Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

I shall discuss here the limitations of the sources and explore the available data. While detailed data are irritatingly few, they are sufficient to show that native women were active participants in the historical adaptive process. Their role was more than simply intercalary (Martin and Voorhies 1975: 250), for they were not passive pawns bridging the gaps between two groups of competing males. While retaining vital relationships with native men, Indian women interacted with Anglo men, who controlled access to the novel goods and opportunities provided by the intrusive Euroamerican culture. Within a matter of a few years, a regional interethnic and sexual hierarchy of economic and political dominance/subordination was created in which Indian women had a definite and distinctive status.