Native American Women - Guardians Of Culture, Belief & Traditions

Native American Women - Guardians Of Culture, Belief & Traditions

Photographer: Milan Rosan
Model: Leah E. Morris is rocking our Rasta Style Native American Headdress - 90cm

Since most of our pictures show beautiful women wearing our Indian headdresses we wanted to take a minute to write about the role they had in the Native American society, however, this is not easily expressed, as it varied between the tribes and regions.

Some tribes, such as the Apaches, taught both boys and girls the most important skills like following tracks, hunting, riding horses, cooking, and using weapons.  However, in most tribes men were responsible for providing food and protecting the community. Men frequently left the village to go hunting, so women stayed in their homes which left them more time to grow crops, look after the children and to gather wood. 

Most tribes were quite patrilineal, however women could maintain their authority at home since this was the place were they spent most of their time. Indian headdresses were only worn by men for the simple reason that each feather had to be earned in a battle, which women didn’t really take part in.

But because women did most of the work, men respected them. When men went out hunting, the women made sure that the traditions and myths were still practiced and were therefore also the guardians of their culture.

Even though women were not allowed to wear American Indian headdresses, they had their own way of expressing themselves with culturally significant jewelry.

In short, Indigenous Indian women understood themselves to be the guardians of the language and beliefs, and therefore, they helped maintain their indigenous Indian culture.