Warriors, builders, farmers, hunters and craftswomen;
these are the roles played by native American women throughout their history. Being a mother is not the only mission women were entitled for, they were considered the source of life and support for the whole tribe.
In early times, women used to participate in hunting buffalos, afterwards, they were responsible for skinning, cutting and cooking animals. They were hard workers, they built houses for families of the tribes.[1] It was thought that a woman has wisdom and intuition, hence, she is the counselor of the tribe.
Women in Native American Mythology:
A female was considered sacred in the native American culture; she was even considered the source of the world.
The Iroquois people, or the Haudenosaunee[2] – “People of the Longhouse”, who are considered a league of different native American tribes believe that: “In the beginning there was no earth to live on, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a woman who dreamed dreams. One night she dreamed about a tree covered with white blossoms, a tree that brightened up the sky when its flowers opened but that brought terrible darkness when they closed again. The dream frightened her, so she went and told it to the wise old men who lived with her, in their village in the sky.
„Pull up this tree,“
she begged them, but they did not understand. All they did was to dig around its roots, to make space for more light. But the tree just fell through the hole they had made and disappeared. After that there was no light at all, only darkness. The old men grew frightened of the woman and her dreams. It was her fault that the light had gone away forever. So they dragged her toward the hole and pushed her through as well. Down, down she fell, down toward the great emptiness. There was nothing below her but a heaving waste of water and she would surely have been smashed to pieces, this strange dreaming woman from the Great Blue, had not a fish hawk come to her aid. His feathers made a pillow for her and she drifted gently above the waves. But the fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own. He needed help. So he called out to the creatures of the deep. ‘We must find some firm ground for this poor woman to rest on,’ he said anxiously. But there was no ground, only the swirling, endless waters. A hell diver went down, down, down to the very bottom of the sea and brought back a little bit of mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dived down again for more. Then the ducks joined in. They loved getting muddy and they too brought beaks full of the ocean floor and spread it over the turtle’s shell. The beavers helped – they were great builders- and they worked away, making the shell bigger and bigger. Everybody was very busy now and everybody was excited. This world they were making seemed to be growing enormous! The birds and the animals rushed about building countries, the continents, until, in the end, they had made the whole round earth, while all the time they sky woman was safely sitting on the turtle’s back. And the turtle holds the Earth up to this very day[3]. – Native American Myths and Legends[4]”
Women in Native American marriage system:
It is astonishing to know that native American society, before the European invasion, was acquainted to sexual freedom. Young people used to have sex outside marriage system and it was upsetting for the European missionaries to encounter sexual diversity, freedom and reconciliation with homosexuality in the native American societies.[5] At the beginning of their invasion to the Americas, European were indignant because of what they considered the neglect of the sacred bond of marriage, as native Americans did not consider marriage to be permanent, it was built on mutual consent, it was not considered to be the permission to have sex, moreover, polyandry and polygamy, i.e.; women can have many husbands and men can have many wives, such a situation startled Europeans and they decided to uproot it.[6]
This sexual diversity is founded mainly on the cooperative system of the native American tribes; whoever can do anything should do it, no female roles and male roles, it was not accustomed to have a quarrel over the “I’m the man” issue.
Female inheritance in Native American Culture:
Prior to interaction with European conquerors, several Native American cultures were matrilineal, it was women, rather than men, who passed on clan membership to their children. After marriage, husbands left their household and joined their wives‘ families.[7]
[1] http://theamericanhistory.org/role-native-american-women.html
[2] https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iroquois
[3] https://www.crystalinks.com/namcreationwomen.html
[4] https://www.amazon.com/American-Legends-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0394740181/ref=sr_1_4?adgrpid=1333708960657603&hvadid=83357004036778&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=154522&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83357693546310%3Aloc-187&hydadcr=16903_10517259&keywords=native+american+stories+myths+and+legends&qid=1656831123&s=books&sr=1-4
[5] https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lgbtqheritage/upload/lgbtqtheme-nativeamerica.pdf
[6] https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/7/5/1106420/-Indians-101-Native-American-Marriage
[7] http://theamericanhistory.org/role-native-american-women.html
