The Power and Influence of Native American women
Stephanie Sanchez
Women, Gender, and Rights in US History
Spring 2024
Women play an integral part inside communities and cultures. These roles change depending on
the culture or people. In Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, Ellen Carol
Dubois and Lynn Dumenil explore Native American women’s roles before and after European settler
influences.1 This can be seen in the various tribes of the North American Indigenous peoples. Native
American women’s economic, religious, political, and social roles vary from tribe to tribe and some of
these traditional roles were changed after Europeans settled.
Dubois and Dumenil state, “Women’s economic significance was a common denominator most
indigenous peoples shared.” Throughout the various tribes, it seems as though Native American women
had an impactful role in economics. They oversaw food gathering and production, dressing down hunted
kill and preparing it for consumption, preserving food, creating materials to craft products like fishing
nets, clothing, and household items, prepping items to be sold and traded, and sometimes participated
in the actual sales and barters.2
“Women also had a significant voice in religious activities”, noted Dubois and Dumenil.3 They go
on to explain that their specific titles and roles may change from tribe to tribe, yet they held significant
position when it came to religious activities. In certain areas, Native American women may be
considered healers and other areas they may be religious leaders.4
The greatest voice and power that the Native American women had was in the political realm. In
The Pueblo Peoples section, Dubois and Dumenil discuss how the tribe would base control of land and
ancestry through the female lines. In the tribes, men would leave the familial homes to join in with the
female’s family. The Pueblo women’s political power is truly expressed when the authors said, “…
women dominated the world inside the pueblo walls they had constructed.”5 The authors show how in
the Iroquois Confederacy many clans behaved similarly to that of the Pueblo people. The women also
had the familial powers and oversaw the societal structures. Many families would band together and live
on the same property and there was a chosen women to provide direction and structure.6
Socially Native American women played a huge role in their tribes. This was seen in all the tribes
though it may vary the form of influence it comes from. In the Iroquois Confederacy women were known
to work together in a communal setting and on the same fields as one another.7 Another common social
influence Native American women had was their sexual prowess and freedom. In the Peublo tribes,
women’s sexual power was highly revered as something that created strong relations between the sexes.
It was also a way to create a balance in the universe and tame bad spirits in nature. 8 Dubois and
Dumenil share a passage from a French observer of a group of Algonquians, “A Young Woman, say they,
is Master of her own Body, and by her Natural Right of Liberty is free to do what she pleases.”9 Sexually
and socially, Native American women were free and that freedom was visible to others.
European settlers did have a direct impact on the lives of the Native American people and their
cultures. At the time of invasion, Dubois and Dumenil describe the European women’s role as, “…women
found themselves in subordinate positions …”.10 European settlers brought this concept into the Native
American lands and tribes. Native American people were enslaved into horrible conditions and women
were raped and coerced into relationships with European men. In some cases, women used these
situations to benefit themselves and their people.11 A huge downfall for the Native American people was
the onslaught of disease. In cycles, diseases would run rampant and kill off huge parts of the population,
sometimes leaving tribes so ravaged there was no hope of repopulation within the tribe. As life bringers,
this impacted the remaining women deeply.12 Some of the European cultures tried to push the
respective religion onto the Native American people.13 European settlers destroyed much of the Native
American people, the culture, the land, and the women’s power through usurping, integration, and
disease.
Native American women held strong important roles in their respective tribes. They were
influential for the economy and provided many of the products that would be bartered from scratch. As
religious leaders, these women would be healers and leaders in their tribes responsible for the well
being of the members. Socially many tribes relied on women and the lineage of the women and women
sexually had freedom and power to expand their familial lines. Politically Native American women may
not have had an identified status, they held covert positions of power and had influence in most
decisions. Native American women were strong leaders in their communities, that is, until the European
settlers destroyed it through disease, war, rape, and slavery.
Word Count: 891
1
Ellen Carol Dubois and Lynn Dumenil, Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, 5e (New
York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019), 4.
2
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 11.
3
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 10.
4
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 11.
5
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 7.
6
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 10.
7
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 10.
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 7.
9
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 11.
10
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 11.
11
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 14.
12
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 14.
13
Dubois and Dumenil, Women’s Eyes, 19.
8
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dubois, Ellen Carol and Lynn Dumenil. Through Women’s Eyes: An American History with Documents, 5e. New
York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019