American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Analyses of gender roles in societies throughout the world have raised questions about the causes of equality or inequality in status and inter-gender relations. Much of the recent research contradicts the often-stated claim that some degree of male dominance exists in all societies. The notion of reputed universal male dominance has been challenged on several fronts. First, most anthropologists have been male and have dealt with male informants in their fieldwork, and ethnographic material has been framed by the gender perspective of observer and participant. Second, historical accounts of earlier cultures are likewise tainted by the attitudes of explorers, missionaries and government officials, all of whom were men. It is well to be reminded of Lafitau’s admonition in 1724 that ”. . . authors who have written on the customs of the [Native] Americans "concerning the rights and status of women ”. . . have formed their conceptions, in this as in everything else, on European ideas and practice." Finally, by the time colonial agents, and later anthropologists, interacted with indigenous peoples, traditional gender relations were already distorted by rapid sociocultural and political changes resulting from colonial processes. Therefore, even the earliest post-contact data are not truly representative of aboriginal society. This paper will examine gender differences in five Native American societies: the Naskapi, Navajo, Eskimo, Iroquois and Plains peoples. We will see the extent to which ecological and social conditions have molded gender roles in Amerindian cultures and the extent to which they have been re-shaped by postcolonial historical forces. We begin with a discussion of societal features bearing on gender relations and then proceed to the analysis of each of the five societies, which were chosen to demonstrate the impact of various factors in different ecological contexts.

INTRODUCTION With his famous words of surrender, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces tribe finally yielded his people's control over their lives and lands: "The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. . . . I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever." The last of the great Indian Wars thus ended with a plea for tribal children; the great war chief hoped his descendants might find peace in the arms of his conquering foe. As the Nez Perces prisoners of war were marched toward Indian Territory, the United States at last held total dominion over Native America. That dominion would not be seriously challenged throughout the ensuing century, as American Indians found their cultural and tribal identity the object of continued assault. But by the age of ethnic awakening in the 1960s, Native Americans in increasing numbers saw their essential problem in the legacy of Chief Joseph's and others' surrender of self-determination. White control seemed a dead end. Such was the heritage that informed a handful of young, urban Indians in undertaking the first, perhaps greatest Native American act of collective rebellion since the surrender: the reclaiming of Alcatraz Island. The nineteen-month occupation that followed was to transform Alcatraz from a defunct federal penitentiary into a potent symbol of American Indian consciousness- or, more precisely, a set of complicated, conflicting, liberating and defining signs of contemporary Native America. Alcatraz quickly became ”our Statue of Liberty,” in the words of a Comanche. ”THE symbolic act of Indian awareness, ” Look magazine dubbed the occupation. In the glow of global publicity on this rocky stage, American Indians claimed much more than a barren and abandoned island; they asserted their shared power and pride in rhetoric and imagery that transcended their immediate claim to the island itself.

The White Earth reservation is located in west central Minnesota. Forty years after it was created as a permanent homeland for all of Minnesota’s Ojibwa (Chippewa) people, most of its land had been legally stolen. Its unusual history has led to unique land claim problems. ”AN EXCEEDINGLY DESIRABLE HOME FOR THE INDIANS” In the seventeenth century, French-speaking trappers and traders began to penetrate the western Great Lakes country. Soon these Europeans came into contact with the Ojibwa population, known among themselves as the Anishinabe (”first people”). By the time the Europeans arrived, the Ojibwa were living in villages, each of which had up to several hundred people. From these bases they pursued a woodlands cultural pattern, hunting and fishing, gathering berries and wild rice. Speaking a language of the widespread Algonquin family, they traded for grain with the Huron-speaking farmers in the south, were loosely confederated with the Ottawa and Potawatomi farther east, and fought the Fox and Dakota (Sioux) who lived to the west. In their marshy environment, the Ojibwa’s trapping skills were valuable to the whites. This had two long-term results. First, the Dakota moved west, with some groups eventually leaving the woodlands altogether. The reasons for this move were complex. In part it may have been due to the fact that the Ojibwa could not obtain guns for use in the frequent battles with the Dakota; also, the long-term demand for buffalo skins which the Dakota could supply also may have played a part. Whatever the factors, the Ojibwa ultimately occupied most of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The Abenaki. By Colin G. Calloway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 112 pages. $16.95 Paper. The Catawbas. By James H. Merrell. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 112 pages. $16.95 Paper. The Narragansett. By William S. Simmons. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 112 pages. $16.95 Paper. The Pima-Maricopa. By Henry F. Dobyns. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 112 pages. $16.95 Paper. The Yuma. By Robert L. Bee. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 112 pages. $16.95 Paper. Anyone interested in increasing understanding of North American Indians should be grateful to Chelsea House Publishers for the high standards they are setting in their series for young adults, Indians of North America. Currently projected at 53 volumes total, Indians of North America is broadly conceived. The series will range from the Eskimo to the Tarahumara, the Aztec, and the Maya. Not all volumes will deal with specific groups. Volumes are scheduled on American Indian Literature, the Archaeology of North America, Federal Indian Policy, Urban Indians, and Women in American Indian Society.