FROM BRANT TO PIESTEWA: 

AN OBSERVATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF FEMALE VETERANS

FROM TWO INDIGENOUS NORTH AMERICAN NATIONS      

HISTORICAL WARS AND WOMEN

Traditional American Indian history shows that both female and male deities have the power to create and destroy life and that the survival of the clan or tribe is the ultimate goal of every member. The Seneca Nation, one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, has a creation account in which a woman creates the earth.  The Iroquois history: "In the course of time a woman had a dream. In it she received a message: "The tree must be uprooted!" After some discussion in the village, the sky-folk agreed to pull the tree up, but as they did so, the tree sank and disappeared.  Angrily, the chief called the woman into his presence, and, as she approached the hole left by the tree, the chief pushed her through it. The women fell and fell and, as she looked down, she saw the lower world as we know it....The earth was not made... the ducks, beavers and turtle helped create the earth and when the women arrived through the air, they laid her on it.  Here mysteriously, she gave birth, and from her children came all human beings."  This woman will endure physical contest by falling down thousands of feet from the sky after being forceful shoved only to land on the earth and give birth upon landing.  This woman is the mother creator of the Seneca and a true warrior.[1]

The Oneida tribe has an account called the Warrior Maiden and the story tells how a whole Oneida tribe was saved by one woman.  Aliquipiso, an Oneida woman had a dream that the Great Spirit told her how to get rid of their enemy the Mingoes from their land.  With no war party, Aliquipiso went in search of the Mingoes.  Once captured the Mingoes tortured her and were impressed by how much she endured without calling out.  After  the torture, Aliquipiso lied to the Mingoes and told them that she would take them to her village and instead she took them by a mountain cliff and her tribe pushed rocks and boulders on the Mingoes until all the war party was killed.  And the story of the girl’s courage is still told today.[2]

Brave Woman Counts Coup is another account about a warrior woman.  Makhta was a Hunkpapa Sioux Indian who wanted to revenge her brothers’ deaths.  Her father, the chief feared he would die so he sent a war party with her.  Two warriors wanted to marry Makhta and while in battle, Makhta lost her horse to a bullet.  The first warrior ignored her and rode past her to safety and the second one gave her his horse and stayed and continued to fight until his death.  Even though the war party had been outnumbered, the Sioux rode right into the battle with Makhta as their lead.  Her strength during the battle kept the warriors fighting longer.  It is said the Makhta never marries and continued as a widow of the warrior that died in battle. [3]

And the last tale comes from the Cheyenne tribe about a woman who went with the chiefs and leaders of her tribe to watch the Battle of Little Big Horn. At the battle, she saw her brother become surrounded by Custer’s men and Crow scouts the girl plunged into the battle on her horse and rescued her brother. During the rescue, she kept uttering a high-pitched war cry which spurred her fellow warriors to continue fighting and eventually win the battle. [4]