Gender roles in First Nations and Native American tribes
Encyclopedia
This article concerns the "traditional" gender role
s of some of the Native American
, Canadian First Nation and Aboriginal peoples
, and the Indigenous peoples of North America
. The roles vary greatly from region to region and from tribe to tribe, and in some cases even from band to band within a tribe or people. Pre-Columbian era
gender role traditions may be a historical heritage, and not in contemporary practice.
had different adult gender roles for men and women, the skills of both were taught to both boys and girls. They all learned how to cook, follow tracks, skin leather and sew stitches, ride horses, and use weapons. This was done because the Apache realized that new and unforeseen situations would require that gender roles change over time in order for the tribe to survive and adapt.
tribe (Athapaskans) of Athabascan
speaking people, are patriarchal and patrilineal. During the 16th through mid-19th centuries, among the Dene in Alberta
, married women were the first to go hungry if food was not available, and in the early trading era were often expected to carry burdens of meat or furs on their backs. According to historian Carl Waldman, the Chipewyan
(Denesuline) Athabascan women were "at the mercy of their husbands", and their lot was probably worse than the women of any other aboriginal tribe.
. Early Inuit were likely very pragmatic and had few preconceptions concerning "appropriate" male and female roles.
Over time, various views of gender were developed, for example:
In the Iroquois
culture up until the middle of the 19th century serial monogamy was common among the Iroquoians. Although adultery
was frowned upon, divorce and remarriage were not. Due to the Iroquois matrilineal system, children usually stayed with the mother rather than the father, if divorce occurred. Most divorced mothers quickly remarried.
, was part of the Navajo Nation
society, a "two-spirit
" cultural role. The renowned 19th century Navajo artist Hosteen Klah
(1849–1896) is an example.
, although considered patriarchal like all Siouans, did not have rigidly defined gender roles. During the 18th century the care of corn and squash crops was done primarily by women, although men also participated, and men's participation in the growing of these crops increased greatly during the 19th century. When the Osages sent expeditions onto the plains for trading and Bison
hunting; the expedition groups were composed largely of men, but women were frequently found in the groups as well, according to contemporary writings of the French who traded with them.
has been a subject of sociological study for a century and a half, as is their different history of having gone directly from hunting-and-gathering to commerce and exploration.
The Haida are matriarchal or matrilineal, whereas many other Pacific Coast peoples are patriarchal, or patrilineal. The Kwakwaka'wakw
are considered bilineal.
It was erroneously thought by many 19th-century anthropologists that the Kwakwaka'wakw were becoming more patrilineal as time went on, but studies of history show that the opposite was in fact taking place. (Some early anthropologists subscribed to the now-disproven hypothesis that all societies move from matriarchy to patriarchy as they advance.)
Of the inland Ktunaxa people, or "Kootenai tribe," the early 19th century person Kaúxuma Núpika
lived a third gender role of the culture, beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of homosexuality.
s and Hopi
are matrilineal, with property inherited through the maternal line. Men do most of the agricultural fieldwork, except for corn planting which is a community event in which both men and women participate. The native Tanoan religious system, unlike Hopi mythology
, was dominated by men, as was the tribe's political system.
Spanish records and native traditions indicate that when the Pueblo
settlements were being built (after those of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples
during the 15th to 18th centuries), the work was done by both sexes: framing of the poles was the man's role in pueblo-building, but the mixing of plaster and the concretion of walls were done by women. Hopi pueblos
are said to have been built by men and women working together, although whether they followed this cooperation of labor is obscure.
Among the Hopi, unlike in many other tribes, the arts of weaving
and leatherwork were not confined to women, but were done by men as well. Many Hopi husbands made moccasins for their wives, sometimes from the skins of jackrabbits they collected in hunting.
A third gender role of Lhamana
(Ihamana), beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of homosexuality, is accepted by many Pueblo peoples, as part of the "two-spirit" cultural role. The 19th century Zuni person We'wha (1849–1896) is an example.
are patriarchal and have historically had highly defined gender roles. In the 19th century, a number of ritualized customs pertaining to gender were recorded among the Sioux, e.g. that the women were to walk five feet behind the men in processions (among the Lakota), and that men customarily harvested wild rice
whereas women harvested all other grain (among the Dakota
or Santee
).
A third gender role of Badés, beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of male or female homosexuality, is accepted by many Sioux
, as part of the "two-spirit" cultural role. The 19th century Crow people Osh-Tisch
and Pine Leaf
are examples.
