1; Owanah Anderson; Current perspectives on American Indian women

I'm happy to. Present to you today news Awana Anderson. He chopped Indian woman. Born in Choctaw our County Oklahoma. She is the founder of the National Indian womens project called the whore you and I will let her tell you about that project. She has a very. Extensive background in community service in church service and political involvement. To mention only a few highlights. She has served as the chair of the National APUs cable advisory committee on Indians and served as the chair of the Texas International Women's Year delegation and was named by President. Carter as the only American Indian. To attend the Helsinki Accord in Madrid in 1988. Today she will share with you.

Her perspectives on historical. And. Contemporary Issues. And factors regarding American Indian women. This course. As I understand is on the current perspectives of American Indian Alaskan Native women. But in order to get to the current perspectives it's certainly necessary to have an overview of the historical perspectives. How many of you in this room happens to be aware that the women of the Iroquois. Around the year 16:00 operated in the society that was most nearly that of a matriarchy as has any society and shunned our contemporary times at the time that the first boat people arrived. To the shores.

There were approximately the anthropologist estimated three hundred distinct cultures existing societies or tribes as they were later. Call. Very distinct from each other. Enormously diverse in perspectives. Diverse language is relationships with a create a war. Very very different in in many cases and physical characteristics. And the anthropologist estimates that approximately one fourth of the societies at the time of Columbus and there are about where might really Neal which is usually not very well known outside of the Indian cultures that we had very strong women. In fact. The Navajo women for instance sat on the war

councils. It usually comes to a pretty large surprise to the non-Indian cultures to grapple with the fact that while we as Indian women still in the media live out our lives in a I stereotype of the squab image. There are we had in fact in many of our societies greater independence greater security and more recognition as individuals then did the European women who first immigrated to these shores. There should be no large surprise that there was great diversity in our perspectives in our in our cultures in our societies because this was a large expanse of

land. Greater distances of course between us from the Pacific Northwest and us from the Everglades in Florida. Then there was between the Scandinavians in the Venetians and in the year 14. And it should not come as a large surprise that there was diversity. The significance of this diversity. Continues right on until this very day. We have. Distinct tribes distinct tribal governments. We think of ourselves as tribal people. When one Indian meets another Indian as happened this past we get a very large conference of American Indian women at the University of North Dakota. We don't walk up to each other and say Are you in. We walk up to each other and say what you try.

I'm chocked all as I just stated and my perspectives. Are built around the perspectives of the Choctaw. We were from the southeast US we were forcibly removed in the 1830s twenty 1820s to southeastern Oklahoma. We were given what is now the southern half of Oklahoma. That should be ours as long as the grass would grow in the streams would flow and in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek. I've always liked that name. Ah but as we all know Oklahoma eventually became stay and we no longer were the Choctaw Nation. As a separate entity from all of the rest of the world there is still. There still exists a chopped down nation which covers 13 and

have counties but there are about we are rural people basically. It is a rural part of Oklahoma and away they are. Subject to extraordinary poverty and lowest in the state. Appalachian. Atmosphere more or less. But throughout Indian country. And this is sort of an internal term us suppose we refer to our scattered neighbors our scattered fellow tribes people as living in Indian Country little scattered pockets of population. All across the country. Here an upper middle west you have the Chippewa was known over. You have assumed. And of course the my nominees I tried. But. They each

try continues to. Have its own priorities. We are We were treated initially under the English law and then in the Constitution itself as sovereign nations but we think this is been very brief on the historical. Perspectives. There were rows assigned to women within the various cultures. As I said in the Navajo Code churn the Navajo society women sat on more councils and the Cherokee society. There was that woman who was designated as the beloved woman. I've never really got a clear handle on the total trends translation on what this signified that

it was a woman of wisdom or a woman who was set apart for counseling. And although it's been frustrating in the brevity there are glimpses in the journals of the early explorers in the early missionaries and colonisers. But the current perspectives. Where are we now. Where our way. We still have this enormous diversity which we want to have. We demand to have recognition as diverse peoples. After all we are separate sovereign nations. Most of the tribes had treaties. Honorably entered into with the United States of America. And those treaties have not been abolished and the terms of those treaties we still want to be

