Gender roles in First Nations and Native American tribes

This article concerns the "traditional" gender roles of various Native American and Canadian Aboriginal tribes. They vary greatly from region to region and from tribe to tribe, and in some cases even from band to band within a tribe or First Nation. Generally, however, traditional Native gender roles become more polarized as one moves westward or southward on the North American continent, and more egalitarian as one moves northward or eastward.

Aleut

Algonquians

In the traditions of the Algonquians, a more or less egalitarian view of gender roles is taken. Chastity and marital fidelity are emphasized as honourable aspects of character, for both men and women. Historically, certain Algonquian bands were noted for the stability of their conjugal unions, as opposed to their serially monogamous Iroquoian neighbours, whose marriages were often short-lived. The responsibility of caring for young children was shared between both parents to a greater extent among the Algonquians than among most other native groups.

Among the Ojibwa and Menominee, both in the past and on present-day reserves/reservations, agricultural activity is often based on the collaborative work of married couples. For example, the harvest of "manoomin" (wild rice) is done by couples in special canoes (traditionally made of birch bark, although in recent years some aluminum ones have begun to appear). One spouse, the "poler", pushes the canoe with a directional pole, while the other, the "knocker", sits or stands in the canoe and thrashes the rice against the rim beam (a process which can garner 200 kg of rice daily). The partners may take turns at knowcking and poling, since poling is harder.

The Tidewater and Chesapeake tribes, although they spoke an Algonquian language, culturally shared less commonalities with other Algonquians. They were culturally closer to Southeast Indians, and had a gender-based division of labour more akin to that of the Southeast tribes.

Apache

Although the traditional Apache had different adult gender roles for men and women, the skills of both were taught to both boys and girls. They all learned how to cook, follow tracks, skin leather and sew stitches, ride horses, and use weapons. This was done because the Apache realized that new and unforeseen situations would require that gender roles change over time in order for the tribe to survive and adapt. [100 Native Americans Who Shaped American History, Juettner, 2003.]

Athabascans

Athabascans, also known as Athapaskans or (Na-)Dene, are patriarchal and patrilineal. During the 16th through mid-19th centuries, among the Athabascans in Alberta, married women were the first to go hungry if food was not available, [Waldman & Braun] and in the early trading era were often expected to carry burdens of meat or furs on their backs. According to historian Carl Waldman, the Chipewyan (Denesuline) Athabascan women were "at the mercy of their husbands", and their lot was probably worse than the women of any other aboriginal tribe.

These connotations heavily load the word "Chipewyan" to this day. In modern rural Canada it can be a synonym for "chauvinistic", as in "That chipewyan husband of hers won't do anything around the house". It also carries connotations of "savagery", due to Cree accounts of cannibalism among 17th-century Chipewyan. For these reasons, the word is often considered offensive even when used about the actual Denesuline tribe, and is rarely used in self-reference. It is known as the "C-word" and has been compared to the U.S. "N-word". The word "Denesuline" now replaces "Chipewyan" in all official texts, although the latter word persists in some placenames, such as Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

California Indians

Crow and Hidatsa

Great Basin (Uto-Aztecan) tribes

Inuit

Gender roles vary widely among the Inuit. Early Inuit were likely very pragmatic and had few preconceptions concerning "appropriate" male and female roles. Over time, various views of gender were developed, for example:

*In the Baffinland Inuit settlements of the Frobisher Bay and Pangnirtung areas, "traditional" gender roles and ideologies are strikingly similar to (and, in fact, have been influenced by) those of late 19th-century and early 20th-century Britain.

*The Greenlanders and Caribou Inuit are very egalitarian with regard to gender.

Homosexuality is almost universally frowned upon throughout the Inuit cultural region.

Iroquois or Haudenosaunee

Although different roles were traditionally assumed for males and females, they overlapped to a significant degree. The Great Law of Dekanawida gives approximately equal rights to each sex. The chief was always male, but was elected by women.

Up until the middle of the 19th century, serial monogamy was common among the Iroquoians. Although adultery was frowned upon, divorce and remarriage were not. Due to the Iroquois matrilineal system, children usually stayed with the mother rather than the father, if divorce occurred. Most divorced mothers quickly remarried. ["A History of the Native Americans", passim.]

Kiowa

Osage

The Osage, although considered patriarchal like all Siouans, did not have rigidly defined gender roles. During the 18th century the care of corn and squash crops was done primarily by women, although men also participated, and men's participation in the growing of these crops increased greatly during the 19th century. When the Osages sent expeditions onto the plains for trading and bison hunting; the expedition groups were composed largely of men, but women were frequently found in the groups as well, according to contemporary writings of the French who traded with them.

Pacific Northwest Coast

The wide variance in gender roles between Pacific Northwest coast tribes has been a subject of sociological study for a century and a half, as is their unique history of having gone directly from hunting-and-gathering to commerce and exploration, without first learning farming.

The Haida are matriarchal or matrilineal, whereas many other Pacific Coast tribes are patriarchal, or patrilineal. The Kwakiutl are considered bilineal.

It was erroneously thought by many 19th-century anthropologists that the Kwakiutl were becoming more patrilineal as time went on, but studies of history show that the opposite was in fact taking place. (Some early anthropologists subscribed to the now-disproven hypothesis that all societies move from matriarchy to patriarchy as they advance.)

Pueblo Indians

The Pueblos and Hopi are matrilineal, i.e., descent is reckoned and property inherited through the maternal line. Men do most of the agricultural fieldwork, except for corn planting which is a community event in which both men and women participate. The native Pueblo religious system was dominated by men, as was the tribe's political system. [A History of the Native Americans, 2001.]

Spanish records and native traditions indicate that when the pueblo settlements were being built (during the 15th to 18th centuries), the work was done by both sexes: framing of the poles was the man's role in pueblo-building, but the mixing of plaster and the concretion of walls were done by females.

ioux

The Sioux are patriarchal and have historically had highly defined gender roles. In the 19th century, a number of ritualized customs pertaining to gender were recorded among the Sioux, e.g. that the women were to walk five feet behind the men in processions (among the Lakota), and that men customarily harvested wild rice whereas women harvested all other grain (among the Dakota or Santee). [Jonathan Periam, Home and Farm Manual, 1884, likely citing USDA brief on "Wild Rice".]

Homosexuality is accepted by many Sioux, as part of the "two-spirit" concept.

Yumans

Zuñi

References