Women's Peace-making Powers

[Dover]

Women's Peace-making Powers

The Lisu of Yunnan tell a story of how two tribes fought a big war in Nujiang valley over a marriage. “At noon during a major battle, a prestigious middle-aged woman of one side climbed a cliff. She took off her long skirt and waved it. She shouted to stop the battle. The two sides stopped fighting immediately and went back to their villages.” An old man expanded on this legend to a Chinese researcher, “Women had the right to stop war by the custom of that time. The two sides had to stop fighting if a woman of either side waves her skirt and calls for an armistice.”

A similar custom exists in Vanatinai, in the far southwestern Pacific. A woman taking off her skirt gives a signal for war or for peace, and this can also be a sign that she is extending protection to a captive enemy. Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women also had this power of deciding the fate of captives, and North American peoples widely practiced full adoption of chosen captives into their families.

Shawnee and Miami women chiefs “could demand an end to blood feuds or wars”. These North American peoples, and among the Illinois, had a complete system of female chiefs, parallel to the male chiefs, with authority over war and peace, as well as directing preparations for important feasts and communal planting of crops. The importance of the female chiefs is illustrated by Henry Hay’s puzzled observation in 1789 that the young Miami chief Richardville “is so very bashful that he never speaks in council, his mother who is very clever is obliged to do it for him.”


The Haudenosaunee had a saying, “Before the men can go to war, the women must make their moccasins.” The Cherokee had a similar tradition. Men could not go off to war without the dried food, moccasins, and other supplies provided by women. (Both these traditions also formally designated offices, such as the Ghigau or Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, with authority in political, diplomatic and military affairs.)

Kahn-Tineta Horn led a group of Mohawk women in invoking this female power as the the U.S. was threatening to invade Iraq in 2003. Their email, Moccasin Makers and War Breakers: a call to action by the women of the world, streaked around the Internet. It began, “We have the power to stop the war! ‘Before the men can go to war, the women must make their moccasins.” This saying meant that the women’s approval was necessary for an undertaking that affected them so deeply. The Mohawk women recapped how the Haudenosaunee Confederacy began by overcoming violence and war with the Great Law of Peace, and how the United States Constution, and later the United Nations Charter, were based on principles originated by the Six Nations of the Iroquois. “Our law is the basis of modern international law.”

They went on to say, “Our ancestors recognized the sovereignty of all men and women by solving community conflicts through discussion in a People’s Council. In our tradition, three criteria must be kept in mind through all deliberations.” These are Peace, which must be kept at all costs; Righteousness, “taking into consideration the needs of seven generations to come,” and Power, “meaning the power of the people must be maintained including the equal sovereignty of all men and all women.”

Respect for different customs of other nations is a must, and war should only be a last resort. “We ask the women of the world to come forward and play their rightful role as the progenitors, the creators of all men, of all humanity, the caretakers of the earth and of all that lives upon it.”

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/matrix/matrix.html

_______________

"Male domination is not the default cultural setting for humanity"

[Tsiyu]

1. The History of the Haudenosaunee is an interesting one

It was a representative form of government long before our own Declaration of Independence was written. There is no doubt that the Six Nations influenced the Framers.

There was such a confluence of cultures in Upstate New York and the area of Canada just across the lakes. British, French, Dutch, Iroquois, members of other tribes. The newbies had to depend on the locals for everything at first, and were no doubt humbled enough to accept some lessons about Iroquois ways.

Too bad the concept of letting women have a say in war - and the Great Law of Peace - didn't catch on.

[EFerrari]

2. I'm finishing up Cokie Roberts book "Founding Mothers"

And even though Roberts herself spoils it by inserting her unfortunate self, the stories are fascinating. You begin to get a sense of how much those women were written out of history.

[Tsiyu]

15. Yeah, the Fundies think all the women stayed home until around 1963

when a handful of demonic women put on shoes and began to wander out of their kitchens ;)

[Dover]

3. That feminine 'power' is awakening all over the world

like magma moving just below the surface. The Cindy Sheehans and Diane Wilsons and so many others are stepping up. Hold onto your hat cause momma ain't pleased with the way things are going...

Male domination is not the default cultural setting for humanity.


Re-evaluating history from a global perspective centered on women

Women's history is necessarily interdisciplinary, since "standard" sources may offer little or no information about female lives, and what they contain is often frank in its bias. We do need to know those dynastic and colonial histories, because the framework of conquest shapes most of the information we have access to (as it has shaped the realities of countless lives).

