From warrior women to female deities who control the cycle of life, female characters in Native American literature exhibit a social and spiritual empowerment that is quite different from the average Pocahontas we are used to seeing in mainstream literature. This work argues that a tribal construct of gender relations, where the relationship between male and female roles is complementary rather than hierarchical, accounts for the existence of these empowered female characters in Native American literature. Focusing on the work of four of the twentieth century's most famous Native American...
From warrior women to female deities who control the cycle of life, female characters in Native American literature exhibit a social and spiritual emp...