Yet a word more before I leave my Indians.
There is one subject on which all travellers in these regions--all who
have treated of the manners and modes of life of the north-west tribes,
are accustomed to expatiate with great eloquence and indignation, which
they think it incumbent on the gallantry and chivalry of Christendom to
denounce, as constituting the true badge and distinction of barbarism
and heathenism, opposed to civilisation and Christianity:--I mean the
treatment and condition of their women. The women, they say, are
"drudges," "slaves," "beasts of burthen," victims, martyrs, degraded,
abject, oppressed; that not only the cares of the household and
maternity, but the cares and labours proper to the men, fall upon them;
and they seem to consider no expression of disapprobation, and even
abhorrence, too strong for the occasion; and if there be any who should
feel inclined to modify such objurgations, or speak in excuse or
mitigation of the fact, he might well fear that the publication of such
opinions would expose him, in every review, to the death of Orpheus or
Pentheus.
Luckily I have no such risk to run. Let but my woman's wit bestead me
here as much as my womanhood, and I will, as the Indians say, "tell you
a piece of my mind," and place the matter before you in another point of
view.
Under one aspect of the question, all these gentlemen travellers are
right; they are right in their estimate of the condition of the Indian
squaws--they _are_ drudges, slaves: and they are right in the opinion,
that the condition of the women in any community is a test of the
advance of moral and intellectual cultivation in that community; but it
is not a test of the virtue or civilisation of the man; in these Indian
tribes, where the men are the noblest and bravest of their kind, the
women are held of no account, are despised and oppressed. But it does
appear to me that the woman among these Indians holds her true natural
position relatively to the state of the man and the state of society;
and this cannot be said of all societies.
Take into consideration, in the first place, that in these Indian
communities the task of providing subsistence falls solely and entirely
on the men. When it is said, in general terms, that the men do nothing
but _hunt_ all day, while the women are engaged in perpetual _toil_, I
suppose this suggests to civilised readers the idea of a party of
gentlemen at Melton, or a turn-out of Mr. Meynell's hounds; or at most a
deer-stalking excursion to the Highlands--a holiday affair; while the
women, poor souls! must sit at home and sew, and spin, and cook
victuals. But what is really the life of an Indian hunter?--one of
incessant, almost killing toil, and often danger.[50] A hunter goes out
at dawn, knowing that, if he returns empty, his wife and his little ones
must _starve_--no uncommon predicament! He comes home at sunset, spent
with fatigue, and unable even to speak. His wife takes off his
moccasins, places before him what food she has, or, if latterly the
chase has failed, probably no food at all, or only a little parched wild
rice. She then examines his hunting-pouch, and in it finds the claws,
or beak, or tongue of the game, or other indications by which she knows
what it is, and where to find it. She then goes for it, and drags it
home. When he is refreshed, the hunter caresses his wife and children,
relates the events of his chase, smokes his pipe, and goes to sleep--to
begin the same life on the following day.
Where, then, the whole duty and labour of providing the means of
subsistence, ennobled by danger and courage, fall upon the man, the
woman naturally sinks in importance, and is a dependent drudge. But she
is not therefore, I suppose, so _very_ miserable, nor, relatively, so
very abject; she is sure of protection; sure of maintenance, at least
while the man has it; sure of kind treatment; sure that she will never
have her children taken from her but by death; sees none better off than
herself, and has no conception of a superior destiny; and it is evident
that in such a state the appointed and necessary share of the woman is
the household work, and all other domestic labour. As to the necessity
of carrying burthens, when moving the camp from place to place, and
felling and carrying wood, this is the most dreadful part of her lot;
and however accustomed from youth to the axe, the paddle, and the
carrying-belt, it brings on internal injuries and severe suffering--and
yet it _must_ be done. For a man to carry burthens would absolutely
incapacitate him for a hunter, and consequently from procuring
sufficient meat for his family. Hence, perhaps, the contempt with which
they regard it. And an Indian woman is unhappy, and her pride is hurt,
if her husband should be seen with a load on his back; this was strongly
expressed by one among them who said it was "unmanly;" and that "she
could not bear to see it!"
Hence, however hard the lot of the woman, she is in no _false_ position.
The two sexes are in their natural and true position relatively to the
state of society, and the means of subsistence.
