From "Holy Mothers" To "Lousy Squaws": Colonization And The Victimization Of First Nations Women In Canada

It is widely acknowledged that First Nations people, compared to the people of other origins, are the most disadvantaged in the present Canada. Whatever differences remain in the cultures of these diverse nations, they, as a whole, have been mistreated by Canadian government in its century long efforts to civilize and assimilate them. First Nations women, because of their originality, share this history of mistreatment; at the same time, due to their femaleness, their experience with western colonization process unfolds a peculiar nature unshared by their men. Large quantities of historical data have shown that in the pre-contact period, First Nations women were held in rather high regard in many First Nations tribes, and they were respected as life-givers and caretakers both in their mythology and in real life. In their world of balance and harmony, men and women formed a complementary and equal relationship.The European colonization changed everything and has taken its greatest toll on First Nations women, owing to the destructive nature of patriarchy and racism central to and inherent in its underlying ideology. While being labeled as "savages" with their men, they were required by colonizers to live a life in conformity to the white cult of womanhood. Western colonizers' colonizing plan, Christianization, residential school system and The Indian Act being the most prominent components, while trying to assimilate First Nations people, functioned to have subjugated First Nations women to both a western hegemony and a foreign man power. As First Nations people gradually internalized colonizers' ideology, First Nations women were pushed into a position of being doubly oppressed.The whole colonizing process is one of reconstructing First Nations women on western ideology, the effect of which is far-reaching and persistent. Even in the present multicultural society, the legacy of colonialism still exerts influence in all aspects of First Nations women's life. This thesis studies the history of First Nations women's victimization under the working of the western ideology and argues that First Nations women's present adverse social-economic and political situation is the direct result of western colonization and this situation is not to be relieved without a successful processof de-colonization.This thesis is made up with four chapters, preceded by an introduction and ended with an epilogue. The introduction gives a brief account of the purpose, the research method and the main content of this thesis. The first chapter is compared with the third, with the description of First Nations women's life in the pre-contact and post-contact world as their respective purpose. The second chapter deals with how First Nations women were reconstructed with western notions of race and gender, uncovering the historical cause of First Nations women's present suffering and agony. The fourth chapter gives a brief view of First Nations women's accommodating strategies in the colonial period. The epilogue contains some after-thoughts of the author, aiming to put forward some questions for readers' further consideration.