The myth of male dominance throughout Native America presupposes an homogeneity amongst Indian nations that simply did not and does not exist. There were as many, if not more, matrilineal and matrilocal societies wherein women made the important decisions and owned much of the property. This myth is also predicated on the view that the visible presence of male leaders in Indian societies - those who visibly made the decisions in council or in war - somehow negates the position of women, who were leaders in the home and fields, and who exerted immense political pressure on male council members. This is largely because early historians and anthropologists failed to recognise roles of women beyond their European-tainted vision of passivity. Women and their leadership roles were simply made invisible, so much so that today we have scant evidence of female dominance in Native America, beyond that which features extensively in individual Indian nations' oral records.
The apparent masculinity of the warrior societies of the Plains had their female influence. Among the Lakota, for example, female warrior societies stood their ground beside male warrior societies. Sharp War was a warrior among the Cherokee and leader of a women's military society. Among the Piegans, the mistranslated Manly-Hearted Women is better understood as Strong-Hearted Women - a permanent women's warrior society. The Cheyenne fielded a number of strong women fighters in battle, especially against the Americans: the female leader, Buffalo Calf Road comes to mind here.
Away from the battlefield, women of many Indian nations took key roles in political and socio-economic decision-making. Though not a general, as such, Creek Mary was head of state within the Creek Confederacy. This is the Laguna Pueblo scholar, Paula Gunn Allen has to say about the Cherokee, who governed slightly north of the Creek domain:
"Cherokee women had the right to decide the fate of captives, decisions that were made by vote of the Women's Council and relayed to the district at large by the War Woman or Pretty Woman. The decisions had to be made by female clan heads because a captive who was to live would be adopted into one of the families whose affairs were directed by the clan-mothers. The clan-mothers also had the right to wage war, and as Henry Timberlake wrote, the stories about Amazon women warriors were not so farfetched considering how many Indian women were famous warriors and powerful voices in the councils… The war women carried the title Beloved Women, and their power was great... The Women's Council, as distinguished from the District, village, or Confederacy councils, was powerful in a number of political and socio-spiritual ways, and may have had the deciding voice on which males would serve on the Councils… Certainly the Women's Councils was influential in tribal decisions, and its spokeswomen served as War Women and Peace Women, presumably holding offices in the towns designated as red towns and white towns, respectively. Their other powers included the right to speak in the men's Council [although men lacked a reciprocal right, under most circumstances], the right to choose whom and whether to marry, the right to bear arms, and the right to choose their extramarital occupations."
Within the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, a clan mother headed each of the fifty clans. These powerful women formed a council within the confederacy, which selected the males who would hold positions on a second council. The women's council would veto any decision made by the men's council that the women thought contrary to the nation's interests. Clan mothers retained the right to replace any male council member. In another region of the northeast, the Delaware considered the term 'women' to be supremely complementary and generically referred to themselves as such.
Precontact America contained patrilineal/patrilocal and matrilineal/matrilocal societies. Of the latter, family structures centred upon the identities of wives rather than husbands: men joined women's families upon marriage. As the Anishinabe activist and scholar, Mary Oshana, says:
"Matrilineal [nations] provided the greatest opportunities for women: women in these [nations] owned houses, furnishings, fields, gardens, agricultural tools, art objects, livestock and horses. Furthermore, these items were passed down through female lines. Regardless of their marital status, women had the right to own and control property. The woman had control of the children and if marital problems developed the man would leave the home."
Even within the apparently masculine-dominated Lakota Sioux nation, men owned nothing but their clothing, a horse for hunting, weapons and spiritual objects. Women owned homes, furnishings and the like. Under Lakota law, all a woman had to do to divorce her husband was to set his meagre possessions outside the door of their lodge. The discarded husband had no right of appeal.
A woman's wisdom accrues with age; her status strengthens over time. Navajo artist, Mary Morez, has said:
"In our society, the woman is the dominant figure who becomes the wise one with old age. It's a [female] society, you know. But the Navajo woman never demands her status. She achieves, earns, accomplishes it through maturity."
The Lakota anthropologist, Bea Medicine, has added:
"Our power is obvious. [Women] are primary socializers of our children. Culture is transmitted primarily through the mother. The mother teaches languages, attitudes, beliefs, behaviour patterns, etc."
Spiritual traditions throughout Native America further reinforce Native American women's status. There are as many medicine women as there are medicine men, although maybe the women are not as public about their status as many of their male counterparts. There are numerous sacred societies for women, probably more so in the past. Important examples of well-known female spiritual leaders include Coocoochee of the Mohawk, Sanapia of the Comanche and Pretty Shield of the Crow Nation. An example of a female religious society includes the Rain Priesthood of the Zuni and other Puebloan cultures in the Southwest. Still today, the Sioux Sun Dance takes place under the guidance of a Head Woman as well as a Head Man.
Virtually all indigenous religions in North America feature the female presence prominently in their cosmologies. The concept of Mother Earth, though called by different names from nation to nation, is universal. Then there are the Hopi and Navajo's Spider Woman, the Lakota Sioux's White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Iroquois's Grandmother Turtle and Sky Woman, the Hopi's Hard Beings Woman and Sand Altar Woman, the Abanaki's First Woman, the Laguna's Thought Woman, the Cherokee's Corn Woman, and the Navajo's Changing Woman, amongst many others.
© 2002 by Bornali HalderSite, Page and Article © Copyright 2002 by Bornali Halder