View source for Native American women in Colonial America

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[[File:PSM V39 D512 Native american women in traditional dress.jpg|thumb|Native American women]]
Before, and during the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial period]] (While the colonial period is generally defined by historians as 1492–1763, in the context of [[settler colonialism]], as scholar Patrick Wolfe says, colonialism is ongoing)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wolfe|first=Patrick|date=2006|title=Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native|journal=Journal of Genocide Research|volume=8|issue=4 |pages=387–409|doi=10.1080/14623520601056240 |s2cid=143873621 |doi-access=free}}</ref> of North America, Native American women had a role in society that contrasted with that of the [[settlers]].  Many women were leaders in [[Native American tribes]]. For example, Cherokee women worked in treaty negotiations with the United States, and women in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy acted, and continue to act, as political leaders and choose chiefs.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Power of Cherokee Women|work=Indian Country Today|url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-power-of-cherokee-women-cguyNX91RE6asAyIQwYheg}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Current Clan Mothers and Chiefs|url=https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/government/current-clan-mothers-and-chiefs/}}</ref> Other women were delegated the task of caring for children and preparing meals; their other roles varied between tribal groups. In many tribes, such as the [[Algonquins]] and the Six Nations that compose the [[Iroquois|Haudenosaunee Confederacy]], women were responsible for tending to the fields while the men were responsible for hunting. There were often long periods in which the men were not present. Thus, women played a major role in the family and exerted significant control over social and economic factors within the tribes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brinkley|first=Alan|date=2014|title=American History: Connecting with the Past 15th Edition|location=New York|publisher=McGraw Hill|page=7{{ndash}}8|isbn=9780073513294}}</ref>
== Life in society ==
[[File:Native American women with basket of huckleberries (3230032308).jpg|thumb|Native American woman at work]]
Life in society varies from tribe to tribe and region to region, but some general perspectives of women include that they "value being mothers and rearing healthy families; spiritually, they are considered to be extensions of the Spirit Mother and continuators of their people; socially, they serve as transmitters of cultural knowledge and caretakers of children and relatives."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Portman|first=Tarrell Awe Agahe|title="Debunking the Pocahontas Paradox: The Need for a Humanistic Perspective."|journal=The Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development|volume=40.2 (2001)|pages=185–99|via=Web}}</ref> Many [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes believed that they originated from a woman, with many of their [[legend]]s and creation stories depict a "mother earth."<ref name=":02">Green, Rayna. Women in American Indian society. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992.</ref> Women were entrusted with overseeing a tribe's agricultural systems, and were responsible for harvesting and cultivating the vegetables and plants for their people. Tribal women like the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquians]] planted their fields meticulously and in a way that kept the land sustainable for future use. After harvesting a tract of land until the soil lacked nutrients to continue, women would be tasked with deciding when and where to clear new fields, allowing the used ones to regenerate.<ref name=":1">Wilson, James. The earth shall weep: a history of Native America. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998.</ref> Women in the [[Iroquois|Haudenosaunee]] tribes often controlled the distribution of food among their people.<ref name=":2">Evans, Sara Margaret. Born for liberty: a history of women in America. New York, NY: Free Press Paperbacks published by Simon & Schuster, 1997.</ref> Their perceived position as beings of spiritual power gave women in some tribes the opportunity to be healers for minor injuries, as men were more commonly [[Shamanism|shamans]], chiefs, and herbalists.<ref name=":2" />
== Leaders ==
Some Native American peoples were known for having women sit in positions of political power beyond simply controlling the food or being "agricultural scientists."<ref name=":02"/> Elder women in the Haudenosaunee tribes gathered in clans to decide who would sit on the tribe or village council,<ref>Graebner, Norman A., Gilbert Courtland. Fite, and Philip L. White. A history of the American people. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York , NY: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1970.</ref> including the appointment of 49 chiefs within the confederacy.<ref name=":32">Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States 1492–Present. New York , NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.</ref>
Women also learned skills in hunting and fishing. Others, such as [[Weetamoo]], the female chief of the Pocasset [[Wampanoag]], led their people in battle.<ref name=":4">Calloway, Colin G. After King Philip's War: Presence and Persistence in Indian New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Brooks|first=Lisa|title=Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2018}}</ref> It was not unusual for women to go into combat. Women would often enter a battle to protect or substitute for their fallen husbands or brothers, and some women earned warrior titles for their participation.<ref name=":02"/> Women who sat as leaders of their tribes, like [[Queen Ann (Pamunkey chief)|Queen Anne]] and [[Weetamoo]], were known for their participation in wars.<ref name=":1" />
