Discovery important primary source documents on Native Women in North America using ProQuest products. See this deck to see examples from Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires.

1. Women and Social Movements in
Modern Empires Since 1820
Selections from Document Clusters on
Native Women in North America

2. Women's Leadership in the Choctaw of Oklahoma, 1917-1963
Muriel H. Wright worked as a historian, teacher, and writer. Her
commitment to the Wright family’s Choctaw lineage sustained her
commitment to the history of Indian people and to Indian affairs in
Oklahoma. This selection from her papers at the Oklahoma Historical
Society includes letters that document her family relationships, her
work in Indian history, especially the Five Civilized Tribes, and her
participation in Indian affairs, especially those of the Choctaw Nation.
Muriel Wright wrote Our Oklahoma (1939) as a book to teach
Oklahoma history in high schools. Rather than beginning that history
with Oklahoma's origin as an Indian Territory in the United States,
which would erase the presence of indigenous peoples and histories
before European settlers, Wright’s history begins with two chapters
on pre-Columbus indigenous history. Subsequent chapters discuss
interactions with settlers and traders, forts and trails, the
governments of the different indigenous nations of Oklahoma, inter-
tribal treaties, the effects of the Civil War, the development of Indian
reservations, and more, concluding with a chapter on “Oklahoma
Today.”
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3. Women's Leadership in the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, 1954-1986
The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is the largest
American Indian nation east of the Mississippi River.
Pembroke, the location of their tribal government, is also
the home of the oldest state school for the education of
American Indians. The photographs in this collection,
taken by Elmer W. Hunt, photographer for the University
of North Carolina at Pembroke between 1953 and 1973,
explore questions related to gender, kinship, community,
and identity.
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Carolina Indian Voice reporter staff photograph, by
Elmer William Hunt

4. Women's Leadership in the Lummi Nation, 1880-1942
Pauline Hillaire, Scälla Of the Killer Whale (Lummi, 19292016), was a direct
descendant of the immediate post-contact generations of Coast Salish people in
Washington State. Her influence was and is extensive. She lived a humble life,
beginning and ending on the Lummi Indian Reservation on the northwest coast
of Washington State. Scälla was a traditionally trained culture bearer, cultural
conservator, oral historian, genealogist, storyteller, teacher of song and dance, a
recording artist, and author. She was awarded a Washington Governor’s
Heritage Award in 2006, and received special designation as the 2013 National
Endowment for the Arts Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellow.
A Century of Coast Salish History at Lummi is a digital complement to the
published book, Rights Remembered: A Salish Grandmother Speaks on
American Indian History and the Future. Material in the video alternates
between an interview with Pauline Hillaire, videographed in 2003, and an audio
interview, recorded in 2011. The 2011 audio interview forms the soundtrack of an
oral history narration accompanied by images of life at Lummi over the course of
a century, beginning in 1911. The images were selected from Hillaire’s personal
archives and from several institutional archives. They offer glimpses into
changes and continuities of life on the Lummi Reservation during the twentieth
century. Hillaire opens the video singing “Red Cedar Tree Song” and discusses
her family life. Other topics include language loss, Chinuk Wawa (Chinook
Jargon), marriage customs, motherhood, native regalia, the Setting Sun Dancers,
U.S. Indian policy, repression of ceremonial gatherings, and colonialism.
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Pauline Hillaire, Scälla Of the Killer Whale

5. Women's Leadership in the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma
This cluster offers a documentary video interpreting the history and
culture of the Quapaw people, sponsored by the Cultural Quapaw
Tribal Committee, of which Elder Ardina Revard Moore is
Chairperson. In the video Ardina Moore portrays the history and
culture of the Quapaw people, highlighting, for example, how they
have celebrated community and harvest during the Fourth of July
week by holding Pow Wows. In past times, the Quapaws celebrated
the Green Corn Ceremony, still observed by many tribes. The Green
Corn Ceremony is held when the corn is growing but before it can be
eaten; tribal members partake in rituals to honor the abundance the
earth has shared with them. Elder Ardina Moore relates that
beginning in the twentieth century Quapaws chose the green corn
ripening as a time to reunite with families and kinsmen, often
traveling far to do so. During the Fourth of July week, more fortunate
Quapaws share a portion of their wealth with gifts in the form of
agricultural products, clothing, and money. It is also customary for
Quapaws to pass on oral histories for future generations. In this video
Elder Ardina Revard Moore addresses Dhigiha-speaking peoples by
reminding them how their contributions sustain their culture, and
urges the audience to pass on this heritage to their offspring.
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Ardina Revard Moore

