american women

American women

Early American life encompasses simplicity and was depicted with the images of cotton , straw hats , iron kettles and umbrellas . Both the Native American men and women who are also known as Indians , worked jointly for their livelihood like fishing , grinding corn or constructing houses . Back then , native women were depicted by the society to occupy position that are of the same level of respect among the native men . It is also noteworthy that the native women possess great deal of power and has a great control over their way of

living . They were viewed in the society as the mothers of all the tribes men and the activities that they carry out incorporates the basic way of living such as feeding their children , providing clothing and shelter for their families Compared to their white counterparts , Native American women were able to practice their liberty and security (American Indian culture research center , 2008 . However , during the late 19th century there was a great misconception with regards to the activities that was carried out by the Native American community as a whole . The white society perceived the activities that they carried out as savage and less glamorous . What the whites did was to

For many reformers during that era , it became a key goal for the white society to forcefully assimilate native women as well as the whole Native American society into acculturation (Hartmann et al , 2008 Because of this , native women were forced to abandon their traditional culture , values and roles . They were also pressured to leave behind the dependence that they had and had loss the authority over their children Generally , the roles of Native American women were altered within the white society as well as with their own tribes . It was also documented that the native women were placed in the labor force which eventually lead to the dispersal of the whole tribes (Anderson , 1997 . As a way of accomplishing acculturation among the Native American women , the whites viewed education as an imperative tool for the so called reformation The enactment of the Dawes Severalty Act or the general allotment by the US congress was viewed as the solution for the problems in educating the native women . Based from the provisions of the Dawes act , the government has the right to buy reservation lands that were not allotted and the allotted money would eventually go to the education and civilization of the tribe ' This took in effect by providing non-reservation boarding schools to the Native Americans especially the native women which were created to be deeply deviated towards the acculturation of the tribes . According to researches the non-reservation boarding schools provided a type of education that is very much favorable among the tribes ' women . The most famous among the non-reservation boarding schools was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School which was owned by Richard Henry Pratt and was built in 1879 (Hartmann et al , 2008 . In an illustration entitled The Dawn of Civilization-an Indian Belle at her toilet...