on are on. Why not. They are on the record. But I think we have as all of you are well aware I'm sure I have had very difficult times. Indian women are the most vulnerable to poverty. Of all the nations women any set of statistics that you may explore well find us as Indian women at the bottom of the heap. In 1980 for the first time since the US Census Bureau began to include American Indians Eskimos in alley use. In the national. Address any old enumeration. The American Indian Alaskan native population exceeded the one

million mark. One million four hundred eighteen thousand one hundred ninety five to be exact. Of which a little over 50 percent are female. The 1980 figure represents an increase of more than 71 percent over the 1978 Camp however. The Census Bureau credit their effectiveness as enumerators in their new systems for enumerating them for the first time we had an opportunity to check off. In the eggs in the slot other than other. We had always been checking off the other instead of. But there were lines for us to say that we were American Indian and we were certain tribe. And. But when all of this was set out before us this 71

percent increase came much to the surprise of the Census Bureau surfacing to the top. American Indians were not counted at all for many years. Many census counts. And it was and wasn't until the late 18 hundreds that persons who were currently living in Indian Territory unknown which is now Oklahoma and on reservations were counted at all. The 1970 analysis as the work that you're going to be exploring on the. That was developed by the League of Women Voters called Indian country the 1970 census showed a very dismal gloomy picture. Now of the data has not all been analyzed for the nine hundred eighty count. Little comes along all the time there is

some new material that is just coming to the to the surface so we don't yet have a real handle on what it's going to show in the 80 count. One of the objections that we as women have always had has been the fact that they didn't really give us a handle on the gender accomplishments or where we were. It was very difficult to to get it out of there to find out where what for instance was the educational attainment of Indian women. But the 80 count is going to give us much better material. When finally it is analyzed. And as I said the 80 cent of the 70 senses showed us to be the most deprived the most isolated minority group of the nation on virtually every scale of measurement employment income education health. The condition of Indian people ranked at the bottom.

I'd like to read from a work that my project has just recently completed. This was written I believe in 1980 fall of 82 Pine Ridge South Dakota Dateline. The poorest. And this is from the 80s census the poorest county in the country is located not in the Appalachians are in one of the ghettos of the major cities. But in South Dakota it is Shannon County where the Oglala Sioux live. And the loss of almost 1000 federal job training positions in the last year made the situation even worse. And it goes on to say that force reservations are located in that ate for Sioux reservations are located in eight poorest counties in America. And.

Go. Back to the census for moment. As we all are aware education can be a contributing factor toward alleviating the substandard living conditions and enhancing sociological environments within any community. In 1970 the median years of schooling was only nine point eight for Indians compared to twelve point one for the U.S. population as a whole. Only 33 percent in 1970. Had graduated from high school compared to 52 percent of the U.S. population. But the most favorable indicator to emerge on the preliminary 1988 census data is an apparent significant increase in educational attainment within the American Indian Alaskan native population and this

increase is credited to a series of favorable pieces of legislation enacted in the 70s. Recommendations from the American Indian policy review commission on which I did year served. Ah and then there was also a piece that came out of a Senate subcommittee report in The Seven. This was not I believe nine hundred sixty nine. A report called Indian education a national tragedy a national challenge. And while the budget recommendations for the aid that are currently occurring and have been occurring in the last three years. Ah give us certainly significant play less. Attention to the needs of Indian Education. We think we are now going to be able to see the advancements that were made as a result of legislation in the 70s.

