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| The Redefinition of American Indian Women in Society by � wetzelbill �I never thought of being anything other than a secretary�. I was sitting in my apartment in Tucson, baking in 105 degrees of desert heat. I couldn�t think of anybody to do for my extra credit assignment in my Gender In Contemporary Society class. I needed to find and interview someone a generation older than me and correlate it to the class articles. My mind was racing. I could call James Welch. Maybe Sherman Alexie�s publicist could help me get ahold of him. Maybe my Uncle Earl would be a good one. But I thought I�d rather use a female. An Indian female. Then I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity. My Aunt Linda Juneau would be perfect. Linda is a middle aged, Blackfeet Indian woman who started college when she was in her 40�s. Just this May she graduated from the University of Montana with a Master�s degree in American Indian Studies. When I initially began asking her questions the quote at the beginning of my article is what hit me the hardest. Many women on Indian reservations feel that secretarial work is about as good as they will ever do. In recent times, we have seen an �Indian Intellectual Renaissance� in Montana: this is being largely headed up by women. Apparently, women have gotten tired of their role in contemporary Indian Society. Women are beginning to redefine themselves despite some of the stereotypes and contradictory influences that come with being an Indian, an Indian-Woman, and an Indian-Woman in the workforce. The dreaded Triple-Threat Oppression that women of skin color have to deal with everyday of their lives. So why did Linda make the change? Why not keep that steady job, be a secretary and trudge through life like the stereotypical noble savage that all us Indians are likened to be. Oh, wait, being a noble savage is a male stereotype. Indian women, or squaws, belong at home, in the teepee, cooking, cleaning, healing sick kids with medicine she got from a medicine MAN. Excuse me while I go beat on my drum, puff on my peace pipe and act spiritual. Linda wanted more. She didn�t want to be the woman who was told �to stay in the back and be quiet�. She didn�t necessarily see herself taking on a leadership role, but it was, and is very evident that over one hundred years of male leadership on the Blackfeet Reservation hasn�t produced much positivity. Your humble writer just hangs his head in shame and wholeheartedly agrees. She had found that her male bosses had always been chauvinistic; a group of misogynists who sexually harassed women back in a time when sexual harassment wasn�t really a term that was used. Especially not on an Indian reservation, where men are men and masculinity takes it�s form in the harshest most narrow minded guises I�ve ever witnessed. I couldn�t imagine how bad it used to be. She would do the bosses work for him, while he, sometimes she, got the credit and definitely the money. Nobody likes to do good work and not get any recognition for it. She remembers a time when Indian women weren�t allowed to have an audience while they competed in basketball, for fear that maybe they might rip a shirt and, heaven forbid, a little skin might show. When they had to play halfcourt, because we all know the delicate creatures that women are and they couldn�t handle running up and down that long court like us men can. I�m picturing the 6�3 University of Arizona Woman�s basketball player in my Nutrition class, who I thought was going to beat me up one day cause I was getting a bit lippy when I was teasing her. She�s feminine, pretty and very much a woman, but I�m thinking she�d stooge slap anybody who ever told her she couldn�t play full court basketball. She almost �Moe Clunked� me while she was wearing a skirt. �Nuff said. The notion of females not being able to compete athletically like men is so stupid it barely warrants mention, except just to show its stupidity. Soon Civil Rights, Woman�s Liberation and the American Indian Movements came to the forefront of the U.S. thinking. Equality, an egalitarian society. �Finally� Linda thought �Somebody knows�. But nobody did know. Not yet anyway. Linda found that these movements and Woman�s Lib didn�t really apply to women living on a reservation way up in the sticks of Montana. Or as she puts it �Who cares about opening a car door for a woman in Browning, Montana.� So Linda waited and waited. Eventually she took some Indian culture courses at Blackfeet Community College. Classes in philosophy, history, and linguistics. Classes in which Linda was beginning to learn who she was, where she came from, and how her people came to be who they are. Education holds an enrichment and when you are looking for definition amidst chaos it can be like healing salve on a painful burn. Being an uncultured heathen until recently myself, I understand how my Aunt was feeling. Linda began to notice she now had a �window of opportunity�. Her kids were grown and nothing was holding her back. She had a chance to go, to have a career, to quit her job, but Linda was still hesitant. Finally, despite her apprehension she decided to go for it. Linda jumped ship and enrolled at the University of Montana in Missoula. It�s true that Indians today still have many challenges to face. We are from places of poor economies, inept leadership and social improprieties. Unfortunately some people still think we have problems with the rain coming down through the holes in our teepees. Some people want to know if we wear different clothes when we go back to our reservations. I told my Aunt that I, personally, have clothes that strip away with one tug to reveal my Powwow costume underneath. One pull on the collar when I hit that reservation line and I�m good to mingle with my people, completely blending in. My U of A hat is reversible into a Warbonnet. Cool, enit? You guys ought to see my new deerskin underwear. Planning on burning a wagon and capturing me a white woman in them later on today. This is from the guy who was asked why I looked so white by a Mexican guy in Gender class last week. Indian women are beginning to take their place in society. We are seeing more women switching gender roles on reservations and becoming leaders. On my reservation alone, we�ve had a Blackfeet woman, named Elouise Cobell, make world headlines for her landmark Indian Land Trust case against the U.S. Government. We are seeing other Indian women, marry into our tribe and make contributions that no man has done. All in all, our Blackfeet women a emerging as our most important asset and their examples may prompt big changes in our tribe in the next several years, in terms of socioeconomics and education reform. Damn onions. I need a tissue: just give me a minute. Linda. Oh yeah, the story. Well, as I am typing this essay, over an hour late for my Nutrition class, Linda is on a plane to Chicago, or maybe she�s arrived already. Point being, she is doing some research there related to her thesis and the work she�s been doing ever since she decided to go back to college and redefine herself. In the last month and a half she�s received her Master�s degree, done cultural work in Yellowstone National Park and now is in Chicago doing what she loves. Not bad for someone who thought she�d never be anything more than a secretary. |
