Synopses & Reviews
In this edited volume, Theda Perdue, a nationally known expert on Indian history and southern women's history, offers a rich collection of biographical essays on Native American women. From Pocahontas, a Powhatan woman of the seventeenth century, to Ada Deer, the Menominee woman who headed the
Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1990s, the essays span four centuries. Each one recounts the experiences of women from vastly different cultural traditions--the hunting and gathering of Kumeyaay culture of Delfina Cuero, the pueblo society of San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez, and the powerful
matrilineal kinship system of Molly Brant's Mohawks. Contributors focus on the ways in which different women have fashioned lives that remain firmly rooted in their identity as Native women. Perdue's introductory essay ties together the themes running through the biographical sketches, including the
cultural factors that have shaped the lives of Native women, particularly economic contributions, kinship, and belief, andthe ways in which historical events, especially in United States Indian policy, have engendered change.
Review
"A masterful collection. Clearly and concisely leads the reader through the varied and changing environments which these women faced, and whets the appitite for further inquiry into this fascinating subject. Any student of Native American life will benefit from reading this book."--Indigenous Nations Studies Journal
"A very useful adjunct to an American history survey course. A welcome addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on Native American women."--Western Historical Quarterly
Review
"Sifters remains a valuable contribution to our understanding of both the continuity and diversity marking the lives of American Indian women at crucial persiods in history." --Florida Historical Quarterly
"Taken as a whole this book presents a well reasoned, well-researched account of a selected group of women that meets historians' and academicians' needs for information regarding specific American Indian women and their interactions with the larger socio-historical period as well as the consequences of their existence in that larger framework."- J. Anne Calhoun, University of New Mexico
Synopsis
In this edited volume, Theda Perdue, a nationally known expert on Indian history and southern women's history, offers a rich collection of biographical essays on Native American women. From Pocahontas, a Powhatan woman of the seventeenth century, to Ada Deer, the Menominee woman who headed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the 1990s, the essays span four centuries. Each one recounts the experiences of women from vastly different cultural traditions--the hunting and gathering of Kumeyaay culture of Delfina Cuero, the pueblo society of San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez, and the powerful matrilineal kinship system of Molly Brant's Mohawks. Contributors focus on the ways in which different women have fashioned lives that remain firmly rooted in their identity as Native women. Perdue's introductory essay ties together the themes running through the biographical sketches, including the cultural factors that have shaped the lives of Native women, particularly economic contributions, kinship, and belief, and the ways in which historical events, especially in United States Indian policy, have engendered change.
About the Author
Theda Perdue is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. She is the author of
Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (1998) and
The Cherokee Removal (1995).