A Real Feminine Journey

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A Real Feminine Journey

• Native American Women
• in the Arts
• Nancy Marie Mithlo, Ph.D.
• Department of Anthropology
• Smith College
• Future of Minority Studies
• Summer Seminar
• Feminist Identities, Global Struggles

Pat Courtney Gold AntiBarbie Doll
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Why Native American Women?Intellectually -
Provide models of active female agency,
interrogate established concepts of power, serve
as effective cultural brokers and community
protectors. Yet lives are also compromised by
poverty, substance abuse, political corruption,
religious, environmental and legal erosion of
rights, high rates of teenage suicide and
pregnancy, health problems including diabetes and
AIDS/HIV, lack of culturally-relevant education,
and internalized racism and sexism.
Structurally - I have community access, interest,
responsibilities and investments as a Native
American woman (local, regional, national).
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Why Native American Arts? Native women are
iconic. They embody key cultural values of
nationhood, religion, and family as well as
navigate intersections of access, assimilation
and confrontation. These social arenas enable
women to make political claims and initiate
personal strategies. Henrietta Moore, Feminism
and Anthropology, 1988.
Mithlo feast 1994
Gathering of Nations Miss Indian World Pageant,
Albuquerque, NM 1996
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Tammy Rahr, Cayuga Doll
Gender Representations
My research, teaching and activism stem from the
premise that images are essential in constructing
and conveying personhood. Native American
artists, as image-makers, struggle with the
economic, cultural and historical exploitation,
erasure and control of their cultural icons.
Demeaning oral (1 little, 2 little), visual (Land
O Lakes) and dramatic (Chief Illiniwek)
expressions are ingrained American symbols that
actively work to degrade and diminish
personhood. This colonial legacy is often
gendered, with the Native women as alter. In
the visual scheme of things, it is not the men
but the Indian women who are alter, and here
everything pivots on releasing the spirit powers
of appearance. Michael Taussig, Mimesis and
Alterity, 1993.
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OutKast at the 2004 Grammy Awards, Hey Ya
Chief Illiniwek, Univ. Illinois
See Char Teters - National Coalition on Racism in
Sports and the Media. Film In Whose Honor?
See URLhttp//www.indianz.com/News/archives/00369
9.asp
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• The production and dissemination of more
  accurate and sensitive counter-representations
  are often dependent upon institutions such as
  colleges, museums, galleries non-profit
  institutions and international biennales.

Shelley Niro, The Shirt, 2003. Premiered at the
2003 Venice Biennale exhibition Pellerossasogna
sponsored by IA3.
Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, 1985
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Native Womens Stories (Expressive
Autobiographical Interview Technique, L.
Spindler) The theoretical models currently
available to feminist social scientists have
focused on structures and systems but paid less
attention to the complex process within which
gender and other forms of social inequality are
created, manipulated, and incorporated into
individual identities. By focusing on the
individual, we can gain a new perspective on the
contradictions within systems of social
inequality. Irma McClaurin-Allen.
Incongruities Dissonance and Contradiction in
the Life of a Black Middle-Class Woman, 1990.
Charlene Teters, SPK 40
Charlene Teters, SPK 24
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• Ive been talking about pottery making as a real
  feminine journey. And Ive been talking about my
  ties to my community as a very feminine, symbolic
  connection. Its all about...I dont know what
  its all about, but it has to do with femaleness
  in a big way. Femaleness, femaleness. My
  community is female. My culture is female. Im
  female. My art making is female. Everything is
  female and its very interesting and important to
  me that you can crown it all with one big bow by
  saying, Yeah, Ive got this cord that Im
  symbolically tied to my community, and by the
  way, my art work is a part of that symbolic cord,
  and I cant ever stray from it because I know
  where I belong. In the most I dont want to
  get away from it. Because I know who I am, and I
  know where Im at, and I know where Ive got to
  be.i
• i Tessie Naranjo, Interview with author, April
  19, 1991.

A Real Feminine Journey
Tessie Naranjo, Santa Clara Pueblo, NM, 2001
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What constitutes Indigenous Feminism in the
Native North American context?