== Religion ==
During the colonial period, [[Native American religion]] was heavily integrated in all aspects of Native life, influencing culture, art, history, politics, and economics. Many Natives believed both animals and plants had spirits.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last=Martin|first=Joel W.|title=The Land Looks after Us : A History of Native American Religion|publisher=Oxford University Press, Incorporated|year=1999|location=ProQuest Ebook Central|pages=34}}</ref>
Menstruation was spiritually significant in some cultures. For example, some male hunters among the Shawnee, Creek, Cherokee, and Cree, would avoid contact with any woman who was menstruating during their hunt because a woman is at her most powerful, with the association of menstruating with life force, and this power would disrupt the men's power to kill. Even walking near a woman during this time was believed to impact that killing power the men possessed. During this time, women would stay in hunts away from their village to ensure their power didn't disrupt the regular schedule. This practice acknowledged the power of Native Women within the culture and also allowed for a break from their regular activities and roles.<ref name=":9" />
The Apaches, as well as other Native American people, believed that women have spiritual power, and some respected elder women use their important spiritual and social authority within the tribe.<ref>{{Cite book|last=W.|first=Martin, Joel|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/958521533|title=Land Looks After Us : a History of Native American Religion.|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-972661-5|oclc=958521533}}</ref>
== Gender roles ==
[[File:Iroquois women work.JPG|thumb|Depiction of Haudenosaunee women]]
Traditional gender roles transformed upon European colonization of North America. Before contact with European colonizers, several Native American cultures were [[Matrilineality|matrilineal]], meaning that women, rather than men, passed on clan membership to their children. After marriage, husbands left their household and joined their wives' families.<ref name=":32"/> Historian Katy Simpson Smith described eighteenth-century Cherokee motherhood as a "social, economic, and political institution" which included "not only the relationship between biological mother and child, but also women's broader [[Kinship|kin networks]], their [[Productive forces|productive]] connection to fertile land and economic subsistence, and their political role as mothers of the Cherokee nation." Cherokee acknowledged the prominent role of motherhood in their culture by calling all female relatives "mother."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Katy Simpson |date=2010 |title="I Look on You... As My Children": Persistence and Change in Cherokee Motherhood, 1750—1835 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23523708 |journal=The North Carolina Historical Review |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=403–430 |jstor=23523708 |issn=0029-2494}}</ref> The [[Hopi]] were both [[matriarchal]] and matrilineal, with equalitarian roles in society. Women also participate in Hopi politics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Original ~ Indians.org |url=http://indians.org/ |access-date=2019-12-04 |website=indians.org}}</ref>
In many Native American cultures, although male family members arranged marriages, wives controlled whether or not they wanted a divorce.<ref name=":02"/> In the Haudenosaunee tribes and Cherokee Nation, a woman could leave her husband's belongings outside their door to show that she wanted a divorce.<ref name=":32" />
Upon contact with European colonizers, some tribes adopted a patriarchal system of gender roles that resembled European culture.<ref name=":102">{{Cite journal |last=Weaver |first=Hilary N. |date=2009 |title="The Colonial Context of Violence: Reflections on Violence in the Lives of Native American Women." |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260508323665 |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |volume=24 |issue=9 |pages=1552–1563 |doi=10.1177/0886260508323665 |pmid=18768738 |s2cid=30458055 |via=SAGE Journals}}</ref> In the Cherokee Nation, a series of laws passed by the Cherokee Council over the course of the nineteenth century restricted women's sexual freedom, including the criminalization of abortion. The Council also passed laws which introduced new patrilineal forms of inheriting property and establishing citizenship.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yarbrough |first=Fay |date=2004 |title=Legislating Women's Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3790444 |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=385–406 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2004.0144 |jstor=3790444 |s2cid=144646968 |issn=0022-4529}}</ref> Historian Theda Perdue suggests that changes to Cherokee gender roles were "superficial" before removal, and that the Council's series of bills represented a point of view "limited perhaps to the Cherokee elite who sought to emulate white southern planters."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perdue |first=Theda |date=2000 |title=Clan and Court: Another Look at the Early Cherokee Republic |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1185890 |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=24 |issue=4 |pages=562–569 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2000.0024 |jstor=1185890 |s2cid=162379852 |issn=0095-182X}}</ref>
In the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] tribes, there was the legend of the "Double Woman Dreamer" who behaved in masculine ways and had special powers.<ref name=":2" /> This spurred on the concepts of warrior women or "manly hearted women" who acted like men in hunting and during warfare.<ref name=":2" /> There was the counterpart role for men of the "berdache," a role where a man could dress and take on the responsibilities of a woman.<ref name=":2" /> This designation is also referred to as "[[two-spirit]]" in modern American Indian cultures.
