Indians in America

Archeological findings indicate that the First Americans migrated from Europe, Africa and Asia to the Americas a million to 25,000years ago. The oldest human bones discovered in the United States were remains of women. Bones found in western Minnesota have been dated at least 11,000 years ago; those found at Laguna Beach, California 18,000 to 15,000 years ago, and bones found in Midland, Texas date from 19,000 to 15,000 years ago. People in these migrations followed animals and food.
As with all other known cultures, the First American myths of the creation of humans assert that the creation of woman either came before or is simultaneous with the creation of man. The Navajos in the Sante Fe region relate that the first woman was created when two clouds met in the west and the first man when two clouds met in the east. The Iroquois story involves Sky People. The first person to descent to earth was a pregnant woman who bore a daughter, who later has a son, perhaps fathered by Turtle or the North Wind. The Shawnee in Kentucky believed a goddess called “Our Grandmother” had created the universe and everything in it. She was an old woman with grat hair. (Niethammer. P.243) But whatever the legend, in each tribe women and men had special qualities and sensibilities, each dependent on the other.
Archaeologists W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear tell the history of the Mississipians whose culture flourished about 700 A.D. to 1500 A.D. Their trade routes went from Montana to Florida. They built earth structures 100 feet high – one of the best examples is in Cahokia, Illinois. They domesticated corn which became about 90 per cent of their diet. Surpluses of this food led to a population explosion. Villages grew to centers of 10,000 or more people. To produce more food they cut down huge tracts of trees, overhunted and then faced devastating weather conditions about 1100 A.D. which lasted for centuries. Malnutrition and wars ensued, leading to defensive walls around villages 12 to 15 feet high. The skills of the Mississipians which ultimately led to their decline included making lace from combed cottonwood seeds which was as fine as the lace made by the Belgians.
A conservative estimate places as many as 120 million people living between Panama and the North Pole when Columbus arrived. Within 100 years, 90 percent of the First Americans were dead from disease and European-sponsored tribal warfare according to Kathleen Gear.
The Europeans found many established customs that were quite foreign and unexpected. Some tribes encouraged or expected women to marry as soon as menarche to insure virginity. Other tribes permitted young women much freedom in sexual relationships; women could begin friendships with men and choose the mate pleasing to them. In most tribes, however, marriage was a group decision.
Some tribes were matrilocal and matrileal; the man joined the wife’s family. Examples include the Navajo, Iroquis, Mohegan, Delaware and Creek tribes. Blood descent was traced through the mother. In matrilineal societies, a wise, experienced woman was the leader of each extended family. Child care was often a group responsibility. In the Hopi language, the same word meant mother and aunt.
In child care, considerable freedom was granted to small children. Pride was the paramount tool used to establish acceptable behavior. The Menominee (Great Lakes

