation permits, but he must not make a show of his courtship in public. The pair must speak privately, though they will often be accompanied by their best friends, acting as chaperones. The couple must speak to one another in whispers “so that even these chaperons do not hear” (189).

After Winona accepts Matosapa’s attentions, Eastman describes how a young Sioux couple will retreat into the woods alone, for periods of up to a week or more, and will consummate their relationship away from the village. When they return from this “honeymoon” period, the marriage will be publicly announced. The bride is then ceremoniously delivered to the husband’s family, carried on a “travois” and bearing gifts donated by all members of her clan, which she distributes among her new family. The final stage in the ceremony is a period of feasts, prepared by the families of both the bride and the groom and attended by members of the clan and friends within the community.

Having concluded the story of Winona’s transition from childhood to womanhood, Eastman next tells the story of another maiden, Dowanhotaninwin (Her-Singing-Heard), to “illustrate the womanly nobility of nature” (193). Dowanhotaninwin’s parents were killed in a tribal clash against the Sacs and Foxes, another group of American Indians in the traditional Sioux homeland. Though she is described as beautiful and possessing many womanly virtues, Dowanhotaninwin refuses all attempts at courtship from within her clan until she nears thirty years of age, a rarity among Sioux women.

The Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes are brought together by white men, “Commissioners of the Great White Father” (194), for the purpose of forming a truce with both tribes. During this time, Dowanhotaninwin is courted by a young man from the Sacs and Foxes and, to the distain of many young Sioux men, accepts the advances of the Sac and Fox warrior and joins their tribe. The young Sioux warriors are incensed and want revenge, but Dowanhotaninwin’s grandfather explains that the young woman abhors violence between the tribes and has taken this opportunity to form a bond that will lead to a lasting peace. In Eastman’s explanation, Dowanhotaninwin draws on her strengths, as a woman representative of the tribe, to secure the peace she wants for her people. She wins the respect of both tribes and becomes an example of the highest feminine virtues.

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