First Nations women play key community roles
My grandmother was a medicine woman and midwife. She birthed many of the children on the reserve and played an important role in the community.
Her role was not unusual, as most First Nations communities had women who played an important role in the health of the community. Traditionally, aboriginal women played a much greater role in their communities than history records.
Much has been made of the fact that men lost their role as providers and political heads when they were replaced by rations and the Indian agent.
Women, too, had their role reduced and denigrated by colonialism.
The whole camp or village had a responsibility to raise the children although the mother and father were the primary caregivers. The grandparents lived with the parents and played an important role in the children’s education.
The traditional roles of parents as caregivers and educators were taken from the families with the establishment of the boarding schools, and nuns, missionaries and others took over. With attendance at these institutions mandatory, entire communities would be emptied of children, leaving only the very young and the adults. This was unnatural and tragic for these communities.
Prior to colonialism our people played an active role in the economy as fur trappers, buffalo hunters and freighters. However, it wasn’t an utopian existence like some First Nations politicians like to describe. Life was still difficult, and people relied on each other for survival. Despite the challenges, our people were independent and self-governing.
Women played a very important role in the well being of the community. For example, they owned the lodge or teepee. Groups of women would work together to create the teepee — first from buffalo hide, and later from canvas. They also assembled and disassembled the teepee, and were responsible for its transportation when travelling.
To accomplish this a series of horses would be loaded with the teepee covering, and others would pull the teepee poles. These came from the lodge pole pine that could be found only in the Cypress Hills or the Rocky Mountain foothills, so one couldn’t just leave them behind and cut new ones on the bald prairie.
A few years ago my company was working on a period production in which we had a camp breaking scene. I asked the wrangler if they could place the teepee poles on the horses in the traditional manner. He apologized and said they couldn’t do it.
They had tried, but every time they placed a pole the on a horse the animal turned around to see what was happening. As a result. the pole would swing around in a wide swath, hitting people. Try as they might, these professional horse wranglers couldn’t pack the teepee poles on a horse. So our camp breaking scene included a camp on the move with no teepee poles.
This lesson made me realize what good horse people our women must have been. They had to train horses to perform a very difficult job.
This skill remains in place today. I once did a documentary on chuckwagon racing, and one racing team had a woman in charge of the horses. Before the race each team would be harnessing their horses. The men would struggle and shove the horses into place. The woman simply led her horses to the wagon and hitched them up — and these were skittish thoroughbreds who were born to run.
In addition to their work as equestrians, First Nations women were the keepers of the family history. This role continues to the present. The grandmothers have an oral record of the birthdates and relationships of their family and others, which they would share upon request.
If a young couple wants to take their relationship to a romantic level, they will consult with the family matriarch who will let them know if they are related. Today, the women encourage young people to search out a partner on a different reserve, preferably one that’s far away.
Violence against women was also not tolerated. Because our people lived communally in close contact with each other, relationships could be closely monitored. If a man was caught abusing his partner he could expect a visit from her uncle or her brothers, maybe even a cousin. They would set the offender straight with a stern warning or, if required, an outright beating. Justice was immediate and effective.
Today, the results of colonialism and racism have seriously damaged our society. The Cree word for woman, “esquew” has been reduced to the pejorative “squaw,” which holds as much disgust for us as the “n” word does for black Americans.
Our people have been marginalized, and this has affected many of our people with drug and alcohol addiction, violence and institutionalization. The calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women should be heeded in order to examine the root causes and seek out culturally appropriate solutions.