Sarah Fassett, Navajo Women’s Story 1868 to 1960:  Separation of the Sexes (1986)

Traditionally, Navajo women were the heads of their families or clans. They were consulted in family decision-making, and their opinions were respected. Many were expert weavers. Women could also attain religious or political honors. Some, chosen as leaders of their groups, exercised moral, economic and judicial authority and represented their groups to other Navajo. A few even went to war. While head men or women arbitrated disputes and imposed sanctions if necessary, most decisions were made through group discussion. Women were more respected than in many other Native American tribes; they were treated as companions, owned property, and took part in tribal decisions.

Navajo raids in Pueblo lands left Anglos feeling threatened and, after the Confederates withdrew from the New Mexico Territory, Kit Carson began his campaign against the tribes. They surrendered in 1864. Four years later the Navajo were allowed to return to their country in Arizona. The Department of the Interior, however, set up a political structure to ensure cooperation with the federal government. Many Navajo removed themselves from formal political activities. Women were not allowed to take part in official politics, but they continued to participate in other roles much as before.

Informally, the Navajo still governed themselves by consensus among their clans and kin-groups. Mothers headed many of these groups, performing domestic tasks and managing the family livestock. The rugs and blankets they weaved were a chief source of family income. Both men and women d planted and harvested crops. Some women did ritual chants, and they were treated with the same degree of respect as their male colleagues. But a decline in the number of women chanters may have reflected a growing Anglo influence.

Navajos placed little importance on virginity and had few rules concerning sex, though marriages between members of the same clan or related clans were forbidden.  Prostitution existed informally, without stigma. Illegitimate pregnancies were handled by marriage or a financial settlement. Women practiced birth control; abortion occurred rarely. Marriages were informal. Polygamy was practiced unofficially though forbidden by the government. Navajos caught committing adultery were punished physically; and settlements were reached through payments to the offended party or divorce. Separation and divorce were fairly frequent and informal. Navajo men could keep their separate property if they left their wives, but their wives kept everything else.

Women kept their earnings from weaving and other crafts, separate property, and joint personal property. Married couples shared livestock and land. If a Navajo died intestate, property descended according to the tribe’s matrilineal tradition. Relatives would discuss the estate and make adjustments as needed. They could take the matter to the Court of Indian Offenses, which was governed by a combination of tribal and federal law. But most people preferred unofficial settlements out of the reach of the federal government.

Tribal Councils were largely instruments of the federal government. They formalized the requirements for marriage except in cases of pregnancy. The Council also enacted property provisions that made all jointly acquired property community property under the control and management of the husband. Divorces had to be handled through the courts and became stricter, and as land eroded, women’s grazing rights for their sheep were curtailed. Due to growing government intervention and Anglo influence in Navajo life, women were gradually excluded from political and judicial structures and their legal status was diminished.

 

 

Revised July 23, 2003 (MD)