• Is it?
• Content womanhood. No, appears to advance the
  universal womanhood theory
• Form - feminism intersectional. The experience of
  women still privileged
• Method - recuperate womens agency. No, cannot
  claim representation for others
• Structural marginalized status. Yes, identities
  constricted stereotypes

While feminists and Natives experience
marginality in reference to Western patriarchy
and exploitation, Native American women may or
may not experience significant marginality within
their own communities.
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Can one assign Feminist identities when Native
American women do not self-describe as
such? (Short answer No, but Feminist
methodologies may be applied)

• Issues of self-representation are primary in
  Native communities. Rampant exploitation leads to
  legal enforcement of Native control.
• Indigenous research methodologies and Indigenous
  knowledge systems explicitly articulated, but not
  feminist ideologies

This control is exercised in federal legislation
(NAGPRA, AIRFA, IACA, ICWA)
Brenda Holden MIW 36
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What relevance do Native North American women
have for feminist anthropology?

• Universal oppression questioned (womens agency
  demonstrated by Iroquois women)
• Complementarity questioned (historically situated
  research advanced)
• Every woman experience deconstructed (tribal
  diversities)
• Communalism (Individual rights vs. group rights)
• Public/private divisions dismantled with
  ethnographic evidence

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What relevance does feminist anthropology have
for Native North American women?

• Parallel uses of methodological
  intersectionality - Refusal to separate gender
  from race, class and other divisions
• Universality questioned
• Critiques of hegemonic feminisms illuminates
  tribal diversities vs. pan-Indian ideologies,
  universal humanism and sovereignty
• Insider research advanced (Identity) Feminist
  research (has) made the insider methodology much
  more acceptable in qualitative research (ppr
  realism). Multiple ways to be an insider and an
  outsider, constant need for reflexivity. Linda
  Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing Methodologies. 1999.

Nora Naranjo-Morse, The Beginning of Victors
Universe
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• What relevance does feminist anthropology have
  for Native North American women?
• LEGITIMIZATION
• The theoretical or political aspirations of
  feminist ideologies legitimize Native womens
  lives.

What relevance do Native North American women
have for feminist anthropology? LEGITIMIZATION Nat
ive women themselves are the data. Native
womens lives legitimize the theoretical or
political aspirations of feminist ideologies.
Problem in comparison levels theory and
community. Whereas theory needs legitimization,
lives do not. Both the lack of a need to be
legitimized and the sense of appropriation of
Native womens history lead to Native American
womens alienation from feminist ideologies.Gail
Landsman, The Other as Political Symbol
Images of Indians in the Woman Suffrage Movement
Ethnohistory 393 (1992).
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Structural issues

• Within feminist anthropology
• Research access limited (tribes exercising
  control of research, gender not a stated research
  priority for tribes, anthropologys interest in
  Native American topics waned)
• Ethical codes of conduct differ Not individual
  rights but collective rights and responsibility
• Within tribal settings
• Cultural values/political concerns may curtail
  public exposure of sensitive gender issues
  (INCITE! Gender oppression as denialsilence)
• Sovereign separatism - Until white women can
  come to us on our own terms, we ought to leave
  the door closed
• (Lee Maracle, I Am Woman, 1996)

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Survivance (Gerald Vizenor)
Nascent concerns about discrimination against
Indian women often are overshadowed by the need
of all tribal members to band together against
political and legal attacks. (Susan Williams
and Joy Harjo Readers Companion, U.S. Womens
History, 1998) Because group survival through
independent action is a dominant ideal in
Athabascan culture, the traditional Athabascans
did not foreground gender status as a cultural
theme in survival situations. (Phyllis Fast,
Northern Athabascan Survival Women, Community,
and the Future, 2002)
Tammy Rahr
For a critique of survivance see
www.incite-national.org, Naming Abuse
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Feminist ideologies must have direct bearing on
tribal concerns L.T. Smith Decolonizing
Methodologies

• For most American Indians, women as well as men,
  gender is not the central focus in research on
  health, education, employment, and resource
  development. Rather, class and ethnic variables
  take priority over sex-linked ones in the
  analysis of critical problems in native
  communities.
• Patricia Albers in Patricia Albers and Beatrice
  Medicine The Hidden Half Studies of Plains
  Indian Women. New York University Press of
  America 1983.
• In recognition of the importance of women in
  sustaining tribal cultures, community takes
  precedence over individual womens rights, yet
  conversely there are no human rights until
  femaleness is respected and venerated.
• Susan M. Williams and Joy Harjo, The Readers
  Companion to U.S. Womens History, 1998.

