NA women weren't drudges

The other day I picked up a book that I bought while on vacation almost two years ago. I have many books, and buy ones just about everywhere I go. I think I keep Amazon.com in business, and love the convenience of being able to look at books not always readily available locally, and have them delivered to my doorstep. I can look through them, and read reviews from others , which is VERY helpful.

The reason I picked up this particular book is that it was about King Phillip's War. The war is a glossed over part of American history, but was the first major conflict between the new tenants (the Europeans), and the Pequot tribe. I am a Pequot, among other things. The Pequot were held by the Narragansett as prisoners for the British, so there is a mix in my blood. Many of the local tribes there intermixed...but I digress.

The book began by saying things that I know not to be true. There was a Puritan man named Roger Williams who lived near the Narragansetts and spent much time with them learning their ways and customs. He learned their language, and was the first to write it down. He was not liked well by the Europeans, because he would tell them how they needed to be more like the "Indians of the region". One of the things he mentioned was how surprisingly clean they were. How neat their villages, and how they used whatever they had to accent their clothing and hair.

The book I had picked up remarked on how dirty the Natives were and how they disgusted people in their initial meetings because of it. The author was speaking about Algonquin tribes and the only thing he got right was that some of them had haircuts we now call "Mohawks". They were not dirty, nor disgusting, if they were, the Puritans must have been filthy for Roger Williams to tell them they needed to be clean like the Narragansetts.

The book went on to say how the men basically laid around all day unless they were hunting, and that they weren't very good hunters. Not only were they good hunters, but the Europeans were amazed at how strong and healthy they were. They weren't obese, but lean and trim, strong and fast. They had deer, and other animals, fish, and many plant varieties available to them. They were the inventor's of succotash (another Narragansett word).

The second part of that was that the women were the drudges and did all the work. The women did a lot of the work, but so did the men, the work was divided pretty evenly. The women in these societies were not drudges, but quite the opposite.

The women were the bloodline. It was a matriarchal society. The held ownership of camp areas, and goods. The ran the household yes, but they also were in a society that didn't view women as having a minor role at all. The women were allowed to be sachems (Tribal leaders), and led war parties. They did everything the men did, even hunted from time to time. There were absolutely no limits to their roles. The cooked, hunted, drummed, and led the tribes. Not very "drudgelike" at all. This doesn't mean they didn't do the housework so to speak, but they were not restricted to traditional female roles by the tribes.

Women sachems or squaw sachems (squaw is NOT a derogatory word, it is an Algonquin word for a women of certain age) were able to pass leadership through them, but leadership could not be passed through the male bloodline, like father to son.

I follow my lineage as closely as I can, there are missing pieces, and the way to the answers for me is going to require a trip to RI, and CT. That will happen someday as I want to pass that information down to my daughter. My mother used to joke when I was angry that I must have been a descendant of The Saunk squaw Quiapin (you will find her name spelled many ways), who was a war leader in King Phillip's War.Maybe I am....I doubt I would be that lucky, but I do have the sachem/war leader attitude, I will admit.

 There was also the Squaw Sachem Wetamoo who ran the largest Pocasset village Mattapoiset. It was the main center of the Pocasset tribe. Awashonks was another female leader, she was of the Sakonnet tribe in Rhode island. The Narragansetts, Pequots, Sakonnets and Pocassets, were all part of the Algonquin tribes (New England) area. There were even more female leaders of these tribes, and others in the area, including a brother and sister team.

There were women and war leaders in areas outside the New England area, and today there are opportunities for female tribal leaders all over the US. Women were never given a "lower class" standard in Native American life.

The book did mention Quiapin but right after the sentence on women being "drudges". As the book went on with more misinformation, I did something I have never done to a book before in my life. I dumped it in the trash. How could I possibly trust this man's interpretation of the Pequot War (King Phillip's War), when he didn't even understand basic tribal structure.

There is enough misinformation out there today. People think women cannot take certain roles in NA society, or that "squaw" was a bad word (it was used as a derogatory word by the French, and is still seen as such, but it is an Algonquin word that simply means young woman).  We need good references out there, and information that is not tainted by a man who is in no way Native, not apparently a student of the Algonquin people. All he had to do was read some papers from the 1600 and 1700's to know that.There is much historic paperwork FULL of firsthand knowledge.

Be wary of books. Make sure that you are getting good information from reliable sources when you are reading non fiction. The New Age counter especially, is full of books that are full of something else too. It is a ripe field already covered in manure.

We have to be so wary these days of the information passed to us. Please also remember that tribal differences were great, and no tribe is right or wrong. Never say something is "Native American", say it is "Navajo", or "Cherokee" because what was a rule in South Carolina, may have been completely opposite in Maine. No one tribe's way is right or wrong, it is just what it is.
The females of the Algonquin nation are proud of the roles of their female leaders in war and in peacetime. Do not degrade them to the female roles of other tribes or cultures.

Read GOOD books!



Peshaui Wequashimese





(C)2012 Dr R M Wolf. May not be used, copied or reproduced without prior written permission