Indigenous American Women Extra Credit

by Victoria L.

 The Native American tribes that survived Manifest Destiny encountered relentless roadblocks from the U.S. Government and various religious establishments, which prevented them from adequately preserving their culture and language. There are two significant components that affected women of Native American ancestry: the suppression of a tribe’s mother tongue and the inferior education system both on the reservations and off.

In the past Native American children typically achieved an education away from the reservation at a boarding school; where they experienced substandard instruction and abusive treatment from their teachers. Presently issues still exist in regards to providing an adequate version of Native American history, though the cases of abuse are not as prevalent. Many mainstream schools still teach their students a very biased and ill-informed history of the Native Americans. “Modern indigenous mothers still must carefully review their children’s textbooks for stereotypical images of Natives.”[1] Education is the place where children receive their first take of what the real world is like. Children experience more than just learning to read and write in the classroom, they also learn to socially interact with their peers and authoritative figures. Instead of being placed in an environment that encouraged the Native American students success, they were discriminated upon, abused, and thereafter discouraged from trying to actively participate in the conventional American society. Due to the inaccurate textbooks and pervasive stereotypes about the Native Americans, a large proportion of Americans have little to no understanding of what life is truly like for the indigenous people.  The author, Devon Abbott Mihesuah, a member of the Chactaw nation described a personal experience of prejudice when applying for a promotion, where she suggested that the panel she interviewed with scrutinized over her application far more than her white colleagues. [2] Despite having a college education, and actively working in her community, Mihesuah had to go to extra lengths to achieve her promotion. The fact that she had to prove herself better than the typecast Native American shows us how ignorant society is in regards to anything contrasting the normal American culture. The understated approach at teaching N.A. history has done future generations, whether they be Native American or otherwise, a major disservice. The textbooks, teachers, and media endorsed the hackneyed version of  U.S. History and the Native Americans participation as savages which permits the racist and stereotypical assumptions many Americans have towards Indigenous Americans. The U.S. Government also effectively destroyed nearly half of the languages that many of the tribes were founded on. A Santa Clara Pueblo named Tessie Naranjo explained, “Your world view is embedded in the language.” With that statement in mind, a culture can be lost without its language.

A culture is preserved in a great deal from its language, for many of the indigenous people, their methods of communication were maintained only through spoken word. Prior

to the first landing of the Pilgrims, there was a prodigious and diverse stretch of indigenous tongue being spoken across the nation, following it only 175 of about 300 survived.[3] Dixie Davis, a Yavapai who once attended a boarding school explained, “While there, when she attempted to speak her language she had her mouth washed out with soap, was given no food, and ‘they beat me up’”.[4] Davis recognized the importance of preserving her language and maintained it despite the repercussions. For the women who retained their mother tongue after leaving the boarding schools felt a deep sense of pride, which encouraged them to pass the language on to future generations. The Hopi women continue to play an active role in protecting their sacred culture. At the University of Arizona they have a youth program that promotes the use of “tribal languages as they learn arts and crafts. “[5]

Despite that a large portion of Native American heritage and culture was lost to the expansion of the United States, and the information that we do have available is often looked over or misinterpreted, it is still possible for the existing natives to band together and provide a more accurate look at history. If these tribes can survive the U.S.’s unceasing effort to disband them, then they can continue on and contribute the lacking representation of Native Americans in our history. Most textbooks provide little detail on the lives of women; the same is true in regards to the lives of indigenous women. The ball is now in their court to fill in the missing gaps, and correct the mistaken perceptions many Americans have of their history.