But back to women. The American Indian woman. During the last decade all across Indian country there has been this mass migration as we've seen across the face of all America. The moving to the Sunbelt from when from where I come. The tremendous transition in the population and the Indian population has out of necessity in contemporary times had to be mobile because there was such a dark figures and continues to be employment on the reservation areas and in the rural areas it was necessary to move back and forth. And we've seen the women move back and forth. But home is Darcy

McNichols work will tell you. Is back home. Back in the back on the reservation back from whence you came. When I think of where is my my home my home is still Choctaw County. Although I've been away from there for a very long time. But that was the land of. My youth and where my people who are and where my ancestors were. And all of us while there is great diversity in our perspectives. As I mentioned we think of ourselves as tribal people think of ourselves as men nominee's job dolls and we think of a home as back in the historical boundaries. And this this transition that has happened has had a tremendous impact on on our women and we are seeing some thinkers.

Which are very difficult for us to. Project how to deal with it. For instance they rise the tremendous rise in the number of Indian women who are single heads of households. They. Increases nearly one fourth in 1980 of American Indian households were headed by women with no husband present. And this is nearly twice the national average. In 1980. Ah it's eleven point three percent of the national average and the American Indian average projects to be around 24 percent. This this migration has affected family life of course. Agnes Williams a

Seneca. I rode in a interesting piece called it came out of a conference on educational and occupational needs of American Indian women published by. The. National Institute of Education in 1980 and Williams wrote abandoning tribal relationships and negative experiences during the vulnerable life times have important effects on the acculturation and the culture aeration process is for up rooted Indian women. Actively trying to preserve their Indian ways as well as to survive in the urban environment. It is extremely difficult for her to retain her uniqueness. The.

Continuing diversity is something I want you to remember. The change is like all the rest of the national population in the mobility of the 70s and the impact of that it has had on the women own all of our people. But on it specifically on women. One of the binds that we s Indian women have been historically caught up in has been are the treatment in the media. Where we have not been able to overcome yet the squaw image. In the squab image was basically that of the drudge. Their dirty lump of a drudge who plods along 10 paces by and the stalwart child of nature

male. Ah the textbooks haven't done very much. To improve that image. We did a survey. A couple of years ago on the number on currently used American history college textbooks on the survey of American history and we found three of the textbooks ABA which are currently used and they were updated revisions that still use the word squall and have very pejorative terms. Unfortunately we don't write the textbooks. And I did not go into much detail here on the work that I have been doing for the last four years where she and I first connecting on a project funded by women's educational equity act.

US Department of Education on. Oh boy oh and she mention the word old boy all spelled o h l y o. And it is not. Doesn't stand for you know it doesn't have a bunch of Perrier that it is the Choctaw word for woman. They're simply translated as woman. And for years now I project which is headquartered in Wichita Falls Texas because that's where I happened and they have has had a consortium nationally. It represented by some 30 Indian women who serve on our advisory committee. Doctors lawyers and Indian chiefs are on our advisory committee Hopis scout was Cherokee as Santa cuz soon great Navajo

and our project has now for research wrote edited and published six publications designed to impact. The stereotyping of Indian women and to advance our increase the visibility of American Indian women. The most invisible of all the nations women have been the contemporary the achieving the leadership the doc as I said the doctors lawyers and Indian chiefs who are American Indian women currently are achieving producing that so little is known of us so little as is noted that pirate chief meant it. One of our major accomplishments has been that of

networking of bringing in women from our so isolated and scattered pockets of population together with each other. And there have been many very positive examples of the networking effort but one that I would like to inform you of because of a number of women from the campus of the University of Wisconsin were involved in this effort last fall in late October. We became aware of the fact that a videotape called a home video game called Custers revenge was being released and for the Christmas sales I see some of you nodding your head and we were getting telephone calls at Ohio Resource Center in Texas from all over the country and they were saying what are you going to do about this.

