Great Plains Tribes: Gender Roles

The Mississippian Indians lived settled lives as they were organized into chiefdoms, which were a form of a political organization united under a leader and organized by families or differing social rank and class. Social ranking and class served as a fundamental part of their structure as people belonged to one of two groups, the elites or commoners. Many families laid under commoners, where men and women played specific roles in the social organization. The Mississippian indian women were “horticulturalists” who grew much of their food in small gardens and cultivated agricultural plants such as corns, beans, squash, sunflowers, and sumpweed. Traditionally, women would raise these crops and prepare food for daily meals. They would also maintain

The Lakota is a tribe located in the northern plains of America. They are related to the Sioux by culture, Language, and history. The Dakota are also a related tribe to the Lakota. They are known as Teton or also western Sioux. In the 1640’s the Lakota stayed closer to the Sioux. That lived a more sedentary or riverine lifestyle. They relied on products from agricultural resources. They also relied on wild rice. They hunted fish and small deer .

The Bannock tribe was a huge and important tribe with rich history and culture until the building of Fort Hall when the white settlers came, and that eventually led to their destruction.

Indians from the Southwest were farmers. They grew corn , beans , and squash . They also grew melons and peaches . There was very little rain . The Indians of the Southwest dug ditches to collect water for their crops. Some hunted small animals like birds and rabbits . They ate wild turkeys , too. They also had to hunt for them to.

the patriarchal structure within each culture. In the Iroquois narrative, the creator of mankind is a

· The Appalachian culture is dominantly patriarchal. The women and men both of this culture have roles. The males of the family tend to make the major decisions in the family; however the women have a strong influence on the family too. The women are the nurturer of the family and provide care at home. The men also provide the money for the family as they are the ones that usually work and are able to stand on their own.

Think of a creative or descriptive name for this time period. For example, you might call the period before the development of agriculture “Life Before Farming” or “Hunting to Survive.” Make this name the title of your journal entry.

They would teach children the tribe’s history. They also shared stories with the young children. Men and women taught children about Native American art, music, and dance. Both men and women also served as providers of the Native Americans’ medicines. Children had their own jobs too. They would do anything a typical child would do today. They would play outside and also help with chores around the tribe. Both boys and girls would also go to school and play sports. The girls would accompany the women in helping with household chores such as cooking, sewing, and cleaning. The boys would go hunting with the men and also learn how to farm the land to be able to provide for the tribe in the future. (choctawnation.wordpress.com) (World Book)

The Shoshone was a Native American tribe in the western Great Basin in the United States. This tribe was spread into the north and east Idaho and Wyoming. The Shoshone religion was Shoshone rituals. Their population was approximately 8000 members at first, but their population began to increase about 20,000 members. There were three classes in Shoshone tribe, which were the chief and shaman, trading partners, and the servants. The chiefs’ roles were to focus on warfare and hunts. As a result, the Shoshone tribe does fit perfectly into the “tribes” category. On the other hand, the Shoshone tribe is also somehow fit into the “bands” category. The Shoshone tribe was divided into three small bands, which were Eastern Shoshone, Northern Shoshone,

The Sioux tribe was one of the most known powerful tribes living in which they originally came from Missouri in the 1800’s. Not to mention,many things happened when they came to Nebraska. During their early years, transportations are a way for them to follow the path of the buffalos,as a matter of fact, they had horses and built boats to keep them going. For example, they were also known to be farmers as well as hunters. The tribe made an influence on the Westward expansion and made war between the Americans,so many people wonder how the Americans influenced the tribe and where are they now.

How did gender roles define the lives of Native Americans before contact? How did European men react to women’s roles in Native societies? Why did they believe women worked more than men?

The women were very hard working people.They stayed busy all the time.They had to work in farms and and bring back food .The women owned houses that the men built.The women had power over their families.

The cayuga tribe is one of the important neihbars of the cayuga tribe were the other Iroquois nations the Seneca,Onotribe, but once the alliance was formed they were loyal to eah other.

Native’s from all over the country were removed from their homelands and put on smaller pieces of land reserved for their tribe or band. They were forbidden to practice their traditional ways and was forced to survive off of government rations provided once a month. Furthermore, instead of the Natives’ bands owning the land in general the government forced them to be signed allotments for individualism. All of these aspects combined took a negative toll on gender roles in the Native society. The men could no longer hunt or farm as irrigation was difficult and the soil was not fertile. The men could not provide for their families even in the way the Anglo’s had previously forced them to do so. Women were still supposed to go through a series of domestic lessons to learn how to take care of the children and the home. Everyone on the reservations became poor and malnourished as they had to line up once a month to try to get their ration of food for their families (Hudson, Lecture 18). It was demeaning and an insult to the Natives’ sovereignty. As everyone struggled for survival, gender roles within the weak social structure

Women of the Iroquois have a lot of roles in the society such as voting who will be the chief/leader of them; they keep their culture alive, and cook. There are other things women had to do in the Iroquois society.