Effects of Colonial Life on Native American Women

Effects of Colonial Life on Native American Women

American-Indian life could be described as different and exotic before the arrival of the Europeans. The culture of American, as described by their norms and values, was unique and different from that of the Europeans, and this led to a lot of complications and confusion as the Europeans tried to settle in the new lands. On arrival of the Europeans who were not familiar and who also misinterpreted the customs and practices of American Indians, the life of American Indians gradually changed as they integrated with the European culture. The social set up of the American Indians gradually changed, and women were one of the groups that were affected most.

As the Europeans tried to dilute the American Indian culture during the colonial times, they introduced what can be described as a new paradigm in the cultural perceptions of the American Indians. A lot of values and norms were lost in the process with some societal roles getting reversed. In this essay, I am investigating how the European culture influenced the American Indian culture, with a narrow focus on women. I believe this is an important part of American history through which we can get a clear picture of the culture of the Native Americans, an ethnic group that has ever since been marginalized and its culture forgotten.

Jaimes Guerrero in his journal Patriarchal colonialism and Indigenism argues that colonialism in combination with patriarchy adversely affected the spirit of feminism and native womanism (Guerrero 59). According to Guerrero, the effect of colonialism and patriarchy on the American Indian women was the erosion of the Indian’s rights as the initial inhabitants of the new lands. Guerrero argues that the impact of patriarchy and colonialism, ‘patriarchal colonialism’ could be described as a double burden for American Indian women who had to deal with the adverse effects of both racism and sexism.

From the context of American Indian history, the actual definition of communalism was distorted by the European definition of tribalism. According Guerrero, communalism is the foundation of Native nationhood that was founded on the lines of kinship.  There were communal models among the American Indians that served to grant women dignity and authority (Guerrero 58). One example of this gender egalitarianism among the American Indians was their policy to involve both, men and women during the negotiation for a consensus and arrive at a decision in the times of tribal wars.

The fact that American Indian women lived longer than American Indian men made the native women enjoy the longevity in their status as elders where they assumed the leadership role of clan mothers. Clan mothers among Native Indians, served the role of determining and distributing roles and responsibilities among their tribe members through reciprocal kinship traditions (Guerrero 60). The native traditions consisted of what Guerrero describe as native nationhood that were different from the modern day nationalism and the current corporate nationalism.  The concept of a community among American Indians held a more profound meaning than it does in the modern day communities. It is from their communities that they found knowledge and strength over and above a mere sense of belonging.

According to a Dakota woman, Theresa Halsey, any family in the Indian American community could attain sustainability as long as the husband effectively assumed the role of a hunter while the wife was industrious. It took equal contribution from both genders hence women were not overly dependent on men (Guerrero 60). In summary, Guerrero tries to demonstrate how among American Indians, roles and responsibilities were shared among both men  and women and how through European colonialism the concept evolved that the woman’s status was diminished and even demonized by some resultant religious denominations.

The second journal is titled Expanding Interpretations of Native American Women’s History by Kiara Vigil. Vigil’s thesis is that colonialism led to the death of traditional feminism concept. In this journal, Vigil reviews the works of various ethnographers like Tadeusz Lewandowski, Susan La Flesche, Patrick Deval, and a film directed by Christine Lesiak and Princella Redcorn. Lewandowski’s Redbird enlighten readers with a clearer perspective of the various cultural models and constraints that the American Indians faced during the colonial times (Portman and Herring 190). Zitkala-sais a Native American in Lewandowski’s [piece who had to directly watch her culture wane off and embrace the European education in order to help herself and her family. Zitkala work contained what can be described as a hallmark of the Red Power concept and the Indigenous struggles with the colonial practices.

Zitkala comes out as part of a bigger story by framing the contributions of the American Indian women. The efforts of American Indian women in attempting to maneuver the assimilation process and the Europeans efforts to control the Native Indian population is in itself an illustration of the resiliency of the indigenous cultures (Portman and Herring 193). In Zitkala-Sa’s biography, we can conclude that women played a significant role as forerunners, activists, as custodians of the Indian American cultures even after embracing European education.