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s of some of the Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, Canadian First Nation and Aboriginal peoples
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
, and the Indigenous peoples of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The roles vary greatly from region to region and from tribe to tribe, and in some cases even from band to band within a tribe or people. Pre-Columbian era
Pre-Columbian era
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
gender role traditions may be a historical heritage, and not in contemporary practice.
Apache
Although the traditional ApacheApache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
had different adult gender roles for men and women, the skills of both were taught to both boys and girls. They all learned how to cook, follow tracks, skin leather and sew stitches, ride horses, and use weapons. This was done because the Apache realized that new and unforeseen situations would require that gender roles change over time in order for the tribe to survive and adapt.
Dene – Athabascans
The DeneDene
The Dene are an aboriginal group of First Nations who live in the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dené speak Northern Athabaskan languages. Dene is the common Athabaskan word for "people" . The term "Dene" has two usages...
tribe (Athapaskans) of Athabascan
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
speaking people, are patriarchal and patrilineal. During the 16th through mid-19th centuries, among the Dene in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, married women were the first to go hungry if food was not available, and in the early trading era were often expected to carry burdens of meat or furs on their backs. According to historian Carl Waldman, the Chipewyan
Chipewyan
The Chipewyan are a Dene Aboriginal people in Canada, whose ancestors were the Taltheilei...
(Denesuline) Athabascan women were "at the mercy of their husbands", and their lot was probably worse than the women of any other aboriginal tribe.
Inuit
Gender roles vary widely among the InuitInuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
. Early Inuit were likely very pragmatic and had few preconceptions concerning "appropriate" male and female roles.
Over time, various views of gender were developed, for example:
- In the Baffinland Inuit settlements of the Frobisher Bay and Pangnirtung areas, "traditional" gender roles and ideologies are strikingly similar to and have been influenced by those of late 19th-century and early 20th-century Britain.
- The Greenlanders and Caribou InuitCaribou InuitCaribou Inuit, Barren-ground Caribou hunters, are bands of inland Inuit who lived west of Hudson Bay in northern Canada's Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, now the Kivalliq Region of present-day Nunavut between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W...
are very egalitarian with regard to gender.
Iroquois or Haudenosaunee
Although different roles were traditionally assumed for males and females, they overlapped to a significant degree. The Great Law of Dekanawida gives approximately equal rights to each sex. The chief was always male, but was elected by women.In the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
culture up until the middle of the 19th century serial monogamy was common among the Iroquoians. Although adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
was frowned upon, divorce and remarriage were not. Due to the Iroquois matrilineal system, children usually stayed with the mother rather than the father, if divorce occurred. Most divorced mothers quickly remarried.
Navajo
The third gender role of Nadle (meaning "one who is transformed" or "one who changes"), beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of homosexualityHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, was part of the Navajo Nation
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
society, a "two-spirit
Two-Spirit
Two-Spirit People , is an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg. It describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native...
" cultural role. The renowned 19th century Navajo artist Hosteen Klah
Hosteen Klah
Hosteen Klah was a Navajo artist and medicine man. He documented aspects of Navajo religion and related ceremonial practices. He was also a master weaver.-Background:...
(1849–1896) is an example.
Osage
The OsageOsage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
, although considered patriarchal like all Siouans, did not have rigidly defined gender roles. During the 18th century the care of corn and squash crops was done primarily by women, although men also participated, and men's participation in the growing of these crops increased greatly during the 19th century. When the Osages sent expeditions onto the plains for trading and Bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
hunting; the expedition groups were composed largely of men, but women were frequently found in the groups as well, according to contemporary writings of the French who traded with them.
Pacific Northwest Coast peoples
The wide variance in gender roles between Pacific Northwest Coast peoplesIndigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are now situated within the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S...
has been a subject of sociological study for a century and a half, as is their different history of having gone directly from hunting-and-gathering to commerce and exploration.
The Haida are matriarchal or matrilineal, whereas many other Pacific Coast peoples are patriarchal, or patrilineal. The Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw
The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...
are considered bilineal.
It was erroneously thought by many 19th-century anthropologists that the Kwakwaka'wakw were becoming more patrilineal as time went on, but studies of history show that the opposite was in fact taking place. (Some early anthropologists subscribed to the now-disproven hypothesis that all societies move from matriarchy to patriarchy as they advance.)
