Description
Book Synopsis Cherokee women wielded significant power, and history demonstrates that in what is now America, indigenous women often bore the greater workload, both inside and outside the home. During the French and Indian War, Cherokee women resisted a chief''s authority, owned family households, were skilled artisans, produced plentiful crops, mastered trade negotiations, and prepared chiefs'' feasts. Cherokee culture was lost when the Cherokee Nation began imitating the American form of governance to gain political favor, and white colonists reduced indigenous women''s power.
This book recounts long-standing Cherokee traditions and their rich histories. It demonstrates Cherokee and indigenous women as independent and strong individuals through feminist and historical perspectives. Readers will find that these women were far ahead of their time and held their own in many remarkable ways.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Cherokee Female Empowerment
1 Elements Empowering Cherokee Women
2 Terms of Endearment: Matriarchy, Matrilineal, Matrifocal
3 Under the Female Sun: Mythologies and Ethos
4 Female Sexuality in Cherokee Matrilineal Society
5 The Labor of Cherokee Women
6 Ghigooie and the Influence of Matrilineal Power
7 Visualizing Cherokee Women and Their Homes
8 A Bushel of Chestnuts for a Petticoat: Barter and Trade
9 Perspective: The Iroquois Great Law and Jigonsaseh
10 Beloved War Women's Authority: Life or Death
11 Ingenuity in Creative Arts: Weaving and More
12 Creating Life: Pleasure and Pain
13 Chiefs' Hospitality Provided by Women
14 Women's Ceremonial Life: Festivals, Dance and Games
Part II: Women of Other Matrilineal Cultures of Eastern North America
15 Sixth through 16th Century: Yucatan, Hispaniola and Cofitachequi
16 Seventeenth Century Women of Powhatan, Manhattan, Delaware and Pocasset
17 Eighteenth Century "Sinicker" Queen, Creek Empress and Canadian Mohawk Lady
18 Nineteenth Century Choctaw Little Blue Hen and Chickie and Chockie's Chickasaw Mother
19 Two Twentieth Century Seminole Female Chiefs
Part III: Enduring Strengths Continue in Post-Matrilineal Era
20 Nineteenth Century Cherokee Cultural Evolution: Legislation, Missionaries, Patriliny
21 Cherokee Women Enduring the Trail of Tears
22 Enterprising Susan Coody and the California Gold Rush
23 The Civil War's Cherokee Female Refugees
24 Institutions in the Absence of Former Matrilineal Networks
25 Suffrage: A U.S. Senator's Mother and a Tammany Hall Heiress
26 Cherokee Women: Preservers of Heritage, History and Language
27 Modern Era War Women: In the Line of Defense
28 Sustaining Ancient Skills and Developing New Arts
29 Great Depression Survivors: A Migrant Mother and a Space Engineer
30 Twentieth Century Female Cherokee Chiefs: Wilma Mankiller and Joyce Dugan
31 Excelling in a Post-Modern World: Poet Laureates, Prima Ballerinas and More
Afterword: Be Indomitable: What Is Cultural? What Is Biological?
References
Index
