What are the roles of women in a family from a different culture? Native American women have a long tradition of leadership within their families and communities. They were not "shrinking violets." The Cherokee women in our family were not very good at following the European female model. We were expected to be strong, bold, articulate and confident. Here is one person's description of the influence of women in Cherokee Society.
http://tcuwomensnetwork.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/mothers-know-best-cherokee-women/
Mothers Know Best: Cherokee Women October 26, 2009
by Melissa Rhodes
Some voice their opinions quite frequently. Others do so only when they feel they absolutely cannot keep quiet any longer. A group that could not stay quiet was the Cherokee women. During the turbulent time following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Cherokee were being pressured by the government to sell their land, which once extended over parts of North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The loss of land was terrible for the Cherokee women, who used a range of rhetorical strategies in their attempts to persuade other Cherokee not to continue to sell.
Before colonization of North America by the Europeans, Cherokee women were powerful and influential. They fought alongside the men in battle, were responsible for the farming and were given a vote in council. Families even followed a matrilineal family line, which meant that their children were related only to their mother’s family and joined their mother’s group. It was from this position that Cherokee women addressed their Cherokee nation about the selling of land. They did so even though they had never before “thought it [their] duty to interfere” (Ritchie 107). In the speech “Cherokee Women Address their Nation” the Cherokee women and their leader, Beloved Woman Nancy Ward, used their maternal positions as a strong rhetorical method.
As heads of household with primary authority over their children, the women address the group as their “Beloved children” and discuss how they have “raised all of [them] on the land” (Ritchie 107). This helps them establish ethos by reminding the Cherokee that they are their mothers and should be respected. The Cherokee women are also able to establish pathos through their feminine strength. They ask their children not to sell their land because doing so “would be like destroying [their] mothers” (Ritchie 107).
The women’s approach to logos however, was different than their motherly arguments used for ethos and pathos. They presented logos first in the form of a religious argument, which stated that the land their children were selling was “[Land] God gave [them] to inhabit” (Ritchie 107). The women also use logos when they make the argument that “it would be impossible to remove” (Ritchie 107) all of them. This appeal addresses the fact that by selling their land, they were willingly handing over their sacred, motherly land because they thought nothing could be done. By arguing that they could not lose all their land, the women encouraged their fellow Cherokee not to give up.
The Cherokee women made several addresses to the Cherokee and they even addressed American government. They did so peacefully and used similar rhetorical methods in all of their speeches. Despite their best efforts, they lost much of their land and had to endure the Trail of Tears. The women were further injured when the Americans learned more about the Cherokee culture. After seeing the respect and high positions Cherokee women were given, they “properly” educated the Cherokee, teaching them that women should not get to fight alongside men or vote in council. The merging of cultures caused the Cherokee women to lose much of the respect they were accustomed to.
The ending for the Cherokee was not a happy one. The women used rhetoric very effectively, yet were unable to change the overall outcome of forced removal from their land. Even the best rhetoric cannot guarantee that the goal will be achieved, but that did not stop the Cherokee women from doing what they felt was their duty.
Works Cited and Further Reading
Kidwell, Clara Sue “Indian women as cultural mediators.” Ethnohistory 39.2 (1992): 97.
Kilcup, Karen L., ed. “Nancy Ward and Cherokee Women.” Native American Women’s Writing c. 1800-1924: an anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Ltd, 2000. 27-30.
Kowalski, Kathiann M. “Leading their Tribes.” Cobblestone 24.7 (2003): 26.
Ritchie, Joy, and Kate Ronald, eds. “Cherokee Women.” Available Means: An Anthology of Women’s Rhetoric(s). Pittsburg, 2001. 106-07.
Perdu, Theda. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture. University of Nebraska, 1998.
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