In the [[Apache tribe]], girls are not recognized as a woman until they have gone through the Sunrise Ceremony. The Apache Sunrise Ceremony is a four-day [[coming of age]] celebration that Apache girls experience soon after their first menstruation. Throughout the sacred ceremony, they dance to songs and prayers to fill themselves with the physical and spiritual power of White Painted Woman to embrace their role as a woman of the Apache nation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.webwinds.com/yupanqui/apachesunrise.htm|title=Becoming Woman: The Sunrise Ceremony: Apache Female Puberty Ceremonies in the Apache Tribe|website=www.webwinds.com|access-date=2019-12-04}}</ref>
== Effect of Europeans on Native Women ==
[[File:Pocahontas by Simon van de Passe.jpg|thumb|156x156px|Pocahontas in English garb]]
[[File:Kateri Tekakwitha 1690.jpg|thumb|150x150px|Depiction of Kateri, Lily of the Mohawks]]European immigration came with the effect of territorial claims and forcibly removing Native Americans from their land. Some Native American people welcomed these immigrants, sharing their skills and belongings with the newcomers. Yet immigrants took advantage of Native Americans' hospitality and started building their own nation on top of tribal lands, encouraging more and more Europeans to move to North America and build new towns and homes for their people. Aside from violently evicting many American Indians off their land, the Europeans brought novel diseases, which caused a high mortality rate among the tribes and decreased the birth rate of the Native American people. As the number of Europeans grew bigger, the American Indian population decreased and neared extinction.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/native_american2.html|title=Native American – Removal from their Land – Immigration...- Classroom Presentation {{!}} Teacher Resources – Library of Congress|website=www.loc.gov|access-date=2019-12-04}}</ref>
One of the effects on the Native American women by the onslaught of Europeans was marriage. In many Northeast tribes, native women were used as guides, interpreters, and eventually wives for the fur traders. These marriages appeared to broker an alliance between cultures; however, when the fur traders decided to return to Europe they would abandon their wives, or even pass them on to another trader as property.<ref name=":2" /> The children resulting from these unions were not under the control of the mothers, like they were traditionally in Native American society. Instead, many of these children were sent away by their father to obtain a Christian education.<ref name=":2" />
Some colonists sought to convert the native women involved in these relationships into Christians<ref>Plane, Ann Marie. Colonial intimacies: Indian marriage in early New England. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.</ref> [[Pocahontas]]’ story exemplifies the many marriages that brought alliances between tribes and colonists.<ref name=":5">Perdue, Theda . Sifters : Native American Women's Lives. Oxford University Press, 2001.</ref> A portrait of Pocahontas was made depicting a woman in stiff European clothes, stripped of her native identity.<ref name=":5" /> Some native women converted to Christianity, most notably [[Kateri Tekakwitha]], Lily of the [[Mohawk people|Mohawks]]. Tekakwitha was taught Catholicism from mother, who had been baptized by French missionaries. Tekakwitha converted to Catholicism when she was 19, a decision that elicited scorn and harsh treatment from her tribe.<ref name=":6">Green, Raya. Native American Women. The University of Chicago Press, 1980</ref>