Of the inland Ktunaxa people, or "Kootenai tribe," the early 19th century person Kaúxuma Núpika
Kaúxuma Núpika
Kaúxuma Núpika, also called Qangon, Bowdash, and the Manlike Woman, was a Kootenai person who lived in the early 19th century....
lived a third gender role of the culture, beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of homosexuality.
Puebloan peoples
Of the Puebloan peoples, the TanoanTanoan languages
Tanoan is a family of languages spoken in New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.Most of the languages – Tiwa , Tewa, and Towa – are spoken in the Pueblos of New Mexico and were the ones first given the collective name Tanoan, while Kiowa is spoken mostly in southwestern...
s and Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
are matrilineal, with property inherited through the maternal line. Men do most of the agricultural fieldwork, except for corn planting which is a community event in which both men and women participate. The native Tanoan religious system, unlike Hopi mythology
Hopi mythology
The Hopi maintain a complex religious and mythological tradition stretching back over centuries. However, it is difficult to definitively state what all Hopis as a group believe. Like the oral traditions of many other societies, Hopi mythology is not always told consistently and each Hopi mesa, or...
, was dominated by men, as was the tribe's political system.
Spanish records and native traditions indicate that when the Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
settlements were being built (after those of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples
Ancient Pueblo Peoples
Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...
during the 15th to 18th centuries), the work was done by both sexes: framing of the poles was the man's role in pueblo-building, but the mixing of plaster and the concretion of walls were done by women. Hopi pueblos
Hopi Reservation
The Hopi Reservation, or simply Hopi, is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Arizona Tewa people, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, in Navajo and Coconino counties of Arizona, USA. The site in north-eastern Arizona has a land area of 2,531.773 sq mi and as of the 2000 census had...
are said to have been built by men and women working together, although whether they followed this cooperation of labor is obscure.
Among the Hopi, unlike in many other tribes, the arts of weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
and leatherwork were not confined to women, but were done by men as well. Many Hopi husbands made moccasins for their wives, sometimes from the skins of jackrabbits they collected in hunting.
A third gender role of Lhamana
Lhamana
Lhamana is the traditional Zuni gender role, now described variously as mixed-gender or Two-Spirit, for men who lived in part as women, wearing a mixture of women's and men's clothing and doing a great deal of women's work as well as serving as mediators...
(Ihamana), beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of homosexuality, is accepted by many Pueblo peoples, as part of the "two-spirit" cultural role. The 19th century Zuni person We'wha (1849–1896) is an example.
Sioux
The SiouxSioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
are patriarchal and have historically had highly defined gender roles. In the 19th century, a number of ritualized customs pertaining to gender were recorded among the Sioux, e.g. that the women were to walk five feet behind the men in processions (among the Lakota), and that men customarily harvested wild rice
Wild rice
Wild rice is four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain which can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China...
whereas women harvested all other grain (among the Dakota
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
or Santee
Santee
Santee may refer to:Places:* Santee, California* Santee, Nebraska* Santee, South Carolina* Santee River in South Carolina* Santee Education ComplexPlumbing:...
).
A third gender role of Badés, beyond contemporary anglo-american definition limits of male or female homosexuality, is accepted by many Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
, as part of the "two-spirit" cultural role. The 19th century Crow people Osh-Tisch
Osh-Tisch
Osh-Tisch was a leading badé of the Crow Nation. Osh-Tisch translates as "Finds Them and Kills Them". Badés, males living as females, such as Osh-Tisch held such an esteemed place amongst the Crow that when an American agent jailed them and forced them to get masculine haircuts in the late...
and Pine Leaf
Pine Leaf
Pine Leaf was a woman and chief of the Crow tribe who counted coup in the 1830s. She is described in the autobiography of James Beckwourth as well as in Edwin T. Denig's chronicle on the tribes of the upper Missouri River....
are examples.
See also
- Native Americans in the United States – Gender roles
- Two-SpiritTwo-SpiritTwo-Spirit People , is an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg. It describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native...
- Two-Spirit Identity TheoryTwo-Spirit Identity TheoryThe expression Two-Spirit "reflects a traditional Indigenous peoples worldview that asserts that all aspects of identity including sexuality, race, gender, and spirituality) are interconnected and that a person’s experience of sexuality is inseparable from experiences of culture and community" The...
Sources and further reading
- Two-Spirit Bibliography