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Critique of academic FeminismsAlso a critique of
literary analysis AIQ

• Many Native women agree with the concepts that
  Native women are influential and powerful tribal
  members but they do not often assign labels to
  their positions.
• An alternative term to describe Native women
  instead of feminism may indeed be tribalist.
  But the majority of Native women go about their
  daily business with little appreciation of what
  scholars decide to label them.
• The reality is that most native women whether
  full-blood or mixed-blood, living on or off
  tribal lands, activist or indifferent- are
  concerned about both racial and gender
  oppression.
• Devon Abbott Mihesuah. Indigenous American
  Women Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism.
  2003.
• AIQ - American Indian Quarterly is seeking
  submissions on policy, environmental protection,
  treaty rights, forestry, economic development,
  oral histories, recovering indigenous knowledge,
  AIS programs and activism. Submissions dealing
  with literary criticism must include discussions
  about the authors ability to impart messages
  about nation building, empowerment for Natives
  and hope for the future.

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Cross-over applications between Feminist Theory
and Indigenous Knowledge Systems

• Intersectionality
• Holism
• Universality
• Community
• Identity claims
• Art Making/performance

Roxanne Swentzell, Such are the Dreams of the
Everyday Housewife
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Intersectionality(But not at the expense of
complimentarity)

• My community is female. My culture is female.
  Im female. My art making is female. Everything
  is female and its very interesting and important
  to me that you can crown it all with one big
  bowTN
• Indigenous ideology reflects a holistic
  expression of identity that is not termed race,
  class, gender but as community, culture and
  art-making. These reference points reflect a
  sensibility that foregrounds human beings, social
  belief systems and self-expression.
• When I am out there, I am woman, I am an
  artist, I am a mother. I am Indian. I am all of
  those things. If I can reach someone we are all
  related somehow. If I can utilize that, I will.
  TR

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Commmunalism with a Small cVariant of
Universalism, Nationalism

• Ive got this cord that Im symbolically tied
  to my community, and by the way, my art work is a
  part of that symbolic cord. TN
• The existence of sovereign nationalism is a
  positive attribute in many tribal settings.
  Tribal membership carries many material realities
  including housing, employment and income. This
  identification is also symbolic as Naranjo
  states, in that her worldview and value system
  are defined by a specific location and history
  relating to her art practice. As with
  universalism, community is also a highly debated
  space of inclusion and exclusion.
• I thinkwomens time is owned by others.
  Youre not, you dont belong to yourself. You
  belong to your family, your clan, your mother,
  your parents, your relations. They all have
  demands on you and you have to respond if you
  want to maintain your place in that social
  fabric. If you want to be honored and respected,
  you have to respect others, too. And part of
  respecting others is giving up your time.
  Right? GE

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Identity with a Large I(that happens to be
gendered)

• Im symbolically tied to my community I cant
  ever stray from it because I know where I belong.
  In the most I dont want to get away from it.
  Because I know who I am, and I know where Im at,
  and I know where Ive got to be. TN
• Art-making and imagery critique are central
  factors in self expression and therefore
  self-definition and self-valuation. These
  expressions of self-hood are definitive,
  politically-charged, gendered and rarely draw
  from the contingent identity practices associated
  with mainstream post-modern arts. Contemporary
  Native artists are often compelled to reject
  ethnic qualifications in the Artist First,
  Indian Second rationale. Women artists tend to
  foreground concern with community over
  individualism.
• I think as women we always think about the next
  generation or how it impacts future generations.
  Where I think its pretty apparent to me that our
  colleagues who are male, you know think more
  about how this is going to impact me. You know,
  right now, how this is going to help me. CT
• Paula Moya, Learning From Experience, Minority
  Identities, Multicultural Struggles, 2002.

