Native American women

• TRIBES AFFECTED: Pantribal
• SIGNIFICANCE: Women have held more central and more powerful roles within Indigenous American communities than outsiders have often realized, although in many cases, their power was diminished after tribal contact with Europeans

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

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

The few Indigenous women who have gained widespread attention among non-Indigenous people quite often have been those thought to have come to the aid of settlers. Probably the most famous of such women is Pocahontas, who, according to popular legend, is 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 for their aid to White settlers 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 Indigenous 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 to marriage. Many Huron women 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 Indigenous Americans frequently characterized women as subservient drudges, as poor “squaws” who were abused by the 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 Indigenous women vigorously hauling firewood, planting and harvesting crops, or tanning hides, they erroneously inferred that these women occupied a low social status. 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. Moreover, the work of Indigenous 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 between nations, 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 also responsible for farming, fishing, and gathering wild plant products valued for medicinal as well as nutritional purposes; many Indigenous women also maintained the right to distribute any food, even that procured by men.

Throughout history, Indigenous 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 modern-day Indigenous women less often produce objects such as pots and baskets for use within their own communities, many 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, provide a significant source of income for Indigenous communities as well as a sense of continuity, with designs and techniques handed down among generations of women. Many women have also developed artistic skills in fields not typically associated with Indigenous people—including oil painting, photography, and performing arts such as ballet.

In interpreting early written accounts of Indigenous women’s labor, in addition to considering the possible biases of outside observers, it is useful to consider how perceptions of women as hapless drudges might reflect how women’s lives may already have been transformed by interactions with Europeans. For example, during periods when Indigenous people were trading vast quantities of furs and skins to Europeans, the workloads of many 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 late twenty and early twenty-first centuries, the social problems endemic to many Indigenous communities added to women’s domestic and economic responsibilities, with many rearing families single-handedly. Some researchers have suggested, however, that these 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 Indigenous 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 communities. Many Indigenous communities have also held their most powerful and sacred ceremonies centered around female rites of passage, such as a girl’s first menstruation. Yet, even when 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 peoples in the Southwest, for example, although women have been excluded from many of the most significant religious activities, the most important deities are female. Many Southwestern Indigenous 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 Lakota 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, Indigenous women have responded enthusiastically to Christianity, often blending Christian traditions with Indigenous ones. They have also assumed influential roles in numerous religious revitalization movements that blend Christianity with traditional beliefs and practices. Among those in California, 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, Indigenous women have an ancient history of passing down knowledge and values as storytellers and as family and community historians. Many Indigenous women continue to be especially revered for their formal and informal storytelling. Some have incorporated oral traditions into written literature; writing for Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences, women—including Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Joy Harjo—became renowned novelists and poets. Others, such as Ella Cara Deloria and Beatrice Medicine, made significant contributions to anthropology and history.

Politics and Policies

In precolonial societies, Indigenous women usually had their 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 than 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 Indigenous women was undermined in a number of ways. Missionary and government agents often encouraged patrilineal systems of naming and inheritance, and frequently overlooked the role that women played in influencing political appointments and decisions. For example, in contrast to the way that many Indigenous communities traced inheritance and identity through mothers, the Canadian Indian Act of 1876 denied an official identity to Indigenous women and their children who married men from outside their band; men who married outside their bands, however, suffered no similar loss of identity or recognition.

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

Despite such misguided policies, many Indigenous women emerged in this period as influential proponents of Indigenous rights and policy reform. These women included Sarah Winnemucca, who worked as a scout and interpreter for the US Army in the 1870s before writing a book and giving lectures to audiences nationwide, urging public support for her people, the Northern Paiute people. 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 Indigenous Americans. Other influential women of this period include writer and administrator Ruth Muskrat Bronson (the first guidance officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs), anthropologist Ella Cara Deloria (also called Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ; recorded critical information about Sioux culture and language), and Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte (the first Indigenous American physician).

In the 1960s and 1970s, many women took part in Indigenous-related activism, such as the Trail of Broken Treaties, the stand-off with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Wounded Knee, and the occupation of Alcatraz. Although women tended to be less prominent than men in such activities, many women who participated in them became especially influential leaders. One such woman was Wilma Mankiller, who, in 1985, became the first chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her autobiography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People (1993), outlines her experience. Increasingly in the twenty-first century, women are elected to tribal councils and are filling other politically important roles, such as policymakers, judges, and lawyers. For example, Laguna Pueblo Deb Haaland has served as Secretary of the Interior, and Ho-Chunk Sharice Davids has served in Congress.

Modern Indigenous women leaders have been most concerned with issues that impact both men and women in their communities. Their identities as Indigenous people—or as members of a particular nation—have tended to take precedence over their identities as women. In the 1970s, women began to organize politically around concerns specifically identified with Indigenous women—their representation in tribal politics, problems with domestic violence, healthcare, and access to legal services. The Women of All Red Nations (WARN) formed in 1978, and many similar organizations have since emerged, including the Indigenous Women's Network (IWN), Native Girls Code (NGC), and others.

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