Western Warrior Women

History-Onyx 3

        Hello fellow Internet surfer and welcome to a gem of a site dedicated to illuminating the onyx-like parallels unearthed from an otherwise beclouded and boring American and world historical perspective into its many hues and flavors, a spectrum inclusive of most light that makes up the untold histories, fascinating stories and journeys not quite attached or put together in this theatrical or holistic manner as you will find!
        We bring many years of personal and unique historical research, reading, collaboration, living, and writing experiences. One of us is a published historian, journalist, and genealogist, whose roots are in the Central Oregon Coast, the primary though not exclusive gathering or focal point of these stories. And her co-author is more centered, though not exclusively so on the personal-spiritual journey as a former Lutheran minister, and how this has come into play to reinvigorate her own philosophical historical understanding of faith and her questions of the world-church professional Christian training, vision and cultural paradigms, relying upon her common sense and also the expertise and critique of those historically disinherited, disenfranchised, and despised.
     Neither of us is professionally enamored by historicism in the classical sense, or any particular intellectual chains, other than the challenge to loosen the usual grip of white western european, heterosexist and masculinist elitism! And yes, we believe in being politically correct, and are proud of it, that we still name the names! We are students and practitioners of folk and established history, and are expanding our understanding of story, wishing to share some of those exciting findings and perspectives. We plan to update this site regularly with the little known gems and connections to "the rest of the story" usually relegated to footnotes we have uncovered from the current draft of our mammoth, interconnected, well documented history saga, Sovereigns of Themselves: A Liberating History of Oregon and Its Coast.

--Rev. Marilyn A. Riedel & M. Constance Guardino III

Maracon Challenges You To Believe It Or Not!

In spite of domestic drudgery, which was taken for granted, some Indian woman found opportunities to become social leaders. The female berdache took on men's work and engaged in same-sex marriage. Women hunters and warriors brought food for their families and defended their communities, like the famous Kutenai titqattek (berdache), Madame Boisverd, a warrior woman who became an inter-tribal courier and a prophet of "smallpox and other fearful happenings" in the early 1800s, and Woman Chief, a berdache and chief of the Crow nation, who achieved the third highest rank in her tribe. Among the Mojave, the hwami (berdache) who became powerful shamans and medicine women. There is documentation that the Klamath and Shasta twilinna'ek (berdache) were women who manifest cross-gender or strong-hearted behavior.

Madame Boisverd's Lover

     The source of the Columbia River was not discovered by non-indians until 1807, with the journeys of North
West Company fur trader David Thompson (1770-1857) to that region (The Chinook Indians, University of Oklahoma Press 1976, p. 26). During Thompson's stay at Fort Astoria, he renewed acquaintance with an unusual and colorful woman of the Flathead Indians. She was to become not only the most publicized personage of early Kutenai history, but, next to Sacajawea, perhaps the best-known Plateau Indian woman of the period. In addition, she was in part responsible for the early exploration of the Pacific Fur Company into the interior. In 1808, as Madame Boisverd, she became the slave-wife of Thompson who took her to a fur post, probably Kootanae House, to live. There her conduct became so loose, contrary to Kutenai standards, that Thompson was compelled to
send her home. Madame Boisverd explained to her people that the white man had changed her sex, by virtue of which she had acquired spiritual power. Thereafter she assumed a masculine name--Water-Sitting Grizzly--
donned men's clothing and weapons, adopted manly pursuits, and took a woman for a wife.
     Her presence later at Spokane House, a trading post in Washington, became objectionable and Finan
McDonald, to get rid of her, sent her and her lesbian lover with a message directed to John Stuart, a partner in
John Jacob Astor's (1763-1848) far western enterprise, at Fort Estekatadene, in British Columbia. The lovers lost their way, followed the Columbia to its mouth and wound up at Fort Astoria, a fairly long journey even today.
The traders at Fort Astoria elicited from the couple "important information respecting the country in the interior,"
and decided to send an expedition under the command of David Stuart.
     Upon encountering the pair at Fort Astoria, Thompson at once recognized Madame Boisverd and recalled his
spurned relationship with her to his hosts. On July 22 a party including David Thompson, David Stuart, Madame
Boisverd and her wife, set out for the interior. The latter had agreed to act as guides for the Astorians. Madame
Boisverd's prophecies of smallpox and other fearful happenings made en route down the Columbia had not been
pleasing to the local Indians, so that upon her return she and her wife were the objects of threats. The couple at
one point sought protection from Thompson, who reassured the Lower Columbia tribes as to the future.
Thompson and his men pushed on to the Snake, ascended that river as far as the Palouse, and then proceeded overland to Spokane House. The Stuart Party, guided by the couple, turned up at the Columbia and Okanagan
rivers to establish a post in Shuswamp Indian territory.
     Madame Boisverd and her wife are said to have continued on their own to the post in British Columbia and
were attacked by Indians during which the former was wounded in the breast. She was able to recover to the
extent that they were able to deliver their dispatch to John Stuart and returned to the Columbia with a reply.
(The Ways of My Grandmothers, Quill Press 1982, pp. 68-70)

