Native Women's History in Eastern North America before 1900

Abstract

This landmark anthology is an essential guide to the histories of Native women's lives in earlier centuries. Sixteen classic essays, plus new commentary—many by the original authors, describe a broad range of research methods and sources offering insight into the lives of Native American women. The authors explain the use of letters and diaries, memoirs and autobiographies, newspaper accounts and ethnographies, census data and legal documents. This collection offers guidelines for extracting valuable information from such diverse sources and assessing the significance of a such variables as religious affiliation, changes in women's power after colonization, connections between economics and gender, and representations of Native women.