Women in Literature/5

American Indian women, however, was that she was a
drudge of the men of her tribe. They were thought to be
hard-working and ill-treated and therefore, to have few joys
in life. In reality, they were required to do a great deal of
work and to give their fair share to help support their fami-
lies, but the belief that they were drudges stemmed mostly
from inaccurate observation and an ethnocentric view
about male Indians' roles as hunter and warrior. The
majority of tribes respected and valued their women. Men
were quite aware of the womens' contributions. It did mat-
ter, however, whether women were actually blood members
of the tribe. Among most tribes the right of life, liberty, and
well-being belonged only to members who were born or
adopted into that tribe. Captives were not automatically
given such considerations as were warranted to a tribes-
woman.
The interesting and colorful Indian women found in
many books are not the drudges most writers assumed.
They are also not the romantic, legendary princesses either.
Walter O'Meara in Daughters of the Country: The Women
of the Fur Traders and Mountain Men (New York: Har-
court, Brace and World, 1968) describes the white man's use
of the Indian woman as slave, concubine, prostitute, and
wife. O'Meara portrays white fur traders and settlers very
realistically in their attitudes towards Indian women, that
is, as ruthless abusers of women and as loving husbands.
Frank Bird Linderman's Pretty-Shield, Medicine Woman
of the Crows (New York: John Day, 1972, c1932) gives a
good description of an Indian girl's childhood. The Indian
girls' lives although usually not as free as that of the tribe's
young men, who were learning to hunt and ride, were still
filled with interesting learning tasks that would prepare
them for future duties. A carefully structured educational
system existed in which the old passed on the tribes' cus-
toms and values to the young. Typically, children were
reared in an atmosphere of relative freedom. Most inter-
views with Indian women reflect happy childhoods. Pretty-
shield, a Crow Medicine woman interviewed by Frank
Linderman, tells many happy stories of her childhood and