But beyond orthodox "History" -- and physically separated from it on library shelves -- exist oral histories and folk traditions with a wealth of information about female leaders and heritages. Tellingly, most of these rich oratures originate in cultures utterly ignored by "mainstream" history, in places like Sumatra, Congo, Brazil, or Ontario. These are not centers of empire but indigenous homelands, many of whose cultures honored and preserved female spheres of power.

Thus sexism and racism can be seen to converge in the silences imposed upon our knowledge of the world. An international women's history questions these divisions and omissions: Why is the history of most of humanity reduced to an incomplete glimpse of the colonial era? Why the deletion of tribal peoples from "history" and the emphasis on them in "anthropology" and "ethnology"? Indigenous histories must be understood on their own terms, and the ongoing realities of land seizure, enslavement and genocide taken into account...cont'd

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/global_persp.html

[H2O Man]

4. In the 1980s

Harvey Arden and Steve Wall, from National Geographic, came to Onondaga, while doing part of their research on the Haudenosaunee influence on the Constitution. (9-87) They did a follow-up article in 3-89 on burial protection issues. (This was around the time that Bill Moyers did a series of interviews as a result of his association with Joseph Campbell and their series on mythology; Moyers interview with Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons can be found in his "A World of Ideas II." PBS used to play the tape of the interview, which is powerful.)

Arden and Wall published a book, "The Wisdom Keepers," which has interviews with Indian leaders from across the United States. It includes numerous interviews with Haudenosaunee leaders, including Oren and his aunt, Audrey Shenandoah. Wall followed that up with "Wisdom's Daughters," which is more interviews with Indian women across the country.

[Dover]

5. Thanks for that info. Gonna see if I can find that Oren Lyons program.n/t

[Dover]

6. Texas Wisewomen Speak

`I believe that I have a spirit that is not going to disappear.'
Barbara Jordan, former U.S. Representative (D-Texas) and educator, now deceased.

`Lots of solutions happen around a casserole. If you can put a meal on the table, you will find that it comes in handy, even if you are plotting a revolution.'
Liz Carpenter, press secretary and staff director for Lady Bird Johnson.

`I am Texan enough that I refer to half of my relatives as `sister' or `brother,' even if they are really aunts and uncles. I even have an `Aunt Sister.'
Linda Ellerbee, broadcast journalist.

`I prefer the term `Chicano' to Mexican American' because of the connotation. `Chicano' has come to mean a reclamation of our heritage; it means self-determination.'
Carmen Lomas Garza, artist.

`When I see kids who have potential that they aren't developing, I raise hell with them; I push them to do what they are capable of.' Barbara Jacket, U.S. women's olympic coach, 1992 Barcelona.

`I am told that I should be careful about criticizing the CIA - that I might get bumped off.... If you hear that I committed suicide, I didn't!'
Sarah McClendon, senior-most member, White House Press Corps.

`There seems to be a general feeling that if you are funny, you're not serious. But people don't know how many brain cells it takes to be funny.'
Ann Richards, former Texas governor.


From the book, "Let me tell you what I've learned:" Texas Wisewomen Speak (Louann Atkins Temple Women and Culture Series, Book Four

The complete list of wisewomen who generously shared their perspective includes: Artists - Carmen Lomas Garza, Glenna Goodacre, Violette Newton. Athletic coaches - Jody Conradt, Barbara Jacket. Attorneys/Judges - Louise B. Raggio, Mary Lou Robinson, Sarah Weddington. Educators - Juliet Villarreal Garcia, Amy Freeman Lee, Diana Natalicio, Guadalupe C. Quintanilla. Entrepreneur - Ninfa Laurenzo. Historian - Pauline Durrett Robertson.
Journalists - Liz Carpenter, Linda Ellerbee, Sarah McClendon. Lawmakers and political officeholders - Wilhelmina Delco, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Barbara Jordan, Irma Rangel, Ann Richards, Judith Zaffirini. Physician - Edith Irby Jones.

[Dover]

12. Oren Lyons on Ethics & Spiritual Values & the Promotion of Sustainability

http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/OrenLyons.html

And

THE OBVIOUS FACT OF OUR CONTINUING EXISTENCE
LEGAL HISTORY OF THE HAU DE NO SAU NEE

Since the beginning of human time, the Hau de no sau nee have occupied the distinct territories that we call our homelands. That occupation has been both organized and continuous. We have long defined the borders of our country, have long maintained the exclusive use-right of the areas within those borders, and have used those territories as the economic and cultural definitions of our nation.

The Hau de no sau nee are a distinct people, with our own laws and customs, territories, political organization and economy. In short, the Hau de no sau nee, or Six Nations, fits in every way every definition of nationhood.

