Gender Role In Native Society

Gender as a tool of analysis has been effective when analyzing Native societies. Gender roles in Native society inevitably shaped the tribe or band in which Natives lived in. Matrilineal or patrilineal Native societies controlled the daily operations, social hierarchy, religious influence, and the effects colonization had on that particular society based on the foundation. Using gender as a tool of analysis in Native societies, scholars are able to learn more about Natives because of the affects gender had in the characteristics and foundation of each society. In “Ranging Foresters and Women-Like Men”, A Nation of Women, and “To Live Among Us”, different scholars are able to use gender as a tool of analysis to understand the ways in which

Fur illustrates early on women’s importance as cultural mediators and the establishment of kinship networks by stating, “Women were obliged to provide food for visitors and for hunting and war parties…Feeding and feasting brought people together and ‘set the stage’ for negotiations and arbitration.” This tribe was one of the few matrilineal societies in the north. Women’s’ role of handling food and controlling the production of it showed the ideology of women being the givers of life and men being the takers. However, this society did not focus on gender roles and helped each other when they could, this was uncommon among other groups. Women being cultural mediators and leaders led to issues among the missionaries with conversion. Missionaries were not used to dealing with women who had high status and could not control. Eventually, women’s roles became minimal as colonization forced the binary gender roles on the Lenape. However, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century women in the Western Great Lakes region were able to negotiate their marriages with

Murphy’s reasoning for the conflict was, “One reason that Anglos and Indians were more often in conflict than accord at the mine after the mid-1820s was that they generally had no relationships other than those of neighbors.” Whereas, marriage among Natives and settlers were beneficial to one another with fur trade, there was no contact with mining and the refusal of Natives to conform to gender roles. Native Women were the miners during this time period and native men were busy with other task, this angered English settlers and caused more animosity. Unfortunately, Natives were pushed out of the mines and land. Some Native groups managed to fight and gain back their land