Abstract:
The history of Native and first nation people of North America is a history of
exploitation, destruction and genocide. Colonialism has functioned in multiple ways to
exploit Native resources and land, and has in the process, transformed Native cultures in
irreparable ways. While economic exploitation, administrative regulation, and cultural
genocide in colonial America are intimately linked, gender is an important area in which
all three intersect in significant ways. The aim of colonial oppression remains relatively
homogenous irrespective of its geographic location-exploiting the colonized society and
its resources. However, colonial oppression takes significantly different forms in different
colonial contexts. Thus, it is necessary to look at ways in which gender in Native
American cultures was regulated by the colonizing culture and how these colonial
practices have transformed the Native American cultures. This paper examines four
aspects of gender regulation by the colonial process in Native American .societies.
Drawing on the research by Bonita Lawrence, Tsianina K Lomawaima, Lisa J Udel, and
Quincy 0 Newell, I examine how colonial practices transform gender relations in the
colonized cultures. The classification of Indians, the establishment of boarding schools,
the emergence of Motherwork as a political category, and the effect of the contact
between 1 alive Americans of California and early Spanish missions are four aspects of
gender and gender regulation discussed by these authors. 1 examine literary and
theoretical texts by Native American writers within the context provided by these writers
to argue that colonialism transforms gender relations in colonized countries and attempts
to hegemonize colonial gender categorizations and unequal gender relations within the
colonized cultures.
