Native American women in Colonial America

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Before, and during the colonial period (While the colonial period is generally defined by historians as 1492-1763, in the context of settler colonialism, as scholar Patrick Wolfe says, colonialism is ongoing)^[1] of North America, Native American women had a role in society that contrasted with that of the settlers. Many women were leaders in Native American tribes. For example, Cherokee women worked in treaty negotiations with the United States, and women in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy acted, and continue to act, as political leaders and choose chiefs.^[2][3] Other women were delegated the task of caring for children and preparing meals; their other roles varied between tribal groups. In many tribes, such as the Algonquins and the Six Nations that compose the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, women were responsible for tending to the fields while the men were responsible for hunting. There were often long periods in which the men were not present. Thus, women played a major role in the family and exerted significant control over social and economic factors within the tribes.^[4]