The Warrior Tradition

The traditional roles of a warrior, in regards to Muscogee, they were typically filled by males, but it doesn't mean that the women didn't possess the skills that they needed to be a warrior. They just weren't usually asked or called upon to fill that role. There were some conflicts when they weren't on a front line, yet they were attacked, and they had to defend themselves and their children and the elders that had been left behind. I think that they've always been able to fill that role, but they just weren't called upon. As a young lady growin' up on the Navajo nation coming from a traditional family, you know, our traditions, women are not supposed to be hunters. We don't go on hunting parties or anything like that. We have very distinct roles, what is considered sacred duties of Navajo women, which is taking care of the home, taking care of the children. I just had this curiosity about what was on the other side of the fence. I think more the elders thought women couldn't joint and I had more, how would you say, push back from the elders. Not all. It was more of like why let a woman go or you can't do that or women can't do this. I thought that was kind of interesting. I think that's changed a lot and people see a lot of women joining now. That's definitely changed. I always thought of myself as being fierce. I really did. I went in pretty early. Now women can do a lot of things in the military that when I served I couldn't. I'm really excited for the women these days in the military because a lot of doors have opened and those glass ceilings are breaking finally. In modern times we have women within our tribal government now. They're on the same tribal council and they run for chief and second chief and they want the same things. I think the older people within our tribes still have a conflict with seeing them as equals to our male because of how we were raised. Not that they disrespect those women, because women are very respected within our culture, but when it comes to that leadership position or in that warrior role, they don't feel that they are equals. Myself as an individual, being a woman, not just a Native American woman but woman in a military, it's been difficult. Whether that was my own self impression or it was shown to me by another individual, I felt like I had to do twice as much work to prove myself as an equal. I got to reflect on what it is that is the most, the strength of indigenous people, indigenous women. Really we are warriors because we defend the family, we defend what we love. We are the keepers of knowledge and ultimately we have a say in where our people are going. I think it will be long time before some of the tribes accept women as veterans. I know that there are some of the warrior societies that still to this day won't accept women into their groups. They may offer them a separate group, but they won't allow them to stand side by side with a male, even though we are able to do the same jobs. It's disheartening because these are people that are supposed love us and we're all supposed to be connected. As Native American women, we have a strong tradition of fight, of survival. Our first skill is to survive as a human being. As a Native American woman we can stand stronger because we are the closest to the earth.