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Potential research questions using cross-over
applications between Feminist Theory and
Indigenous Knowledge Systems in fine arts
contexts
Intersectionality - How are racial and gender
codes read by producers and consumers? What are
the ramifications (pro and con) of collapsing
variations of visual interpretations rather than
holding them in concert? Universalism Will a
critical awareness of Native women as
contemporary artists be achieved more
productively by re-interpretation or eradication
of demeaning icons? Identity Any discussion of
a feminist aesthetic should take the process of
aesthetic choice into account and include the
artist as a proactive selector of what to say and
how to say it. Susan Crowell, Reflections on a
Feminist Aesthetic Studio Potter 20 (1) 1991.
Emmi Whitehorse Chromium Pool 1998
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Emmi Whitehorse, 2000
I live with another male artist who happens to be
European. When people walk into our spaces, they
would look at his paintings, and then they would
look at my work. And people would automatically
go, OK, hes the male, the real male, his work
really shows the male side and your work is very
feminine. I dont know, with native artists, but
I think there is to some degree that female,
male. You know, my work, I tend to be very low
key, theres not very much bravado. When you
look at the work its very inward, its very
reclusive. You really have to kind of follow the
work. And then it releases itself to you or it
opens up these secrets to you. Its not
something that says Here I am! I think with
Native male artists you get a sense of that
bravado. I think there is definitely a difference
between how males and females treat each other in
life and its much different than the Western
ideal. Its still very male, always dominant.
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Tammy Rahr, 2000
Oh yea, you get frustrated. Theres no doubt. I
get asked the dumbest questions. I was told
there was no such thing as a dumb question, but
these people need to be educated. You know, if
someone has a misconception about Indian squaws,
well, you need to set them right. You need to
let them know where its at. You know, Hey, I
can speak English I can speak very good English.
As a matter of fact, I can even write it. I
went to school. Im not ignorant. Im a very
caring, loving person. Ive had people thank
me. Theyve sent me gifts for taking the time to
talk to them.
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NM - I remember you used to tell me they would
pat you on the head because they thought you were
so young.RS - Mm Hmm.NM - Do they still pat you
on the head?RS - In a way (laughter). Well now
Im getting older so Im curious as to how that
will change as I get older and older. Will they
still go Ohh! I can see them doing that to an
old lady, too. Our little Indian woman.i
i Swentzell, Roxanne. Interview with
author. September 12, 2000.
I remember one Indian market I got to my booth,
it was still kind of dark and there were all
these people there and I was still trying to wake
up because it was still early. And I was
preparing myself to open the door and get out and
face all these people and, um, and I had not put
on my shoes yet because it was too early. So I
decided I will just unload without my shoes so I
dont trip. So I got out and I started unloading
and then it became this thing that I was this
barefoot sort of artist person. It fed into
these peoples ideas of who I am. In their mind
(was) that I was so earthy or, so, and they
really liked that. And maybe I am and I dont
see that. But it wasnt done for an image, I
think women are seen as much more as, uh, it
doesnt really matter so much for men what they
look like. They can still be artists and make
it. But sometimes I think its harder for women.
I think theres much more of a pressure on what
you can do.NM - What is it about the art, the
southwest art that would make that even more
different?RS - To add the Indian thing. The
pretty Indian princess.
Remote Woman, Roxanne Swentzell, 1998
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Tammy Rahr, Wounded Knee Memorial, 1990
Patricia Albers and Beatrice Medicine. The Hidden
Half Studies of Plains Indian Women.
1983. Kimberle Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins
Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and
Violence Against Women of Color. 1991. Susan
Crowell, Reflections on a Feminist Aesthetic.
Studio Potter 20 (1) 1991. Phyllis Fast. Northern
Athabascan Survival Women, Community, and the
Future. 2002. Gail Landsman, The Other as
Political Symbol Images of Indians in the Woman
Suffrage Movement. Ethnohistory 393 1992. Irma
McClaurin-Allen. Incongruities Dissonance and
Contradiction in the Life of a Black Middle-Class
Woman. In Uncertain Terms ed. by Ginsburg and
Tsing. 1990. Lee Maracle, I Am Woman.
1996. Henrietta Moore. Feminism and Anthropology.
1988.
Devon Abbott Mihesuah. Indigenous American Women
Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism.
2003. Paula Moya, Learning From Experience,
Minority Identities, Multicultural Struggles.
2002. Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing
Methodologies. 1999. Susan M. Williams and Joy
Harjo.The Readers Companion to U.S. Womens
History. 1998.
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Indigenous Research Methodology(not codes of
conduct for researchers, but cultural terms for
Maori researchers)

• Values based on the way we behave moral
  messages
• A respect for people
• The seen face, that is present yourself to people
  face to face
• Look, listenspeak
• Share and host people, be generous
• Be cautious
• Do not trample over the mana of people
• Dont flaunt your knowledge

Denise Wallace
Kaupapa Maori Practices as defined by Linda
Tuhiwai Smith in Decolonizing Methodologies, 1999
(talk at Berkeley 2004)