The Role of Hodinöhsö:ni’ Women and Suffrage

Sally Roesch Wagner will explore how the woman’s rights movement took form in the territory of the Haudenosaunee, the six nations of the Iroquois confederacy, where women have always lived with far greater status and authority than in the non-native world. Based on her most recent book, Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists, Dr. Wagner will share her research on how Haudenosaunee women fired the revolutionary vision of early feminists by providing a model of freedom for women at a time when Euroamerican women experienced few rights.

Jeanne Shenandoah describes the world she inhabits as a Haudenosaunee woman. The democratic governmental system, established long before Columbus and based on peace, provides equality for everyone with a balance of responsibilities between women and men based on a matrilineal clan system. Together the women explore the impact that Haudenosaunee women, living in absolute equality, had on Euroamerican women,…