6. Women's Leadership in Pow Wow Ritual, 2008-2014, Salish, Blackfeet
and Urban Idaho Falls
Interviews and film footage explore powwows as
commemorative performance and as social
gatherings that integrate past and present, affirm
tribal values, and express individual, tribal, and
intertribal identities. Transcripts are from filmed
interviews with people from the Blackfeet
Confederacy, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes, and one urban, intertribal drum in Idaho,
2008-2014. The interviews include personal stories
and cultural knowledge. Innovation and resilience
are highlighted, as tribes brought their own values
forward to meet change in ways that spoke to the
needs of their communities. Adoptions and gender
norms illustrate the flexibility of tradition and the
persistence of tribal cultures in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, especially the inclusion of
girls as tribal drummers.
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As an elder, Dolly (Mary L.) Linesbigler is a “song
keeper,” called on to sing at Salish ceremonial
occasions as well as at social events like powwows.

7. Women's Leadership in Wendat/Wyandot/Wyandotte Tribes in Canada,
1985-1992
Dr. Éléonore Sioui (1924-2006) was a respected
Wendat medicine woman, intellectual and feminist.
She traveled widely to better the lives of Indigenous
girls and women through public talks, government
initiatives and diplomatic ventures.
This publication is a collection of original and
reprinted poems written by Éleonore Sioui. The poems
are inspired by Wendat oral traditions. The
collection’s subtitle, "On the Back of a Turtle,"
highlights the poems’ perspective. Sioui reminds us to
be guardians of Mother Earth and look towards the
future. She also calls attention to the universal
connections among all "Red Nations" around the
world.
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8. Women's Leadership through the Women's Basket Cooperative in
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, 1983-2000
For as long as oral or written history records, black ash
baskets, created by indigenous tribes of North America, have
been iconic items of art and utility. This document cluster
explores the work of women of the Pokagon Band of
Potawatomi Indians who, in the 1970's, started a basket-
making cooperative that became a center of culture and art for
this tribal community. Included here are primary documents
that outline the activities and impact of the co-op, as well as
relevant news articles, a film clip, and an extended history of
the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.
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9. Finding Mourning Dove's Authentic Voice, Colville Federated Tribes,
1915-1935
Christine Quintasket, known by her pen
name Mourning Dove, was a Colville
Indian woman during a moment of
great change on the Columbia Plateau
in Washington state. In letters and
entries written for a book eventually
published as Coyote Stories, Quintasket
documented her life and consequently
the world around her in the early 20th
century. Using letters written to her
friend and editorial mentor Lucullus V.
McWhorter between the years 1915 and
1935, as well as original drafts of four
coyote “folklores,” as Mourning Dove
referred to them, this document
collection allows readers to explore
Mourning Dove's world and to locate
her authentic voice.
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10. Selma Sully Walker and Native Women's Leadership in Ohio, 1975-2011
In 1975, Selma Sully Walker founded the Native
American Indian Center of Central Ohio and served as its
Executive Director until 1992. The Native American
Indian Center of Central Ohio, created and led by Indian
women, has provided services, ceremonies, cultural
education and outreach for more than four decades. The
documents in this collection include transcripts of
interviews with its Native leaders, photographs,
newspaper articles, flyers and newsletters from the
Center, and other related materials about its goals and
programs. It provides evidence of Native people's
experiences in this community and of indigenous
women's leadership in serving the needs and sharing the
joys of Native and non-Native Ohioans.
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Selma Sully Walker