Daughters of Mother Earth Recent titles in Native America: Yesterday and Today Bruce E. Johansen, Series Editor George Washington’s War On Native America Barbara Alice Mann The Native Peoples of North America: A History Two Volumes Bruce E. Johansen Daughters of Mother Earth: The Wisdom of Native American Women u Edited by Barbara Alice Mann Foreword by Winona LaDuke u Native America: Yesterday and Today Series Bruce E. Johansen, Series Editor LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Daughtersofmotherearth:thewisdomofNativeAmericanwomen/editedby Barbara Alice Mann;foreword byWinonaLaDuke. p. cm.—(NativeAmerica: Yesterday and Today,ISSN1552-8022) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98562-8(alk. paper) 1. Indian women—United States. 2. Matriarchy—United States. 3. Indians of North America—Social life and customs. 4. Indiansof North America— Public opinion. 5. Public opinion—United States. 6. United States—Social life and customs. I. Mann, BarbaraAlice, 1947– II. Series: Native America (Praeger Publishers) E98.W8D38 2006 305.48'897—dc22 2006015392 British LibraryCataloguing in PublicationData isavailable. Copyright #2006byBarbara Alice Mann All rights reserved. Noportion of thisbook maybe reproduced, by anyprocess ortechnique, without the express writtenconsent ofthe publisher. Library ofCongress CatalogCard Number: 2006015392 ISBN: 0-275-98562-8 ISSN 1552-8022 First published in2006 Praeger Publishers, 88Post RoadWest, Westport, CT06881 Animprint ofGreenwood PublishingGroup, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed inthe UnitedStates ofAmerica The paper usedin thisbook complies withthe Permanent PaperStandard issued bytheNational Information Standards Organization(Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To the Seventh Generation Contents u Series Foreword ix Foreword xv Preface xvii 1. Does Euro-Think Become Us? 1 Paula Gunn Allen 2. Decolonizing Native Women 29 Lee Maracle 3. Weeping for the Lost Matriarchy 53 Kay Givens McGowan 4. Slow Runners 69 Barbara Alice Mann Bibliography 111 Contributors’ Biographies 121 Index 125 Series Editor’s Foreword u H ow many people in today’s world, even reasonably educated people, know in detail the roles played by Native American women in much of North America—in the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confed- eracy, for example? How many people realize the role that Haudeno- saunee women played in shaping our early feminist movement, which developed (and matured) after the Seneca Falls conference of 1848? Today, SallyRoeschWagnerandothershaveprovideddetailedhistory describing how Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, among others, drew inspiration from the matrilineal societies of the Haudenosauneee. Gage, in particular, was shaped because she was adopted by the Mohawks. The Haudenosaunee social geography contrasted vividly with the Anglo-American society in which they lived, whose institu- tions Euro-Americans sought to change. Early feminists, emerging from a socioeconomic culture in which most women owned nothing and were defined as legal appendages of their husbands, were awed by Haudenosaunee culture, in which women owned the home and much of the means of production and a man moved in with his new wife’s relatives if he was judged fit to do so by the Clan Mothers. Howmanyofushaveconsideredtheimplicationsoflivinginatruly matrilinealsociety,wherewomenmindthehearthandcareforchildren