Multiplicity and Drive for Survival

By

Lauren Kastner

Spring 2016

The lives of Native people dramatically changed with the arrival of Europeans in their world. The introduction of new diseases, weapons and tools turned the daily Native life sideways and tribes found themselves playing by European rules more and more, slowly getting boxed in with precious little they could do about it. Native women had more options than their male counterparts. They could choose to be companions to their European subjugator, giving themselves a chance for a much better life than they may have expected to otherwise. Native women that lived in areas that participated in the fur trade were especially useful, and thus had more power. In the face of all the changes in their Native world after the intrusion of European influence Native women had to weigh their choices and carve out the best life they could for themselves and possibly the future of their people.

The initial impressions of the Native people in the minds of Europeans were similar in all areas of contact. They were child-like in their thinking, heathen people that lacked belief in God, depraved and lazy. The European impression of the Native woman was a bit more flattering than that of her male equivalent. Other than being lustful and eager to copulate with Christian men they are described fairly flatteringly as “tolerably beautiful and cleanly...those who had borne children were not to be distinguished from virgins”. This somewhat compliment shows that the Europeans looked upon Native women differently than Native men, possibly only in a physical sense, but still differently. Initial European explorers also noted the difference in sex based workload in Native societies, possibly to the benefit of opinion of Native women. They saw the structure of labor among the Native societies as backward. Noting that the women do much of the labor while men hunted. These images of Native women along with the paternal role Europeans saw themselves in in regards to teaching Native people to be civilized left Native men with two strikes against them. They were not only childlike, but they were more feminine than their women due to the reversal of work roles in European eyes. Combine this with the lack of available European women and Native women have some room to alter their circumstances as their natural environment crumbled around them.

Even before Native people were conquered some Native women made the choice to align themselves with European men. Cortéz may not have defeated the Aztec empire at all if not for the diplomatic skill and translation that was supplied to him from Doña Marina. Having been given to Cortéz along with 19 other women she did not have much choice in serving the Spanish conquistadors, but she made the choice to single out Cortéz and aid him to the extent that she is remembered as a mother to Mexico and a traitor to her people. Malintzin could have been just another one of the nameless Native girls that serviced the Spanish on their conquest, but she chose to rise from the ranks and become Doña Marina. She was able to travel with Cortéz to places she would never have seen otherwise, she became an important asset to Cortéz and his men and it is quite possible that as a result of her choices Native people were massacred and a new nation was born.  

Across the Atlantic European relations with Native people followed a strikingly similar pattern. European superiority was presumed and native people were subjugated. In South Africa a Khoi girl related to the leader of a powerful clan was sent to live in the fort at the Dutch Cape colony, quite possible to spy for her people. Krotoa, who had no choice but to go and live with the Dutch allowed herself to be baptized Eva and became a live in companion to the wife of the colonies governor and possibly his mistress. Eva did leave the Cape fort, returning to her people. Eva elected to return and marry into Dutch society, serving as a translator until the death of her husband and the defeat of her people left her expendable to the Dutch and displaced from her own people. Eva’s choice to live with the Dutch may have been a result of a childhood spent living a European lifestyle with the governor's family. Upon returning to her tribe she may have simply missed the life she left. She may have had aspirations of traveling to Europe, or she may simply wanted to have a family and be accepted into the Dutch society developing in South Africa and creating a stable life for her children as opposed to the uncertain life that would be waiting with her own people. Regardless of her reasons, without a husband or European benefactor she had no power to keep her children and lived the rest of her days in exile.   

Pocahontas, presumably the daughter of Pumuky chief, on the other hand not only chose to marry an Englishman but she was able to travel to England. Her story has not only risen to mythical proportions, but she is famous in popular culture as a Disney princess. It is hard to ascertain what is fact and what is myth in regards to Pocahontas, as historians are not even sure that Pocahontas is her real name, and the popular belief that she saved John Smith from death is very likely a misinterpretation by Smith in his writings of the events. Regardless of the authenticity of her name and her interactions with Smith Pocahontas still served as an interpreter between her tribe and the English, and was afforded the ability to travel as a result of her marriage to an Englishman. This choice we can see a little more clearly as we know that familial lines within the Pamunkey nation are matrilineal. Pocahontas would not have had to choose between her people and exploring the wider world, regardless of her personal choices her children would be accepted in her tribe.

Native women were arguably at the peak of their power position during the fur trade. The knowledge a Native woman possessed in regards to navigating the land, customs and languages of tribes along with practical skills like moccasin and snowshoe making, canoe building, preparing food, and working with the furs made marriage of Native women to European men commonplace. These à la façon du pays unions were encouraged on both sides due to the indispensability of these skills by the European viewpoint, and the allegiance and kinship it provided from the Native point of view.   

In every case mentioned Native women chose to align themselves with a European man. The similarities in situations are strikingly similar, but also worlds apart. Interactions with the Spanish left Malintzin with a choice between slave labor and rape or travel, possibly love, and a legacy split between love and hate. Her choices could have been made purely for survival and quality of her own life, they could have been made for love of Cortéz, a desire to be important or travel. Krotoa, arguably the most tragic of these stories, was sent into enemy territory as a child and grew up with them. Having chosen the life of her enemy she was left without a place in their world or her own. Pocahontas’s reasons are harder to see. The notoriety of her tale itself diminishes her individual voice. The choices of Native women involved in the fur trade could have been made for a multitude of reasons, individual or overlapping. Individual survival may have been at stake, possibly the survival of their tribe. Curiosity of a foreign culture and lifestyle may have tempted Native women. Some most likely legitimately loved the European men they married. One reason may have been a hedging of bets. By having children with a European man the children have better odds for survival. They have a place within their mother's tribe, as well as a place within their fathers world. Whichever player comes out on top survival of the next generation is assured. Of all the possible reasons for a woman to choose to bed the enemy, this makes the most strategic sense during a time of extreme uncertainty.

Works Cited

Chang, David. “American Indian History To 1830”. (Discussion University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 27 2016).

Chang, David. “American Indian History To 1830”. (Lecture University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 3 2016).

Chang, David. “American Indian History To 1830”. (Lecture University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 29 2016).

Chang, David. “American Indian History To 1830”. (Discussion University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 8 2016).

Kirk, Sylvia Van. "The Role of Native Women in the Fur Trade Society of Western Canada, 1670-1830." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 7, no. 3 (1984): 9. doi:10.2307/3346234. (9-12)

 Scully, Pamela. "Malintzin, Pocahontas, and Krotoa: Indigenous Women and Myth Models of the Atlantic World." Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 6, no. 3 (2005). doi:10.1353/cch.2006.0022.(4).