First Nations women and empire-building north of the Rio Grande

We are yet to fully understand gender relations in general, and women’s access to positions of authority in particular, among the hundreds of American First Nations living beyond the frayed northern frontiers of New Spain, in territories disputed by Spain, France, Holland and Britain—today’s Canada and the United States.

The English Pilgrims found women sachems ruling in New England. Like cacicas in Iberian America, they inherited chieftainships through matrilineal or paternal descent, or at their husbands’ death. The political map of southern New England in 1620 revealed constant re-positioning as Narragansetts, Pequots, Mohegans, Niantics and other First Nations entered into and switched alliances with Europeans and among themselves. Although smaller in scale than the Aztec and Inca Empires, some of these polities were in the process of building their own empires. In stark contrast to the Spanish, the Pilgrims proved less willing to become integrated into indigenous kinship networks through inter­marriage. Instead, prior to King Philip’s War (1675—1676) they sought a legal coexistence: the Plymouth Court ruled over the newcomers, while Indians went on being governed by their sachems. This arrangement allowed women sachems to continue ruling during the early colonial era. In 1657, Quaiapen (also known as Matantuck) became the Narragansett chief sachem at the death of her husband Mixanno, and occupied the position for nineteen years. Quaiapen was the sister of another well-connected Niantic chief sachem; her brother had alliances and relatives among other Narragansett sachems.

Major John Talcott’s attack against Nipsachuk Swamp in July 16 76.²⁷ Other female sachems include the ‘squaw [sic] sachem’ of the Pawtuckets, who occupied the position at the death of her husband in 1619. She ruled into the 1640s, making alliances with the English and ‘arranging marriages between her children and those of other sachems’. Another woman, Weetamo, inherited the chieftainship of the Pocassets from her father. She successively married a Pokanoket and a Narragansett sachem, ostensibly to create political alliances.²⁸ The power of the sachems, however, declined after the war in 1676. The defeat of the Wampanoags and their allies ended the independence and autonomy of First Nations, and led to the disappearance of Indian government.²⁹ Confined to reserva­tions, Indians did not participate in the colonial government, except as tribal leaders charged with enforcing colonial rule over their communities—an exclusively male circle. After the demise of the New England sachems, no indigenous women participated in tribal government, much less colonial government—at least not before the twentieth century.

The existence of women sachems in New England cannot be extrapolated to other First Nations. A different story unfolded among the Algonkian speakers whom the English first encountered along the three major tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. By 1608 the Powhatan Empire had expanded to include thirty tribes, numbering 14,000 subjects and 3,200 warriors.³⁰ No women ruled within this empire at the time of English arrival. Having inherited rule from his mother, the Algonkian leader Wahunsonacock appointed his kinsmen as chieftains of the villages that he consolidated under his rule.³¹ Although doc­umentation of women’s political influence is non-existent, all women within the Powhatan Empire wielded economic power through cultivation of corn and other foodstuffs.

One woman alone among the Powhatans attained legendary status. Amonute or Matoaka (better known as Pocahontas), Wahunsonacock’s favourite daughter, allegedly saved John Smith, commander of Jamestown (Virginia) from her father’s fatal blow by shielding his head with her own. Helen Rountree attributes this inaccurate version to John Smith himself.³² In 1613 the English kidnapped Pocahontas, who was by then married under Indian law, for ransom and confined her to Jamestown, where the young woman voluntarily converted to the Church of England, accepted baptism and adopted the name ‘Rebecca’. During her time as hostage, she formed a bond with John Rolfe, a tobacco planter. Their subsequent marriage ushered in a period of peace between the English and Powhatan. Unsuccessfully, Governor Dale sought ‘to arrange a second marriage [to a stepsister of Pocahontas] to reaffirm the peace’.³³ Through the myth that grew around her, Pocahontas came to symbolise one who sides with the foreigner against their own people. As the daughter of a ruler, Pocahontas was treated as a ‘princess’ during the twelve months of her captivity. Her future as an intermediary between the English and her people, however, was cut short by her untimely death in 1617 at the age of 21. She died returning to Virginia from London, where she had enjoyed celebrity status; making the acquaintance of King James I, the Bishop of London and various aristocrats.

The opportunities for women such as the sachem Quaiapen and Pocahontas differ in that the former occupied a hereditary ruling position while the latter could only aspire to indirect influence by virtue of being the favourite daughter of a ruler and the wife of a well-respected Englishman. As empire-building in North America moved westward, Europeans did not encounter pre-contact empires similar to those of New England and, although indigenous women continued to be central to the American expansion, their contributions as wives, guides, interpreters and as producers of food, homes, apparel and commodities for the fur trade did not translate into formal positions of authority.