Indigenous Women In North American Culture

Women in Indigenous cultures have always been uniquely shaped by European culture as well as their own. Indigenous women have had plenty of resistance techniques to help them cope with European culture. One technique, used near the beginning of the encounter of Europeans, was for women to lock themselves in their homes at night so the European men would not force themselves on to the women. The men, who came to Canada at the beginning of the encounter, often came by themselves and were lonely, which meant the women of the Indigenous culture were often prayed upon to satisfy the men. The other factor with this is women who were enslaved by the Indigenous cultures were sent to prostitute themselves to the men who arrived in the new world. (Canada

was formed in 1867) Indigenous women’s work was also exploited. The work such as their basket weaving and other activities that they typically did pre-encounter were used to make money, but more so for the vendors back in Europe than the Indigenous women. Even their style of cooking changed as the they became more reliant on European goods. Their way of making such goods changed as new ingredients were being used. The introduction of flour, sugar and other important baking goods changed the way they made bread.

Indigenous women particularly were influenced by European culture when they became involved with men of a European background. Many times, when an Indigenous woman became involved with the man of said background their children would be sent back to Europe for schooling because that is where the better schools were, especially, around the time of confederation and before. As schools in North America became better known, children would be educated in the schools in North America. Education would be one of the most intrusive ways, in which, the government implemented European lifestyles on Indigenous people. That being said, these institutions would include day schools and Residential schools. Residential schools being the more intrusive because the children were removed from their families. Girls and boys would be separated from each other at the schools, (in both cases, day schools and Residential schools). However, Residential schools were more likely to implement this strategy because it was easier for them to succeed at this practice where the children were removed from their homes and lived at these

schools. Girls were expected to learn household tasks such as sewing, cooking cleaning along with the basic instructions in education that would have been taught at public schools. This, at least, was the idea, but in reality, instruction on domestic duties for girls was focused on much more than anything else. This was because they wanted the Indigenous women in future generations to be more civilized or in their (governments) minds be more like the rest of the people now living in North America (in other words live up to European standards). Boys and girls were forbidden to speak their own languages and forbidden to talk to siblings. This left many Indigenous people without their culture and when they returned to their communities were often ostracized for not knowing their customs. The hard part about this is, it is like they did not really fit anywhere now because they lost their own culture, but also did not know enough about European culture to fit in there, either.
One of the other most intrusive ideas in Indigenous culture is the Indian act.

In many ways, this act singles out women throughout its history. Women did not have a choice to become enfranchised in many respects. If, the women’s husband became enfranchised or was a European the woman automatically lost their status, even if, they did not want to become enfranchised. This was written into the enfranchisement act and the Indian act. These laws have now been changed, but women who marry out are often noted as betraying their culture. Women in the Indigenous community have always had issues with how the Europeans view women. Before contact women in Indigenous culture were seen as important and helped run communities, but after contact the views of women changed. Women were seen as the weaker sex and that their place was in the home doing domestic duties, along with raising the children. Men were seen as the bread winners and must provide for their families. These ideal types of people were written into the Indian act showing that the government wanted women and men to play certain roles, which also meant limited opportunities for women. Another factor about the Indian act and the Reserves that were meant for the Indigenous people to live on, is they were often shrunk or moved without permission of the Indigenous population. The Reserves and the housing became a major issue for Indigenous people because the housing was often below standards and lacked basic necessities, (ie safe

drinking water). However, the Reserves were also a source of contention for Europeans, as the lifestyle of the Indigenous population was more barbaric compared to the upscale ideals of Europeans. This led to some major issues, particularly one reserve in Cape Breton, where women were seen using the bathroom wherever they pleased. The prominent European men in the communities did not like this and insisted the reserve be moved. This Reserve did end being moved even though the Indigenous population believed the Reserve was in a good location that provided access to jobs, especially, for women who could get domestic work in the town they had been in. The men also had access to good mining jobs in the town.
Overall women in Indigenous culture were ostracized but found ways of rebelling. They proved that they would not go down without a fight. From the beginning of the encounter to now Indigenous people have had a fight to keep their culture. I think this is evident in the film we watched in class, Club Native. It showed the pressures of moving away and the pressures to marry within the community to keep their culture away. I feel, it is sad that the culture cannot be shared with others, even though so many other cultures are shared with much of the world. Indigenous culture has always been one that is safely guarded and seems to not want to be shared with the outside world. However, having said that it is becoming more common to share, which is in its own way a form of rebellion. The missing and murdered Indigenous women’s movement and art galleries show casing Indigenous art culture are beginning to shed light on the culture, and why it is so important to the Indigenous population.