Native American Women
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Native American Women
On few subjects has there been such continual misconception as on the position of women among Indians. Because she was active, always busy in the camp, often carried heavy burdens, attended to the household duties, made the clothing and the home, and prepared the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, whose labors were never done. The man, on the other hand, sat in the shade of the lodge all day and smoked his pipe, while his overworked wives attended to his comfort. In actuality, the woman was the man's partner, who preformed her share of the obligations of life and who employed an influence quite as important as his, and often more powerful.
Native Americans established primary relationships either through a clan system, descent from a common ancestor, or through a friendship system, much like tribal societies in other parts of the world. In the Choctaw nation, " Moieties were subdivided into several nontotemic, exogamous, matrilineal 'kindred' clans, called iksa." (Faiman-Silva, 1997, p.8) The Cheyenne tribe also traced their ancestry through the woman's lineage. Moore (1996, p. 154) shows this when he says "Such marriages, where the groom comes to live in the bride's band, are called 'matrilocal'...