Mission

Good day everyone,

Welcome to a safe place of learning and conversation. The mission of this blog is to learn and discuss health and gender role issues that affect indigenous women. If you have any insight, critique, or ideas, please email me or leave a comment!

How the blog originally started: 
While taking a class on International Women’s Health at Stanford University, I explored the connection between indigenous, traditional gender roles and women’s health with a special focus on Native American women.  Native American women are apart of sovereign nations landlocked within the United States. Although these nations are domestically dependent, they are still governed independently. Thus, they are obscured by those who lack the will to research them and by the U.S. school system that rarely educates students about them. Misinterpreted culture is a problem common not just to Native Americans but to most indigenous peoples around the globe. Indigenous women specifically are apart of a population commonly overlooked and under researched due to low representation in post-colonial government institutions and misunderstanding of cultural roles and values. By not properly educating America’s children about Native Americans, we are perpetuating of cycle of mental and physical health disparities in native women.

Inaccurate Interpretation
In most cases, teachers who attempt to breach the subject of native women relay only biased information. This is because early ethnographers were predominantly male, Christian, and outsiders. The perspective on life with which they are raised inherently skews how they view indigenous women’s roles in society [1]. For example, in writings concerning the Teton Lakota (Sioux), early ethnographers believed that men held more power than women because men held the traditional role of dealing with outsiders. Ask any man or woman of Teton Lakota, and they will tell you this interpretation is false. Men and women held equal positions of power through different roles. Women specifically were viewed as an extension of the Spirit Mother, or Earth, and held a vital role in the continuation of the Lakota people [2].

The Real Role of Native Women - Change with Colonization 
While researching indigenous peoples of different regions, I found a few common themes concerning women’s roles. The division of labor in indigenous society is most often cooperative and not oppressive. The roles of women were not set in stone and could change according to a woman’s will. From a socioeconomic standpoint, women and men often divided property equally. What you made and worked for, you would keep. For example, if a woman takes care of the household for a living, she owns all the property and food. While if a man is a warrior, he owned his horse and the weapons he made. Women also held positions of political importance, taught family history, and preserved traditional ceremonies and practices. However, the role of native women changed drastically during colonization. Tribes were forced into Christianity, a religion focused on worship of a single male God. Early ethnographers, would exclude female figures when recording traditional religious stories or just insert names into the Christian myth of Adam and Eve. Children of the tribes were forced into boarding schools (most often Christian based) where the children were forbidden from using their traditional language or practicing their traditional culture. Males were taught trades such as agriculture while women were taught housekeeping, rearing children, and subtle subordination. Girls were beaten if they refused to work as domestic laborers and did not receive as much educational instruction as boys. This began a patriarchal model of kinship where the man works for a wage and women are dependent on the men for money, food, etc. [1]. Finally, when the only power native women held was the power to bear children, the U.S. government began taking that away in the 1960s and 1970s. The Indian Health Service, IHS, allegedly sterilized at least 25% of Native American women between 1960 and 1970 [4]. The Government Account Office (GAO) released an official report in 1976 verifying that the IHS performed 3,406 sterilizations between 1973 and 1976 [3]. Children of the U.S. need to know that the IHS is an health service that Native Americans do not receive for free! Native American tribes formed treaties with the U.S. government that exchanged land for continual health services. The same treaties were formed for education services as well. People do not understand why Native Americans receive education and health services because they do not know the historical context. Thus, they do not understand how these exchanges have affected Native American women.

Decreasing Value of Women = Decreasing Health 
Thus, while doing all this research for class, I have found a major trend. The decreasing the role of indigenous women in society via misunderstanding relates to decreasing health status indicators. Studies like the Cheyenne River Sioux health-risk behavior observation by Han 1994 have found that “women who were more traditionally engaged in terms of lifestyle and language fluency were healthier than less traditional women” [2]. Therefore, there is a correlation that should not be ignored between changing the role of native women and health.

Native Americans are the only racial group in the US to have a history as wards of the federal government. By the 1990s, Native American women were expected to die 10 years earlier than white women. Today, the 4 leading causes of death for native women are  (1) Cancer, (2) Heart Disease, (3) Unintentional Injuries, and (4) Diabetes. If unintentional injuries does not strike a curious chord within you, let’s look at it more closely. Unintentional injuries are related to  suicide, homicide, alcoholism, and domestic violence[1]. “Native American women experience the highest rate of violence of any group in the United States” [2].  Native women are more likely than white women to be current smokers, overweight or obese, and be physically inactive. Native women also have higher rates of heart disease, hypertension, stroke, emphysema, asthma, diabetes, ulcers, and hearing loss/deafness than white women. Furthermore, they report more psychological distress including feeling sad, hopeless, and worthless. These health disparities are made more drastic by unequal access to education, employment, healthy food, and health insurance.

Interventions
Despite forced cultural, religious, and economic assimilation, Native American women are a strong, persevering, and influential social group. They are still here. Native women have and continue to be the forefront of advocacy and implementation of health resources and services to better the lives of Native families in their communities. Today, many native american women sit on policy making boards or organizations to help provide quality health care, assist others, and obtain better education for children by focusing on community based interventions. However, we can help further their case by introducing Native American historical topics into the U.S. school system that are unbiased and help children empathize with the common plight of colonized indigenous peoples. To figure out what topics this curriculum should cover, we should consult Native American women and their communities. We need to help U.S. citizens understand the historical context of Native Americans in order to help restore value to the roles of Native American woman and improve overall health status indicators as a result.

Citations
[1] Jennie R. Joe & Francine C. Gachupin: Health and Social Issues of Native American Women
[2] Julie Collins: The Status of Native American Women: A Study of the Lakota Sioux
[3] Rutecki, Gregory W., MD. Forced Sterilization of Native Americans: Late Twentieth Century Physician Cooperation with National Eugenic Policies. The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. Trinity International University, 08 Oct. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://cbhd.org/content/forced-sterilization-native-americans-late-twentieth-century-physician-cooperation-national->.
[4] Lawrence, Jane. "The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women." The American Indian Quarterly 24.3 (2000): 400-19. Muse.jhu.edu. 2000. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.