The Chinooks and Sahaptin Indians, who lived in the Dalles
area of the Colombia River, resembled each other extremely closely.
They had nearly the exact same customs, attitudes, and opinions of
women. The Dalles Indians showed their true feelings towards women through
their treatment of the women and the value placed on them.
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Clothing as a Status Symbol
The clothing of the Indians women
exemplified the way they were viewed in the Dalles Indians’ society.
Men looked down upon women socially, and this view was reflected in
their dress, which often was nothing at all. The women tried different
types of clothing, but also went naked. One visitor described dress,
“Some of them were draped in Buffalo robes, some in deer skins, and others
wore a Shirt and trousers, or a Shirt only, and Some were quite naked” (Boyd
151). The men, however, often had elaborate outfits. When women did
wear clothes, they were most likely more reasonable and practical the
men’s’ elaborate costumes. Women’s clothing “consisted of more sensible
and functional calico dresses” (Boyd 153).
The manner in which a Chinook woman
dressed also distinguished between classes amongst women. Several
women had tattoos on the legs, and the tattoos became a symbol of wealth:
“a woman without those deckorations is Considered as among the lower
Class” (DeVoto 290). Society put heavy pressures on the Chinooks to
conform aesthetically; however, the pressures were not as substantial
on the Sahaptin. The majority of Chinooks engaged in an odd practice
in which they flattened their heads at birth when the skull was still
soft. This practice “was common among Chinookans but limited to certain
women among Sahaptin” (Boyd 92). The cost of being considered attractive
in the Northwestern Indian society was a great deal of physical pain.
In addition to the head flattening, the women also had to tie their ankles
in order to cut off circulation. The Dalles Indians considered swollen
legs, the result of tying the ankles, physically attractive: “Their thick
ankles were said to have been cause by too much sitting and squatting, and
those of women were usually swollen from tight bindings” (Ruby and Brown
46). Women had to go through harsh physical treatments merely to be accepted
in society. The Chinooks and the Sahaptins proved their view of women through
their manner of dress.
Woman and Child, Showing How the Heads of Children Are Flattened
1837-1839?
George
Catlin
(Smithsonian
American Art Museum)
The Sahaptin men
had the job of hunting and fishing for the entire family. The women,
however, were not only responsible for gathering roots and berries,
but they also cleaned, cooked, and preserved the acquired fish, meat,
berries, and roots (Hunn 206-207). The women clearly had more responsibilities
than the men in terms of providing food for the family. Visitors to the
Sahaptin villages often marveled at the prowess of the hunters and fisherman:
“The technology of hunting and fishing catches our attention; the skill
of the bow hunter; the art of the fisherman knotting his nets” (Hunn
210). Interestingly enough, the role of the women were often forgotten
although they were equally, if not more than, important the roles of the
men. Women also developed their own technology to assist them in gathering,
just as men developed the bow and arrow for hunting. Women developed the
digging stick, which made it easier to gather roots, and the basket, which
held the roots and berries efficiently. Although they may seem simple,
they were essential for helping the women provide for their families (Hunn
210). The work of the women had complicated techniques, as did hunting
and fishing for the men. The women had to dry and store the various berries,
roots, fish and meat, and store them effectively. The dried food remained
good for several years; thus it provided food during harsh winters or times
of necessity (Hunn 136). The Chinooks had an almost identical system for
distributing the labor between men and women. The men went out to catch the
fish, and the responsibility of the women was to clean and dry the fish for
later use (Ruby and Brown 13). The roles of the men and women may have been
different, but the women’s work was equally as challenging and time consuming.
Perkins, a visitor to many of the plateau tribes noted, “The men are engaged
in fishing and do nothing else. On the women falls all the work of skinning,
cleaning, and drying fish for their winter stores” (Boyd 74). After further
inspection by Perkins he even wrote that the Indian women “labored like Virginia
slaves” (Boyd 74). Another visitor to the Indian tribes even estimated that
the vast majority of the work in food production was by women: “70% of food
energy [came] from plant foods harvested by women” (Boyd 74). Women
in the Chinook and Sahaptin tribes did more than their fair share in terms
of providing food for the family.
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There are three main parts to a traditional Northwest
Indian marriage. First is the gift exchange, which is not when the
groom purchases the bride, but solidifies his intent on marriage. Next
is the ceremony, which involves formal chanting and exchange of gifts.
Following the ceremony is the feast, which lasts until the end of the
day. One interesting custom is that the groom lives in the bride’s
home for one year following the wedding, with his only duty being to
spend time with his wife (Boyd 99-100). This custom seems contradictory
to the true way that the people of the Dalles treated their wives. Polygamy
was quite common among the Pacific Northwest Indians. However, only men
of sufficient social stature were able to have multiple wives: “only a
few wealthy and high-ranking males were able to have more than one wife”
(Boyd 103). Besides the obvious sexual benefits to polygamy, they were considerable
other advantages, including social, political, and economic advantages.
The benefit of having multiple wives occurs because of the broad connections
that are made through family in Indian society: “Multiple wives brought more
ties with more families and increased one’s social and political network.
More family ties brought more economic benefits, in the forms of ongoing
affinal gifting and preferred access to economic resources” (Boyd 103).
The Chinook Chief Concomly greatly increased his political power through
his marriage of several wives in different villages (Boyd 103). An interesting
twist on the multiple wife custom is sororal polygamy, which is one man marrying
two or more sisters. The sororal polygamy actually worked out well because
“sisters tend to get along better than unrelated co-wives” (Boyd 103). Sisters
generally did not have issues with sororal polygamy, mainly because they
would be able to rely on each other for moral support: “they can count on
each other’s company and mutual support in the traumatic transition from
their own home to that of the groom’s family, the normal housing arrangement
for Plateau newlyweds” (Hunn 205). Although sororal polygamy usually had
few problems, jealousy was often a difficulty in non-sororal polygamy. In
the Sahaptin tribe, in a non-relative polygamous marriage, the women literally
call each other “enemy” (Hunn 205). Many of the Pacific Northwest Indians
treated their women as property, and they would be passed around to relatives
as such. For example, in the Sahaptin tribe, when a woman’s husband died,
she would simply be passed on to his brother, as he would pass on his property
(Hunn 204).
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The Dalles Indians rarely appreciated and valued the
work of their women. They proved this through their various customs
and rituals in clothing, roles in society, and marriage. The women actually
performed work that was more important and more difficult than men in most
cases, but was never regarded as such.
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