Kaitchknoa's Acts of Bravery

Another woman whose role often has been overlooked by historians was the warrior woman Winema or Kaitchknoa, a powerful member of the Modoc nation that lived along the California-Oregon border. Kaitchknoa was well known for her acts of bravery fighting alongside her people's male warriors in battle, and shooting a large grizzly bear. She also served as an interpreter between the US military and Modoc during the Southern Oregon Indian wars. Her great skill in this role helped reduce tensions between US and Modoc forces. When she learned of a Modoc military plot to kill US army officers, she chose to warn them. Although it meant betraying her tribe, she felt the move was necessary to prevent the senseless bloodshed and the acts of revenge that would surely be taken against her people.
Unfortunately, Kaitchknoa's warning was not taken seriously, and the army officers were killed. Nonetheless, her decision was a great act of bravery that put her at considerable risk, and she deserves to be remembered among the heroes of the descimating wars between the US and Indian nations. (The American West, Running Press 1995, p. 70)

We'wha: The Zuni Man-Woman Will Roscoe Defines Berdache
Photographic Images of We'wha Taken 1886 Native American Artist Paula Giese
Women Artists of the American West Voices From the Gaps

Lewis and Clark had observed that the Clatsop sought advice of their women in the matter of commerce (Contributions To Alsea Ethnology, University of California Press 1934, p. 92). The status of women among the Pueblo is extraordinarily high. Descent is traced through the mother. The houses and garden patches are owned by the women. Husbands move into their wives' homes. Children are spoken of as "belonging to the mother." (Crying For A Dream, Bear & Company 1989, p. 89) Such female status and influence has been rare among inland tribes--so historians and ethnologists attributed it to the fact that Chinook women aided greatly in providing foods and goods for their people.
Indian women on the Oregon Coast held a comparable liberated status. Occasionally they voiced strong public opinions which went far beyond family problems. (Contributions To Alsea Ethnology, University of California, p. 92) There were recorded instances of native women being so persuasive concerning intra-tribal problems that they became military leaders. Ethnologist Edward S. Curtis reported that the Shasta, like the Kutenai and the Crow, had a female leader, Chief Hapantugharapha, whose primary role was to prevent fighting. (The North American Indian 1907-1930, Johnson Reprint Corporation, p. 116)

Crowned Paiute Warrior Woman Sarah Winnemucca (1844-1891)

     Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage write that societies such as the Salish allowed women a certain latitude in roles as traders, warriors and shamans. Women held their own property, controlled their own sexuality, and sometimes spoke in council. Older business women of Salish tribes provided prostitutes for the fur traders from among the female captive slaves and the young women of the tribe who were allowed the latitude of sexual freedom before engaging in mixed-sex marriages. This point is interesting to note, since some historians argue that women lose the right to control their sexuality with the first signs of accumulated wealth and social stratification in a society. The Salish had both a highly stratified society and a similar sexual standard for women and men--at least before marriage. (Writing The Range, University of Oklahoma Press 1997, p. 49)
     The Shasta were people whose traditional headmen were decision makers, not war leaders. They were expected to continually urge their people--in the morning of each day and again in the evening--toward kindly deeds and industriousness. (North American Indian 1907-1930, p. 117)
     However, the presence of strong female leaders among the Shasta did not alter the customary status of their women in general. These tribes were active in the slave trade (both adult and children) and a wife who was purchase was common among them. (North American Indian, pp. 106-116)

Chinook Queens Sally and Mary

     With the passing of Chinook chiefs Concomly, Chenamus and Coboway, the Chinook and Clatsop nations were virtually leaderless. Solomon Smith would maintain that tribal organization had died out in the 1850s after which each Indian acted for himself in gaining a living and "anything like that." (Testimony of Silas Smith, p. 233) In the early 20th century Chinooks would claim that Princess Sally (Aillapust), at the time of the Tansy Treaty, had been appointed queen of the Chinook nation. Although enjoying considerable prestige among her people, as women traditionally had, she had not signed that treaty; in non-indian fashion, its signers had all been men.
     At century's end a newspaper reporter would state that Princess Mary (Rondeau), claiming to be a granddaughter of Chief Concomly, held court in his former empire on these Lower Columbia ancestral lands. (Oregonian, December 17, 1899, p. 28) But her power and influence were but a shadow of those of earlier Chinook leaders. In 1864 she and her second husband, Solomon Preble, signed a quit claim deed renouncing their interest in the Scarborough claim purchased by her former husband, Rocque Du Cheney, company clerk at Chinook. The princess and her third husband, John Kelly, a fisherman, clung to the land as home, living there during fishing season "when they cannot find any other place." (Chinook Point and the Story of the Columbia, p. 23) It was on the former claim, which would become Chinook Point Reservation, that shortly before 1900 Fort Columbia was built.
     Princess Sally, wife of Chief Chenamus, acted as an official translator and trader for ships entering Baker Bay. Because of increased jockeying between Britain and the US position on the river, most ships she would greet were of those countries. On at least one occasion she did not know the national origin of the ship she was meeting. Hitting the deck of the American brig Loriot, chopping at anchor in the bay one 1836 December night, she asked: "Is this King George or Boston ship?" (Memorial of William A. Slacum, p. 4)

Her Royal Highness Meets H.M.S. Sulphur

Another ship transaction by her royal highness was with H.M.S. Sulphur, captained by Edward Belcher, which crossed the bar on July 29, 1839, to extensively sound and survey it as part of Britain's increased reconnaissance and surveys of the region. From the pen of Dr. Richard Brinsley Hinds, the ship's assistant surgeon, we have a most intimate account of this Chinook trader now nearing the fourth decade of the 19th century. Hinds found the queen to be "a very useful character" who spoke "a convenient share of English" and who was "a ready pander" to the desires of officers and crew, and from her contacts with Europeans, a lover of money. Like other Northwest coastal women, she was more at home aboard a ship than was her male counterpart, Chief Chenamus, and consequently she spoke a more "convenient share of English" than he, although he spoke more of it when rum loosened his tongue. With her understanding shipside morals and manners, Princess Sally washed herself before meals and appeared shocked when her spouse surrendered his knife and fork at the meal for his time-tested fingers, pitching into salmon smothered with anchovy sauce and washed down with rum.

