Keith Tyler

Native North Americans

Essay 1

November 3 1998

Annie Mae Aquash is a woman beyond categorization. Her abilities cover the range of characteristics from masculine to feminine. She acts as a midwife (Crow Dog, 162) and is a diligent homekeeper, feeding, grooming, and washing clothes for the men (186). However she also shows warrior-like tendencies, carrying a gun (192) and earnestly involved in many AIM struggles (190). She is able to rise to leadership levels within AIM as well as other prominent Indian groups (187).

Mary Crow Dog considers Aquash to be a strong woman (4), "a rock to lean on… with a lot of heart" (187). Crow Dog admires Aquash and builds a strong friendship with her, calling her "my best friend" (4). She devotes a whole chapter to her in her book. By this time, Crow Dog is already a rather strengthened woman herself. (She downplays this a lot, but nevertheless it shows that many AIM people respected her. They even give her the name "brave woman" [3]). She finds that her life and Annie Mae's have strong parallels. Aside from both having gone through similar post-60s reservation lives, they both somehow become notable women of AIM.

Crow Dog talks about a lot of women whose strength she admires, such as the "old grandmothers" making solitary political statements (80), and the older women who come up with the idea to storm Wounded Knee (124). As so many of these women have achieved influential status within AIM, it suggests that the strength of women to share "power" with men is widely accepted. In Crow Dog's lamenting of the woman's plight, she does not mention any hostility within AIM toward such women.

This seems curious, given that AIM is described not as a radical but as a traditional movement, in a fundamental and religious sense. Traditional Indian culture depicts women as the hard laborers, while the men are the strong hunters and the leaders. Oswalt suggests that women's work was never done, while the men had it easy, at least while they were at home (Oswalt, 184). In our class however there is a sense that the duties assigned to women gave them such a social importance as to be on an equal level with the men. In Indian society, both "roles" have an equal importance to the survival of the tribe, and therefore it seems both sexes are (were) equally valued.

This starts to change when whites begin to inject the ideas of individual property and wealth into Indian culture. White men (males) seeking to trade with the Indians will seek to carry out their dealings with male Indians (class lecture). In a sense, the decline of women's status within Plains culture comes about as a reflection of the European view of women as inferior - not as a change in their actual ability but as the result of a patriarchal society (white people) making an influence. Europeans even showed disdain for Indian women in their descriptions of them (Oswalt, 180).

Although Indian warrior culture seems to be geared toward patriarchy, we can find evidence of women's significance in the Plains culture. The Lakotas believe that all the life in the world was created by a magical "First Woman" sent from the spirits (Crow Dog, 247). The Crow believe that their creator created the man first, but then created woman which he "liked even more" (Oswalt, 176). Then again, the creator in their story is male. The Crow also determine family lineage based on the maternal line (184).

Mary Crow Dog mentions the existence of "warrior women" in Lakota history (Crow Dog, 66). She does not tell their tales, but from her life it seems that she herself, along with her sister Barbara and women like Aquash, would qualify. Oswalt's sources tell of a kidnapped girl who becomes a chief and a great warrior. Though this might suggest that women were welcome in the society of tribal power, it seems more a case of tomboyishness; this Woman Chief had four wives of her own to do "woman's work" (190).

Another case of gender-crossing are the male 'transvestites,' known as "winkte" to Crow Dog and "berdache" to Oswalt. From class, it seems as if the value of the winktes did not ever diminish in comparison with the women or in contrast to the (standard) men. Their religious value is constant. Perhaps the reality of their being male 'saves' them from the fall they might experience as surrogate women. Oswalt gives a possible explanation for this, by saying that the berdache were seen as a "third sex" in the Plains.

There is a piece that is missing in the material here. The sources and our class lectures touch on two types of sexual crossovers in slightly whimsical and pensive tones, but also a passing fashion. In class we heard that on raids, some warriors took winktes instead of women as companions because they were "better company" in a social sense (class lecture). I'm left wondering, perhaps depravedly, about the sexual relations of these two types. Woman Chief had four wives, but Oswalt does not mention any male relations. Was she simply a spinster, or was it more than that? Also, Crow Dog refers to winktes as "gay people" (Crow Dog, 158; 259). It's not clear whether or not this is a superficial identification (i.e. transvestism, as class lecture and Oswalt suggest it is) or if the terms are really synonymous. I would imagine that evidence of Indian homosexuality would be a significant find, especially in the current climate. It does not seem to be mentioned per se. Crow Dog mentions "lesbian," feminist Indians in the later years (249), but almost implies it is a modern phenomenon.

Crow Dog's narrative shows changes in the modern male Plains Indian, in relation and comparison to women. She insists that the concepts of gender equality which were popularly sought in the 70s are a "white, middle-class thing" (131). But by the time of Leonard's release just a few years later, not only does she find things like the "lesbian ceremony" coming about, but she seems to feel equal to her husband. She has come to terms with her marriage situation, and especially now sees her supporting role to Leonard's post-AIM existence and seems to find it valuable.

Like the trading culture's influence on 19^th century Plains gender relations, Crow Dog's youth experiences with gender inequality come directly from white culture. The missionary school, run by stern Christians, tried to lay shame on her for being friendly with boys (38), and conversely, for being too friendly with other girls (35). She also faces sexual harassment and the see-no-evil mentality that goes with it (41).

The young Indian men Crow Dog meets are caught between traditional "warrior" expectations and a white-oppressed reality. In a sense at this point, the men and women were closer to equal than they were in the trading days. There is no material basis for Indian men to have an elevated status anymore. Most of it then may come, again, from white culture; but contorted in many ways such that it damages women, as is seen in many oppressed cultures. The boys she travels with as a drifter tell her that their position over women is traditional (67). It is their responsibility to protect the women. But their treatment of women is more bullying and selfish. They exert social pressures onto women who do not 'put out' (65). Some are more confident in their powers over the young women and can simply impose themselves onto the women they desire to gain sexual gratification (68). In fact, Leonard Crow Dog gains Mary's hand in much a similar imposing fashion, which she resists and seems to have resented (172).

The history of gender relations in the Plains people's seems to follow a path similar to the introduction of white society's influence on Plains Indian cultures. Before having contact with the Eurocentric world, their culture was a divided-yet-equal structure, where both men and women are valued for the services they provide to the society. When white men introduce the concepts of trade, and of material worth, this balance swings in favor of males, and females fall to a lower status. As government policy begins to affect the Indians, beginning with white settlements and formalizing in the BIA and development of reservations, all Indians drop in status to a point where men's status is meaningless and baseless. This continues to the present day, but since the organizations and revivals like AIM, Indians come into a new-found self respect, and with this comes the respect long due the Plains Indian woman.