Myths and Misnomers: the Indian Princess

Since I've already mentioned Jamestown in both the introductory information and the timeline, you're probably wondering when I'm going to rehash the story of John Smith and Pocahontas.  I'm not.  Minnehaha, the beautiful wife of Hiawatha as related in the poem?  Nope.  Not her, either.  We're not going there.  Not only does the story of Jamestown colony have no bearing on the time period covered in this blog, it only perpetuates a tired stereotype that Native women have had to put with for too long-the Indian Princess. 

Short answer: she didn't exist.  The wives and daughters of chiefs did not bear titles.  There was no such thing as a Native royal family.  With some exceptions, the only women who carried any type of position or authority in a village were the clan matriarchs.  They could, in some tribes, choose and depose chiefs, veto actions of the council, or dispose of property and prisoners.  For these reasons, women often carried great authority in their tribes and could be perceived by outsiders as queens or princesses, but they weren't. 

The Indian Princess stereotype began in the nineteenth century with Longfellow's poems, or other novels, plays and poems describing how a beautiful Indian maiden threw herself on top of an English adventurer and begged for his life.  Whether she did or didn't is a topic for another blog.  The fact is that this beautiful maiden got more buxom and more royal every time her story was told.  The same went for Minnehaha, the fictionalized wife of the Iroquois leader Hiawatha, and the nameless daughter of Shenandoah.  The stereotype perpetuates in fantasy art depictions of curvaceous Native women wielding bows, wearing war bonnets and commanding the elements of nature.  More on war bonnets later, but suffice it to say that such women do not exist.  Today, the only Indian princesses around are those who are chosen by their tribe to represent them in pageants. 

'But I've always been told great-grandma was a Cherokee princess.'  You may have had a Native woman in your ancestry.  She may have been Cherokee.  If she were lucky, she was someone like Nancy Ward, the last War Woman of the Cherokee and one of the few women who did hold an official title in their tribe.  More likely, she was a hardy, industrious woman who managed her family and her property and tried to survive as best she could.  Princess, no.  Worthy of respect, yes.  Worthy of researching the facts about who she really was. 

It's bashing stereotypes time here at Great Warriors Path.  Next up, the scalp knife, war paint and war bonnets.