This tape was depicted. It was a game of you know video games. You know I you know I'm a very mechanical PARSONS Oh I certainly never mastered the video games of that. I tied and an Indian woman. And you knew she was Indian because she had a feather and a hair net. You know we're all supposed to have feathers in their hair and they had better known and add a character to obviously depicting that a. Military trooper. And the object of the game was to see how many times sexual assault could be committed upon the woman who was the Indian woman who was bound and tied before the arrows would get him. And we viewed this as not only racist but sexist and brutality that we as women have

attempted throughout the women's movement of the last 15 years to counter. And. Sir as I said way we're getting phone calls about what are you going to do. Well I know that the laws are community based on pornography so there wasn't anything to go on this is pornographic. Because communities determine what is pornographic within your own community. And so all that we felt that we could do. Or rather because lobbying is prohibited by when you're under federal grant I felt that I could personally do was to go home and write 100 letters to Katie Indian women around the country and to say look this thing is there it is existing We don't like it. Right the manufacturer tell them you protest it get other people

to join you. And it was absolutely an avalanche of signatures and a large number from here on this campus. That went into it to the company produce a California company producing film. I don't know to what the level lists impacted but I do know the film is not being produced anymore. But however all a number of them were produced and they were sold. One of the things real I've talked about diversity among us but also some of the values that are shared across Indian country. I believe to be a probably the most prevalent one. It is the strengths of the American Indian family.

And Dr. Ronald Lewis a Cherokee who grew up in eastern Oklahoma as I did in his with the School of Social Work at Arizona State University wrote an article which I would like to quote from as it speaks on the significance of Indian families. American Indian family networks assume a structure which is radically different from other extended family units of western society. They accepted strong structural boundary of the European model for example is the household. Thus an extended family is defined as two or more generations within a single household. American Indian family networks however are structurally open and assume a village type characteristic. Their extension is inclusive of several households representing significant relatives

along both vertical and horizontal lines. Now the reason that I choose to quote Dr. Lewis is because I think that I identify with his definition because our perspectives are shared as as we both were from the rural Oklahoma atmosphere. Our tribes are different but. The environment the surroundings see the land that we lived in most was so similar. And while I would stress that the tremendous diversity that we still require I want you to to recognize. And I will go on and quote some more of Dr. Lewis's material. Indian survival had not been considered a good bat yet we have survived. Not because of the graces of the majority

culture but because I believe we have developed a philosophy in which because of extreme to external threat we turn inwards and then upwards toward a creator. This spirituality has maintained us through many a hardship. Now again I would like to emphasize. That there has not been. A monotheistic Hama jenius Native American religion. If you run into somebody it says to you that we as American Indians believe thus or so. I mean don't listen anymore because there has never been a broad scope I mean a big thing where all American Indians believe

one way or the other. And Dr. Lewis goes on to say as a small child in the Cookson hills of eastern Oklahoma I was told many stories by the elders. Some were scary but each had a moral. They pointed out that life has spirits both good and evil but that good always won out. I was also taught an awareness of something spiritual as a belief in a higher order of power and in the goodness of humankind. All of this was learned while we were while we in his case and while we as Cherokees were experiencing a good deal of material deprivation and prejudice. The third strength of Indian families is a deep personal relationship within my own extended family. I have observed how the various

children have grown up and I've often wondered why parents and grandparents never spanked us. I think it comes from respect. I too had that experience as a young person growing up. The three perspectives which are currently existing with the American Indian woman is that all of the reservation of the rural. Areas and of the urban areas. And I mention early the mass and the mass migration. I have a suggestion that I would want to say to you where I project Indian women will be 10 years from now. Five years from now. While 80 centers will probably show that we're still at the bottom of the heap in expecting the shortest lifespan the greatest infant mortality. While though we expect to see increases we probably will have the lowest educational

attainment and the greatest unemployment and under employment. But us submit to you that we have to think about where all women are going to be five years from now in 10 years from now. And I like to think of it this in a larger scope and not completely. I slided into where Indian women will be. And every one of you in this room have mothers or grandmothers who did not have the right to vote and it took so many generations for women to have to arrive at the point under the American system. That we had the right to vote. And I and my generation in the generation some of you in this room brought

the women of this nation all of our women to a point and we brought a snow further. And we have seen the National Priorities shift in the last few years. Affirmative action is no longer a priority. And I say to you that is the responsibility of you energetic. Bride outside sun shot and young women in the room such as this in women's studies across this country to finish the effort to give women the opportunity to have equality under the Constitution of this land. Thank you.