tribe) threw a little water on a crying child “to wash away its troubles.” Hitting a disobedient child would make it deaf and foolish in Indian wisdom. “Only white men are capable of such barbarities,” they said. Punishment was often withholding of food, and in many tribes any punishment was meted our by someone other than the child’s parents. It was felt that a girl who was whipped might become a mother who whipped her own children.
Some matrilocal and matrilineal social arrangements restricted activities of mothers-in-law, who were forbidden to have anything to do with their sons-in-law. They were not even to look at them. Of course the mothers-in-law had to peek to see which man to avoid.
In all known tribes, menstration was a period of isolation for women. This might have been because of the awe with which women’s reproductive ability was held, or could have been because of the common fear of blood, or could have been a form of discrimination by the men, or it could have been a way of stressing change in the female role. It may also have been a welcome rest time for the women.
Indian women generally were gatherers, planters, harvesters, cooks, tanners, tailors, potters, weavers, home builders and principal childcarer. Indian men were the hunters and warriors. In their assigned roles women sometimes owned the raw materials, houses, meat and skins (after the men did the killing.) Therefore, even when aged, the widows were highly sought after as wives.
An exception to the more commonly found role assignments occurs in the Hopi, Zuni and Pueblos cultures where men did not hunt. They were the farmers, perhaps because water had to be carried to maintain their irrigation systems. The men grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins and melons. They seem also to have been entrusted with some weaving. The women were in charge of preparing food, housekeeping, pottery making and basket weaving.
Basket weaving seems to have been exclusively women’s realm. Remains of baskets have been found that are at least 9000 years old. Navajo baskets were often used in trade; they have been uncovered a thousand miles from their origin. (Terrell p.80) After the Spaniards introduced sheep and goats, the Navajo women were owners of these flocks, and used the wool in their weaving.
The earliest pottery found dates from 300 B.C. As an assurance of good products, the Apache women remained sexually continent during the entire process of making a batch of pottery. Production of pottery could take several days.
Exceptions to customary sex roles were not unknown. Navajo women could do anything they had ability to do. Women in some other tribes had ability and either need or desire to hunt, fish or even join war parties as scouts or warriors or nurses. The Blackfoot Indians of Alberta called such women “manly hearted.”
Some women served as peace makers or preventors of war. In the Iroquois matrilineal society women selected the chief (sachem) and if not satisfied with his leadership, could replace him after three warnings. A decision to replace an incumbent would be delivered to him by the matron of his lineage. Iroquois women often owned fields, crops and houses.
The Natchez tribe had a very unusual arrangement for government. The rulers were a Male Chief Sun and a Female Sun who was his mother. Suns were a class, followed by Nobles and Honored People, and Stinkards. The Male Chief had to marry from the Stinkard group. This meant that when his wife became mother, she entered the ranks of the powerful after the death of her son.
Indian women engaged in many sports. They were enthusiastic and skilled swimmers, horse riders and sledders. Wrestling bouts and foot races were popular. The winner, however, could be the object of jealousy if she were too outstanding, and this was not tolerated well by the community. Balls were made from hide stuffed with grass or animal hair; shuttlecocks were made from duck feathers. Both were used in games. Hockey was a popular sport; women often traveled quite far from home for games between tribes. The nuns who arrived with the Spaniards in the Southwest thought these games were signs of irresponsibility; they confiscated balls so the women would have to pay more attention to their home duties. Quieter games included dice and other games of chance.
Medical skills, commonly attributed to medicine men, were also practiced by women identified as possessors of supernatural powers. Women doctors used herbs in dosages which had passed the test of time. In some tribes women learned skills from their husbands and could practice after menopause if the husband had died. In the Yurok tribe in northern California, all doctors were women. They had a long training period and when fully qualified were well paid and accorded high status. Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries noted that Indians frequently bathed in rivers and streams. Sweathouses were utilized for cleanliness and also as medical remedies.
The status of First American women varied considerably among the tribes and through thousands of years. In some tribes women were sold; some tribes captured women in battles and raids. There were instances of girl infanticide. Polygyny and polyandry can be found in some tribes. Generally speaking, life for women was hard, but no harder than for the men. In some respects they had more freedom and respect than their counterparts in any European country. For example, divorce was easier for the First Americans. Men could leave their wives, or women could tell their husbands to leave. Children stayed with their mother or with her family. The bride price, a show of economic achievement, did not give the husband the right to sell, injure or kill his wife.
When European explorers arrived they found some women in leadership roles. In May, 1540, Fernando de Soto was entertained by a chieftess at Cutifachique. After a week of her hospitality, he seized her and some of her slaves and forced them to accompany him as a guarantee of protection from other Indians. Two weeks later she escaped. Apparently the Cherokees are descendants of these Indians. In 1584 the English in Virginia encountered a “queen,” married to an Indian “king,” who was always accompanied by 40 or 50 “ladies-in-waiting.”

Bibliography for Indians in America andFirst American Meet Europeans

Beard, Mary. On Understanding Women. New York: Longmans, Green and Co. 1931

Bullough, Vern L. The Subordinate Sex. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1973

Diner, Helen. Mothers and Amazons. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books. 1973

Niethammer, Carolyn. Daughters of the Earth. New York: Macmillan Publ. Co. 1977

Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty’s Daughters. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.

1980Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. 1971

Rowse, A.L. “New England in the Earliest Days,” in “American Heritage.” August,1959

Terrell, John U. and Donna M. Terrell. Indian Women of the Western Morning.Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books. 1976

Wertheimer, Barbara. We Were There. New York: Pantheon Books. 1977