The same is illustrated about Susan La Flesche, another American Indian whose life and times had overlapped that of Zitkala-Sa’s. According to Vigil, both women had European women sponsors and may also have been linked by the public periodicals that went round the country. The introduction of La Flesche gives the impression of what can be described as a strong and bold woman and an illustration of empowered feminism in the American Indian Community (Portman and Herring 195). The author paints a clear picture of how La Flesche as a medicine woman took care of thousands of patients in her community through a combination of Western and Indigenous interventions.

In the narrative about La Flesche’s life, the author uses gender as a main factor and how through the fur trade women and men were able to inter marry and the significance of the unions to the native tribes. As a physician and a member of the Omaha tribe, La Flesche was trapped between two cultures (Portman and Herring 196). Having received financial aid from a colonialist’s organization, La Flesche was torn between her professional obligations after becoming a medical practitioner and personal fulfillment as a woman in the American Indian, Omaha tribe. Like in Guerrero’s Patriarchal colonialism and Indigenism, the author through La Flesche’s biography attempts to demonstrate the influence of colonization on the American Indian culture.

Through La Flesche, we can see the challenges women from the American Indian community went through as a result of the integration of what can be described as two conflicting cultures. The two books, the Red Bird, Red Power and A Warrior of the People are in my opinion a case study of the amount of social pressure and dissonance faced by intellectual natives and particularly women in the wake of the twentieth century (Portman and Herring 198). Most of them were forced to compromise their cultural practices and values in order to effectively blend with the white man’s education and culture.

The third journal is Debunking the Pocahontas Paradox by authors Tarrel Portman and Roger Herring. The writer’s argue that the American Indian community has in, many ways, been misrepresented in on mass media platforms, movies, printed press. According to the authors, the Native Indian women have been impacted by what can be referred to as ‘nonhumanistic’ stereotypes that were developed and perpetuated by popular literature, media, and movies. The Pocahontas Paradox, is a representation of the dilemma faced by the women from the Native American Indian community (Vigil 133). The Pocahontas Paradox is a movement that perpetuated the vilification of the women from the Native American Indian community.

The movement uses political symbolism where women from the Native Indian community played an active role in defending the new lands to what can be described as psychosexual symbolism where the Indian woman falls in love with a European and defends the Europeans’ culture (Vigil 133). In most movies, we can see the Indian woman caught in a cross road where she has to rebel against her own culture to look good, embrace the white man’s culture and in some cases suffer to her death.

According to the article, Native American women were regarded as spiritual mothers and contrary to the narrative, were custodians of the American Indian culture. They were regarded as continuators of their people where they were also supposed to transmit the cultural knowledge other than taking care of their children. We men saw themselves in harmony with not only the biological and the social worlds but with also the spiritual world (Vigil 140). The identity of a Native American Indian woman was therefore defined their extended family tribe and their spirituality.

There is a proverb in one of the Native Indian tribes that asserts that a nation cannot be conquered unless the hearts of the women in the nation are on the ground. This proverb is clear depiction of the significant role and definition the American Indian woman held before the arrival of the colonialists. It is a clear reflection of how strong women were and thus contradicting the Pocahontas Paradox where the Indian American woman is portrayed as gullible and submissive to the European culture (Vigil 136). Indian women’s strength according to the author has been demonstrated through the American Indian oral narratives such as “The Warrior Maiden.”

The authors also support the concept in Guerrero’s Patriarchal colonialism and Indigenism arguing that women played an integral role in the survival of the community. They particularly assumed industrious roles such as agriculture and food preservation, tailoring, and fur trading. Native American Indian women were also given political roles in the community where they were trusted to give guidance on the governance and influence the administrative decisions (Vigil 140). An evidence of this is when Attacullaculla, one of the chiefs involved in the signing of the South Carolina treaty, was angered by the fact that women had not been consulted in the development of the treaty.

In conclusion, we can conclude that the American Indian culture was significantly affected by the Europeans. Patriarchal colonization served to weaken the Native Indian American woman who was once a spiritual figure and the custodian of the American Indian culture. The natives were forced to abandon their culture with the introduction of the white man’s education with strong women who were supposed to uphold the values of society having to choose professionalism over the cultural practices.