European's sexualization of Native Women and their roles created the "Pocahontas Perplex" coined by academic Rayna Green, that impacts Native Women still today. This ideology represents only three different types of people they can be, one of which is the [[Squaw]] (a derogatory slur). This role has been tied up with an abstract virtue that white men lust after and created a dangerous environment where they are seen as [[Sexual violence against Native American women|sex objects]], thereby excusing violence against Native women then and still today.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Green|first=Rayna|date=1975|title="The Pocahontas Perplex: The Image of Indian Women in American Culture."|journal=The Massachusetts Review|volume=16|issue=4 |pages=698–714|via=Web}}</ref> Before European contact, domestic violence against Native Women was not as prevalent, and what did occur was severely sanctioned. This violence against Native women was shaped by colonization and permits the ongoing violence against them, today.<ref name=":102"/>
== Significant figures ==
Some of the notable women of the time period include:
* [[Queen Ann (Pamunkey chief)|Queen Anne]] of the [[Pamunkey]] Native American tribe rose to her position between 1706 and 1715 in the most powerful tribe of the [[Powhatan|Powhatan Confederacy]]. She came to power after the death of her aunt and previous tribe leader, [[Cockacoeske]].<ref name=":7">Bataille, Gretchen M., and Kathleen Mullen. Sands. American Indian Women Telling Their Lives. University of Nebraska Press, 1984.</ref> The European colonists, only having seen the monarchy in their homelands, called her Queen Anne because of her high ranking position. Upon a request from General Berkeley for warriors from her tribe to be added to soldiers ready to stop [[Bacon's Rebellion]], Anne originally denied them this, on the grounds that her people had been being mistreated for decades by the white colonists. After the governor made promises for better treatment and alliances, Anne agreed to supply warriors.<ref name=":8">Champagne, Duane. Chronology of Native North American history: from pre-Columbian times to the present. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1994.</ref>
* [[Pocahontas]] was the daughter of a well-known [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquin]] chief of [[Powhatan]]. Pocahontas played a pivotal role in the affairs between the natives and the European colonists.<ref name=":5" /> She allegedly saved the life of Englishman [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]], by almost sacrificing herself to be put to death instead of him.<ref name=":5" /> After John Smith returned to England, she married a member of her tribe before being captured in the first [[Anglo-Powhatan Wars|Anglo-Powhatan War]], where she was kept by the English, taught from the Bible and given a Christian name: Rebecca. She later married [[John Rolfe]] and established a time of peace between the Powhatan tribes and the colonists.<ref name=":5" />
* Queen [[Weetamoo]] was a chief of the Pocasset [[Wampanoag]] tribe, succeeding her father. Weetamoo became skilled in hunting, fishing, and swimming, along with learning the tasks and skills of the other women in her tribe. She married five times,<ref name=":4" /> including to the son of [[Massasoit]], who is known for having had the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims, and she kept the alliance alive through her marriage. Weetamoo offered her warriors to fight in [[King Philip's War]], and once led a successful attack on the colonists.<ref name=":8" /> After King Philip was betrayed and the war came to an end, the colonists violently celebrated their victory by beheading King Phillip and other leaders.<ref>{{Citation|title=Front Eulogy on King Philip|date=2001-12-31|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674335486.c74|work=Writing New England|pages=346–355|publisher=Harvard University Press|doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674335486.c74 |isbn=9780674335486 |access-date=2021-12-09}}</ref> Weetamoo tried to escape, fell into the [[Taunton River]], and drowned.
