Women's Portages: Colonial Encounters, Gender, and Indigenous Worldview in the Great Lakes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Dakota and then Anishinaabeg women were central figures in water-based travel cycles in an annual round directed by plant, animal, and river relations within the Woodland Tradition. Portages, including Women's Portages, are material records of Indigenous women's labor before, during, and after the Fur Trade in the Great Lakes. The Northwest Trail and its environs, preserve a linkage of portages, poses, food sources, and waterways used by Indigenous travelers long before European contact. The trail was then shared with the colonial explorers and traders after contact. Recent research regarding gendered labor and Indigenous ontologies at this portage landscape reveal how colonial source materials and perspectives have biased archaeological interpretations of sites linked to portaging. Sources, including archaeology, show that, despite destructive changes wrought by these colonial forces, there is also ample evidence of Indigenous survivance.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41563.0