The first step from the hunting to the agricultural state is the first
step in the emancipation of the female. I know there are some writers
who lament that the introduction of agriculture has not benefited the
Indian women, but rather added to their toils, as a great proportion of
the hoeing and planting has devolved on them; but among the Ottawas,
where this is the case, the women are decidedly in a better state than
among the hunting Chippewas; they can sell or dispose of the produce
raised by themselves, if there be more than is necessary for the family,
and they take some share in the bargains and business of the tribe: and
add, that among all these tribes, in the division of the money payments
for the ceded land, every woman receives her individual share.
Lewis and Clarke, in exploring the Missouri, came upon a tribe of
Indians who, from local circumstances, kill little game, and live
principally on fish and roots; and as the women are equally expert with
the men in procuring subsistence, they have a rank and influence very
rarely found among Indians. The females are permitted to speak freely
before the men, to whom indeed they sometimes address themselves in a
tone of authority. On many subjects their judgment and opinion are
respected, and in matters of trade their advice is generally asked and
pursued; the labours of the family too are shared equally.[51] This
seems to be a case in point.
Then, when we speak of the _drudgery_ of the women, we must note the
equal division of labour; there is no class of women privileged to sit
still while others work. Every squaw makes the clothing, mats,
moccasins, and boils the kettle for her own family. Compare her life
with the refined leisure of an elegant woman in the higher classes of
our society, and it is wretched and abject; but compare her life with
that of a servant-maid of all work, or a factory-girl,--I do say that
the condition of the squaw is gracious in comparison, dignified by
domestic feelings, and by equality with all around her. If women are to
be exempted from toil in reverence to the sex, and as _women_, I can
understand this, though I think it unreasonable; but if it be merely a
privilege of station, and confined to a certain set, while the great
primeval penalty is doubled on the rest, then I do not see where is the
great gallantry and consistency of this our Christendom, nor what right
we have to look down upon the barbarism of the Indian savages who make
_drudges_ of their women.
I will just mention here the extreme delicacy and personal modesty of
the women of these tribes, which may seem strange when we see them
brought up and living in crowded wigwams, where a whole family is herded
within a space of a few yards: but the lower classes of the Irish,
brought up in their cabins, are remarkable for the same feminine
characteristic: it is as if true modesty were from within, and could
hardly be outwardly defiled.
But to return. Another boast over the Indian savages in this respect is,
that we set a much higher value on the chastity of women. We are told
(with horror) that among some of the north-west tribes the man offers
his wife or sister, nothing loth, to his guest, as a part of the duty of
hospitality; and this is, in truth, _barbarism_!--the heartless
brutality on one side, and the shameless indifference on the other, may
well make a woman's heart shrink within her. But what right have
civilised _men_ to exclaim, and look sublime and self-complacent about
the matter? If they do not exactly imitate this fashion of the Indians,
their exceeding and jealous reverence for the virtue of women is really
indulged at a very cheap rate to themselves. If the chastity of women be
a virtue, and respectable in the eyes of the community for its own sake,
well and good; if it be a mere matter of expediency, and valuable only
as it affects property, guarded by men just as far as it concerns their
honour--as far as regards ours, a jest,--if this be the masculine creed
of right and wrong--the fiat promulgated by our lords and masters, then
I should reply that there is no woman, worthy the name, whose cheek does
not burn in shame and indignation at the thought.
With regard to female right of property, there is no such thing as real
property among them, except the hunting-grounds or territory which are
the possession of the tribe. The personal property, as the clothing,
mats, cooking and hunting apparatus, all the interior of the wigwam, in
short, seems to be under the control of the woman; and on the death of
her husband the woman remains in possession of the lodge, and all it
contains, except the medal, flag, or other insignia of dignity, which go
to his son or male relatives. The corn she raises, and the maple sugar
she makes, she can always dispose of as she thinks fit--they are _hers_.
[Footnote 50: I had once a description of an encounter between my
illustrious grandpapa Waub-Ojeeg and an enormous elk, in which he had to
contend with the infuriated animal, for his very life, for a space of
three hours, and the snows were stained with his blood and that of his
adversary for a hundred yards round. At last, while dodging the elk
round and round a tree, he contrived to tear off the thong from his
moccasin, and with it, to fasten his knife to the end of a stick, and
with this he literally hacked at the creature till it fell from loss of
blood.]
[Footnote 51: Travels up the Missouri.]