From: Debbie Reese <d-reese>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 06:09:08 -0500

Hello all When we first began discussing Birchbark House, I began a post in which I pointed to the female characters and their central positions in the story that Erdrich tells. One reason I am so drawn to this story is the way that Erdrich develops these females, and through them, gives us authenticity in the portrayal of Native women.

In her book Completing the Circle, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve says ?so little is known about the women.? Beatrice Medicine writes that Native women are the
?hidden half? in the writings of traders, trappers, and missionaries.

In history textbooks, and in children?s books, Native women are largely absent. When they are present, it as the drudge - the workhorse - the beast of burden the ?squaw.? Some scholars suggest this is the case because the Europeans who first described Native culture (in journals, letters, etc.) were men. As men who held positions of superiority over women, they applied that perspective to the Native culture. They ?saw? the men, but not the women. They interpreted what they saw through their own cultural filters. Thus, they saw the women as marginal and unimportant. This inability to see Native women as significant members of Native society is evident in books like Sign of the Beaver and Courage of Sarah Noble.

Yet, in traditional Native societies, women held significant positions. Women made key decisions directing the course of events for their tribes. They exercised a great deal of control. Among the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), women selected the males who formed the council that was charged with making decisions on behalf of the confederacy. If one of those males took a position contrary to the best interests of the people, the women who selected him could replace him.

Rayna Green?s book Women in American Indian Society, and Bataille and Sands 1994 book American Indian Women Telling Their Lives contain valuable information about the roles of women. For example:

-- Humor was an important central characteristic that tempered the burden of responsibility women bore individually and collectively.

-- They were repositories of tradition and concern for spiritual ideals. By sharing their knowledge with children, they stabilized the tribe.

-- Native women were especially skilled in creating a support network of other women who share responsibility and pleasure in day to day work.

-- Women held authority over property and its uses, and over the distribution of material goods they or their men produced.

-- Divisions in men and women?s work were complimentary and egalitarian, with neither accorded a greater status. Women?s work (e.g. planting, harvesting, tanning, sewing) was not looked down upon by men.

 were responsible for the care of younger siblings. Strong emotional attachment characterized their relationships.

All of this is part of Birchbark House. The women are strong. They work hard, yet there is joy, there is laughter. Nokomis tells the children stories, thereby passing down important information. In the building of their summer home, and in the work they do while there, they support each other and take pleasure in each other?s company. In Old Tallow?s decision to put her husband?s belongings outside her door, we see a glimpse of the authority women held. Omakayas father and the other men do not demean the women or their work. And of course, there is a very special love that Omakayas feels for her little baby brother.

So, part of why I think this is an important book is that is provides children with a much needed authentic portrayal of Native women.


_________________________________ Debbie Reese, Doctoral Student Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction College of Education, University of Illinois Champaign, IL 61820
               Telephone: 217$4?86 Fax: 217$4E72 Email: d-reese at uiuc.edu
Received on Mon 11 Oct 1999 06:09:08 AM CDT