Ours is one of the most complex social/political structures still functioning in the world. The Hau de no sau nee council is also one of the most ancient continuously functioning governments anywhere on this planet. Our society is one of the most complex anywhere. From our social and political institutions has come inspiration for some of the most vital institutions and political philosophies of the modern world.

The Hau de no sau nee is governed by a constitution known among Europeans as the Constitution of the Six Nations and to the Hau de no sau nee as the Gayanashakgowah, or the Great Law of Peace. It is the oldest functioning document in the world which has contained a recognition of the freedoms the Western democracies recently claim as their own: the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the rights of women to participate in government. The concept of separation of powers in government and of checks and balances of power within governments are traceable to our constitution. They are ideas learned by the colonists as the result of contact with North American Native people, specifically the Hau de no sau nee.

The philosophies of the Socialist World, too, are to some extent traceable to European contact with the Hau de no sau nee. Lewis Henry Morgan noted the economic structure of the Hau de no sau nee, which he termed both primitive and communistic. Karl Marx used Morgan's observations for the development of a model for classless, post-capitalist society. The modern world has been greatly influenced by the fact of our existence.

It may seem strange, at this time, that we are here, asserting the obvious fact of our continuing existence. For countless centuries, the fact of our existence was unquestioned, and for all honest human beings, it remains unquestioned today. We have existed since time immemorial. We have always conducted our own affairs from our territories, under our own laws and customs. We have never, under those laws and customs, willingly or fairly surrendered either our territories or our freedoms. Never, in the history of the Hau de no sau nee, have the People or the government sworn allegiance to a European sovereign. In that simple fact lies the roots of our oppression as a people, and the purpose of our journey here, before the world community.

The problems incurred in the recent "legal history" of the Hau de no sau nee began long before European contact with Native people. It began, at least, with the rise of a system called feudalism in Europe, for the only law which the colonizing countries of Europe ever recognized was feudal law, a fact which they have obscured from their own people as well as from Native people for many centuries. That fact, however, remains the essential reality of the legal relationships which exist between Native peoples and Indo-European societies...cont'd

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/6nations2.html#part2



A Basic Call to Consciousness

The Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western World
Geneva, Switzerland, Autumn 1977


http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/BasicCtC.html

[Tsiyu]

13. "New Voices from the Longhouse" is another good book

of interviews.

I grew up in Upstate New York and my great-grandmother was from one of the tribes, but there is much argument as to which. The history is murky because white people didn't want to admit to having native blood a generation ago.

Now, "everybody" is part Cherokee :)

[H2O Man]

14. That's a very good book.

It has interesting contributions from both Oren and Audrey, among many others. It has some beautiful art work, too.

[LWolf]

7. It comes as no suprise to find that TPTB aren't listening.

Women in the U.S. sent out this call in 2002:



<snip>

MAKING THEIR BODIES FIGURES OF SPEECH – West Marin women are serious enough about PEACE to spell it out. Wearing nothing but afternoon rain, 50 determined women lay down on Love Field near the Green Bridge Tuesday afternoon to literally embody PEACE and "show solidarity with the people of Iraq," said the organizers. "Women from all ages and walks of life took off their clothes, not because they are exhibitionists but because they felt it was imperative to do so," the organizers added. "They wanted to unveil the truth about the horrors of war, to commune in their nudity with the vulnerability of Iraqi innocents, and to shock a seemingly indifferent Bush Administration into paying attention."

Happily, female energy cannot be repressed indefinitely. I believe it is that neglected female wisdom that is the key to bringing this era of aggression and hatred to an end.

[Dover]

11. Ha! Beautiful!

Hi LW!

[LWolf]

16. Hi, Dover!

I love the energy a group of sisters united sends out.

:hi:

[LizW]

8. That's lovely, and sad.

I wonder if that is one of the reasons the Republicans work so hard to stifle women's voices?

[G_j]

9. wonderful post ..nominated

the patriarchy has destroyed the balance.
The results are quite obvious, as we even assault, desecrate and injur our own mother (earth)

[Cerridwen]

10. Bookmarked! And please don't forget "The Chalice and the Blade"

for more insight into partnership rather than dominator/dominated models of society. It's by Riane Eisler and there is also a "workbook" which you can get from the publisher, or in used form at Powell's online, entitled "The Partnership Way." I've not yet received my copy of "The Partnership Way" but the synopsis says that it provides examples of introducing partnership into our dominator society. You can read more here: http://www.partnershipway.org/ if you're interested.

Note: I am not currently employed by, nor do I currently have any direct association with partnershipway.org - though I am now exploring the possibility of establishing a center where I live.