Building Native Women’s Leadership through Community and Culture

Year 2020, Issue: 54, 79 - 104, 01.11.2020

Nichole S. Prescott

Abstract

Using the lenses of colonialism and gender, this article explores
the evolving nature and perception of Native American women’s leadership historically and in the present. Historically, women and men had
different yet equally important leadership roles to play within the community. These roles were inextricably interdependent. Euro-American
colonialism through conquest and religion brought concomitant gender
ideologies that slowly tore at the fabric of indigenous communities and
ultimately altered the nature of gender parity within community leadership. Today, Native American women are taking back a degree of the
significant sociopolitical power they once exercised. Native women
are rising to the top ranks of leadership in the nation as members of
the US House of Representatives, in their states as executive officers
and as state representatives in their state legislatures, as well as in their
communities as tribal officials, education advocates, environmental activists, and as culturally empowered mothers, sisters, and daughters.

Keywords

Native American Women, Indigenous Women’s Leadership, Indigenous Culture, Indigenous Community

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