*[[Nancy Ward]], of the Cherokee Wolf Clan in Tennessee, was a significant historical figure known for her title of "Ghighau" or "Beloved Woman" given to her at 18 years old after leading her people to victory after her husband King Fisher went down and turned the tide in the Taliwa Battle of 1755 between the Cherokee and the Creeks. It was said that her entrance into the battle was the turning point that led her people to victory, even with the Cherokee people being outnumbered. The "Beloved Woman" title was the highest honor given to a woman, and the Cherokee held the belief that the Great Spirit used the "Beloved Woman" as a spokesperson to the people. In this role she sat with the Peace Chief and War Chief during council meetings where she would speak out and let her opinions be heard. Nancy Ward held this title for life and played a vital role as the Woman's Council.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alderman|first=Pat|title=Nancy Ward, Cherokee Chieftainess: Dragging Canoe, Cherokee-Chickamauga War Chief|publisher=The Overmountain Press|year=1990}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tucker|first=Norma|date=1969|title=Nancy Ward, Ghighau of the Cherokees|journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly|volume=53|issue=2 |pages=192–300|via=Web}}</ref>
*[[Anne des Cadeaux]], of the Natao (French) and [[Adai people|Adais]] (Spanish) tribe of Louisiana, was the first recorded Native American of her tribe documented by the European settlers. Anne was traded into slavery, but later married Jean Baptiste Brevelle, a Parisian-born trader, explorer, and one of the first soldiers garrisoned at Fort St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches. Jean so loved Anne that he obtained permission from Commandant Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis to marry her. After the publication of three banns, Jean and Anne were married in the Catholic Church. Unlike many other Native "wives" of that era, her marriage and children were recognized by the Catholic Church and French colonial government, as opposed to being treated as slaves. She earned the respect of the European colonists by learning how to read and write and by being fully initiated into the Catholic Church after learning the precepts of Christianity. Anne and her son's baptisms are among the first entries in the oldest Catholic Registry of Louisiana.  Anne is regarded as one of the most well-documented Native American women of early colonial Louisiana.<ref>{{cite book |last=Burton |first=Sophie |date=2008 |title=Colonial Natchitoches. A Creole Community on the Louisiana-Texas Frontier |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |pages=22–38 |isbn=978-1603440189}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mills |first=Elizabeth |date=2007 |title=Natchitoches. Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches in Louisiana 1729-1803 |publisher=Heritage Books Inc. |pages=4–8 |isbn= 978-0931069109}}</ref>
== Notes ==
<references />
== References and further reading ==
* Anderson, Gary C. ''Ethnic cleansing and the Indian: the crime that should haunt America''. Norman, OK: University Of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
* Axtell, James. ''The European and the Indian: essays in the ethnohistory of colonial North America''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.
* Bataille, Gretchen M., and Kathleen Mullen. Sands. ''American Indian Women Telling Their Lives''. University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
* Bataille, Gretchen M., Lisa, Laurie. ''Native American women: a biographical dictionary''. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. 2001
* Calloway, Colin G. ''After King Philip's War: Presence and Persistence in Indian New England''. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997.
* Champagne, Duane. ''Chronology of Native North American history: from pre-Columbian times to the present'' Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1994.
* Carpenter, Delores B. ''Early Encounters – Native Americans and Europeans in New England''. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1994.
* Evans, Sara Margaret. ''Born for liberty: a history of women in America''. New York, NY: Free Press Paperbacks published by Simon & Schuster, 1997.
* Graebner, Norman A., Gilbert Courtland. Fite, and Philip L. White. A history of the American people. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Inc. , 1970.
* Green, Rayna. ''Women in American Indian society''. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992.
* Green, Raya. ''Native American Women''. The University of Chicago Press, 1980
* {{cite journal|last=Martino-Trutor| first= Gina M.| title= 'As Potent a Prince as any Round About Her': Rethinking Weetamoo of the Pocassett and Native Female Leadership in Early America| journal= Journal of Women's History| volume= 27| issue=3 |pages=37–60 |year=2015| doi= 10.1353/jowh.2015.0032| s2cid= 142629136}}
* Perdue, Theda. ''Sifters: Native American Women's Lives''. Oxford University Press, 2001.
* Plane, Ann Marie. ''Colonial intimacies: Indian marriage in early New England''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
* Wilson, James. ''The earth shall weep: a history of Native America''. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998.
* Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States 1492–Present. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.
[[Category:Native American history]]
[[Category:Colonization history of the United States]]
[[Category:History of women in the United States]]
[[Category:Native American women]]
[[Category:Women in agriculture]]
[[Category:16th-century Native American women]]
[[Category:17th-century Native American women]]
[[Category:18th-century Native American women]]