Sifters: Native American Women's Lives (Viewpoints on American Culture)

273 Pages·2001·14.78 MB·English

by  Theda Perdue

Sifters
VIEWPOINTS ON AMERICAN CULTURE
Catherine Clinton, Series Editor
Viewpoints on American Culture offers timely reflections for twenty-
first century readers. A sensible guide to knowledge in a scholarly field,
something one can pick up—literally and figuratively—seems to be
facing extinction. Volumes in our series will provide intellectual re-
lief and practical solution.
The series targets topics where debates have flourished and brings to-
gether the voices of established and emerging writers to share their
own points of view in a compact and compelling format. Our books
offer sophisticated, yet accessible, introductions into an array of issues
under our broad and expanding banner.
Long Time Gone: Looking Back at Sixties America
Edited by Alexander Bloom
Sifters: Native American Women's Lives
Edited by Theda Perdue
s i f t es r
Native American Women's Lives
Edited by Theda Perdue
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
20011
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESSsss
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta
Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong
Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City
Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei
Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2001 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sifters : Native American Women's lives / edited by Theda Perdue.
p. cm. — (Viewpoints on American culture)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-19-513080-4; ISBN 0-19-513081-2 (pbk.)
1. Indian women—North America—Biography. 2. Indian women—
North America—History. 3. Indian women- -North America—
Social life and customs. I. Perdue, Theda, 1949- II. Series.
4. Onomastics. 5. Poetics. I. Title.
E89.S454 2001
973'.0497'00922—dc21 00-039950
[B]
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
PREFACE
The role of individuals in history presents a major challenge for the
study of Native American women. The sources are often silent on Native women
both because they are Native and because they are women. When Native women
do appear in the documentary record, they are usually nameless, and even books
devoted to Native history and women's history frequently reflect the sources
by condemning their subjects to anonymity. For a few Native women, how-
ever, we can ferret out enough information to present outlines and interpreta-
tions of their lives. The women whose biographies appear in this volume prob-
ably are not representative of all women in Indian societies; only extraordinary
behavior created a paper trail that is sufficient to reconstruct their lives. By stand-
ing out, they also compromised the corporate ethic that has traditionally gov-
erned Native lives. Nevertheless, their stories reflect their cultures and the his-
torical periods in which they lived. They reveal the diversity of Native Americans
and the common threads that link their histories. As anomalous as they may
be, the lives of these women serve to personalize and feminize the story of Native
America.
Readers who would like to know about many other Native women should
begin with Gretchen Bataille's Native American Women: A Biographical Dic-
tionary (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993), which includes short bibliogra-
phies as well as biographical sketches. Like all editors, I had to be selective in
terms of subjects and authors, and I relied on my own knowledge of the field
vi PREFACE
and of the research that the contributors to this volume were conducting. I tried
to achieve geographical, cultural, and chronological balance, and I sought to
present a variety of women's experiences. Readers must remember, however,
that this volume only scratches the surface. Scholars should consider its brev-
ity to be a challenge to expand further our understanding of women in Native
cultures and histories.
The contributors to this collection represent the diversity of scholarship
on Native Americans. Our fields include history, anthropology, English, and
American Studies. Our experience ranges from positions as museum curators,
professional writers, and journal editors to university professors and adminis-
trators, and many of us have worked for the Indian people about whom we write.
Two contributors are Native themselves, while some others are honorary mem-
bers of tribes. We represent three generations of scholarship. The work of the
most senior was required reading in the graduate programs of most others. Three
contributors have been the students of other contributors. Most of us have at-
tended the same conferences, served on panels together, and read each other's
work. Despite our diversity, we truly form a community of scholars.
Of the many members of the broader scholarly community who have shaped
my ideas over the years, I would particularly like to thank those who helped di-
rectly with this book. Catherine Clinton had the original idea for this collec-
tion, and Susan Ferber made it far better through her careful editing. Rosalie
Radcliffe provided both clerical assistance and the intangible support that comes
from someone who is really interested in your work. Rose Stremlau served as
my research assistant and reminded me of the enthusiasm I had brought to
graduate school when I enrolled nearly thirty years ago. I retain much of that
enthusiasm largely because of graduate students. And so for their conversations,
ideas, and friendships while I worked on this book, I would like to thank Joe
Anoatubby, Victor Blue, Karl Davis, Gary Miller, Anna Smith, and Felicia Wiley.
Finally, my husband, Michael D. Green, has been my best sounding board, critic,
and cheerleader, but most important, he has been a wonderful distraction who
always reminds me that one cannot live by books alone.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina T. P.
March 2000
CONTENTS
Contributors ix
Introduction 3
Theda Perdue
1 Pocahontas: The Hostage Who Became Famous 14
Helen C. Rountree
2 Mar)' Musgrove: Creating a New World 29
Michael D. Green
3 Molly Brant: From Clan Mother to Loyalist Chief 48
James Taylor Carson
4 Sacagawea: The Making of a Myth 60
Donna Barbie
5 Catharine Brown: Cherokee Convert to Christianity 77
Theda Perdue
6 Lozen: An Apache Woman Warrior 92
Laura Jane Moore
7 Mourning Dove: Gender and Cultural Mediation 108
Dee Garceau
viii CONTENTS
8 Gertrude Simmons Bonnin: For the Indian Cause 127
P. Jane Hafen
9 Lucy Nicolar: The Artful Activism of a Penobscot Performer 141
Bunny McBride
10 Maria Montoya Martinez: Crafting a Life,
Transforming a Community 160
Terry R. Reynolds
11 Alice Lee Jemison: A Modern "Mother of the Nation" 175
Laurence M. Hauptman
12 Delfina Cuero: A Native Woman's Life in the Borderlands 187
Phillip H. Round
13 Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash: An American Indian Activist 204
Devon A. Mihesuah
14 Ada Deer: Champion of Tribal Sovereignty 223
Nancy Oestreich Lurie
Further Reading 243
Index 249
CONTRIBUTIONS
DONNA BARBIE is professor of humanities at Embry-Riddle University in Daytona
Beach, Florida. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies at Emory Univer-
sity. Her North Dakota upbringing shaped her interest in Native women and
the West, which ultimately led to her major work, The Making of Sacagawea: A
Euro-American Legend (1996). Other publications and presentations centered
on Native women have included "Disney's Pocahontas: Mythic Revision or Re-
inforcement?" "Perpetuating the 'Myth of Male Dominance': The Work of Con-
temporary Lakota Women," and "The Impact of Colonization upon Traditional
Lakota Women." Her research interests include popular culture, advertising, and
nonverbal communication.
JAMES TAYLOR CARSON is assistant professor of history at Queens University in
Kingston, Ontario. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, and
he is author of Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from
Prehistory to Removal (1999). The recipient of a Pew Foundation Fellowship,
Carson has published essays in Ethnohistory, Agricultural History, and other jour-
nals and anthologies.
DEE GARCEAU holds a Ph.D. in American civilization from Brown University
and currently serves on the history faculty at Rhodes College in Memphis, Ten-
nessee. She teaches courses on the American West, Native American history,