Native American Women
Daily Life Native American women centered their lives around food, clothing and shelter. They:
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| Native women performed so many tasks that to the settlers, they appeared to be slaves. |
For example, the title on this 1880s stereocard is “Women’s rights” followed by the elaboration: “An Indian’s idea of the same. Showing two squaws sitting beside their Teepe [sic], resting after carrying the wood seen beside them . . . while their leige [sic] lords and masters, (the noble red men,) are smoking.”
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Anglo culture did not comprehend the honor, status, and wealth accorded Native American women for their industry and expertise. Nor did they recognize the less visible powers that women held - those of arranging marriages, consulting on peace and war, leading special ceremonies and directing tribe movements.
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| Elaborate clothing and jewelry are signs of status in this “Flathead Beauties” photograph. |
Women work at their everyday tasks of cutting wood and washing clothes. |
This Acoma woman is likely walking back from a watering hole below the mesa top. Several water-fetching trips a day were required in dry pueblo lands.
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Zuni women plant crops in their waffle-style gardens.
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A Pueblo woman and a Crow woman prepare food.
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