     Returning the crew's hospitality, Princess Sally conducted Hinds, dubbed "Docta" by her people, on a guided tour of her village as her husband had three years earlier guided another doctor, John K. Townsend, whom he had regaled with finest foods--sturgeon, salmon, wapato, and cranberries.
     His guide ran a calculated risk by taking a doctor to the Chinook burial grounds, for, as others of his profession had, the visitor could have returned at night to appropriate another head for science. In the interest of good will, her majesty was willing to take that chance. She showed her visitor a canoe tomb of the chief's recently deceased son and the burial of one of his wives. And at the end of her canoe hung a blanket and, over the craft, pans and shoes she had once highly prized. Increasingly, white trade goods like tin cups, kettles, clothes, brass buttons, and rings mingled with dentalia and other native ornaments to decorate Chinook tombs. (Incidents of Travel on the North-West Coast, p. 277)
     Hinds and Sally returned from the graveyard showing their friendship by walking arm in arm along the beach. One gossip spread the word that Princess Sally had become his wife. The rumor caused him considerable concern not so much for his own safety as for hers, for he knew that her husband loved her but in a jealous rage would have sent her to the graveyard for good. This did not happen, and Hinds and the Sulphur left the river in mid-September. (Narrative of a Voyage Round the World Performed In H.M.S. Sulphur, During the Years 1836-1842, Vol. I, pp. 288-310)

No "Lum" for Sister Sally

On May 21, 1840, the Lausanne, captained by Josiah Spaulding, inched across the bar to anchor in Baker Bay. Aboard was the "Great Reinforcement" of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church arriving via the Hawaiian Islands from New York, which it had left in October the previous year. (Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXIX, 1928, p. 189)
It did not take long for members of the reinforcement now arriving on the Lausanne to learn that they had their work cut out for them. As soon as Queen Sally, decked out in calico dress, neckerchief, and red woolen shawl, boarded the ship on May 21, she lumbered to the cabin in the forward style of Chinook women to ask, "When is the lum?" On being informed there was none, her royal highness nodded her head in surprise, exclaiming "Oh!" (Ten Years In Oregon, p. 222), defiantly challenging Reverend Samuel Parker's declaration:

"Let a branch of Christ's kingdom be established here, with its concomitant expansive benevolence exerted and diffused, and this place would be a center, from which divine light would shine out, and illumine this region of darkness." (The Chinook Indians, University of Oklahoma Press 1976, p. 201)

Ralph Kerwinieo "...For Man Alone"

(1) Historian M. Constance Guardino III 2001
(2) Stagecoach Driver Mary Fields 1914
(3) Native American Transvestite Ralph Kerwinieo (nee Cora Anderson)
With Two of Her Wifes, Marie White and Dorothy Klenowski 1914

Before woman suffrage, a transvestite woman who could actually pass as a man had male privileges and could
do all manner of things other women could not: open a bank account, write checks, own property, go anywhere unaccompanied, vote in elections. The appeal was obvious. Even those passing women who denied they were "women's-righters," as did Babe Bean, had to admit, "As a man I can travel freely through unprotected and find work."
Transvestitism may have had a particular appeal to some minority women, who suffered doubly from the handicaps visited on women because of gender and on minorities because of racial prejudice. If they could pass as a man they obliterated at least one set of handicaps. Thus a black woman, Mary Fields, who had been born a slave in Tennessee, found remunerative and honorable employment as a stagecoach driver, even accompanying and protecting a group of nuns on a trek out West. As late as 1914 gender passing obviously provided more opportunities for a minority female than she would have had living as a woman. Ralph Kerwinieo (nee Cora Anderson, an American Indian woman who found employment for years as a man and claimed that she "legally" married another woman in order to "protect" her from the sexist world, also expressed feminist awareness for her decision to pass as a man:

"The world is made by man--for man alone...In the future centuries it is probable that woman will be the owner of her own body and the custodian of her own soul. But until that time you can expect that the statutes [concerning] women will be all wrong. The well-cared for woman is a parasite, and the woman who must work is a slave...Do you blame me for wanting to be a man--free to live as a man in a man-made world? Do you blame me for hating to again resume a woman's clothes?" (Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, p. 44; Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History, pp. 254-257)

M. Constance Guardino III Reverend Marilyn A. Riedel
This Page Last Updated by Maracon on December 1, 2005