Returning the Red Dress: The effect of Euro-centric ideas surrounding historical Indigenous women and how those ideas impact Indigenous women today
Location
Ponderosa Room B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
3-3-2023 2:30 PM
Event Sort Order
37
Abstract
A 2018 study of sexual violence towards Indigenous women by the United Indian Health Institute revealed that 86% of the women polled felt that they were directly impacted by historical trauma. Historians Susan Sleeper-Smith and Sylvia Van Kirk both explore the gender roles Indigenous women played during Westward Expansion and how these roles were impacted by expansion. Neither, however, explores how the enduring mythology regarding Indigenous women continues to impact Indigenous women today.
In this paper, I argue that historically the Euro-centric ideas surrounding the Indigenous women of North America during colonization and expansion were the foundation for how Indigenous women are viewed today. Drawing information from the United Indian Health Institute’s report “Our Bodies, Our Stories,” and the Canadian, Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, this paper will utilize modern data to demonstrate the negative impact these curated mythologies surrounding Indigenous women have caused and continue to cause today. Connecting past ideas and mythologies of Indigenous women to the violence they face today, will bring awareness to the importance of re-indigenizing Native American women. With the hope of reducing violence and returning both Indigenous women’s sovereignty and power.
Returning the Red Dress: The effect of Euro-centric ideas surrounding historical Indigenous women and how those ideas impact Indigenous women today
Ponderosa Room B
A 2018 study of sexual violence towards Indigenous women by the United Indian Health Institute revealed that 86% of the women polled felt that they were directly impacted by historical trauma. Historians Susan Sleeper-Smith and Sylvia Van Kirk both explore the gender roles Indigenous women played during Westward Expansion and how these roles were impacted by expansion. Neither, however, explores how the enduring mythology regarding Indigenous women continues to impact Indigenous women today.
In this paper, I argue that historically the Euro-centric ideas surrounding the Indigenous women of North America during colonization and expansion were the foundation for how Indigenous women are viewed today. Drawing information from the United Indian Health Institute’s report “Our Bodies, Our Stories,” and the Canadian, Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, this paper will utilize modern data to demonstrate the negative impact these curated mythologies surrounding Indigenous women have caused and continue to cause today. Connecting past ideas and mythologies of Indigenous women to the violence they face today, will bring awareness to the importance of re-indigenizing Native American women. With the hope of reducing violence and returning both Indigenous women’s sovereignty and power.
Presenter Bio
Andie Huebner is a graduate student at UNK, studying American history with an interest in Indigenous history. She plans to graduate in the fall of 2023. Her favorite pastime is hiking with her dog, Lenny. Together they have completed seven 14,000-foot summits.