Unbroken: Indigenous Peoples Today

Chelsea James, White River Ute and White Mountain Apache Contemporary Artist, Talks About Gender Equality Within Native Nations

"I think what I admire most about my culture is that I've never been degraded for being born a girl or being dominant or loud. As far as any [Native] nation goes, our matriarchs are important to us and there's always been women added into the conversation because Native tribes don't have that historical men-in-charge patriarchy.

"Some cultures don't have that and they don't want to empower their women, and I think that's what is so particularly amazing about being in the Native community because I feel so empowered and supported.

"It's also something I was very confused with growing up because I'm living in two worlds, one that we [Natives] live in and one that's almost post-apocalyptic. We weren't run by men and told what to do with our bodies. We weren't dictated by men and just their needs. I think for the future that intermingling of our tradition and our morals is going to be important for how we can carve a future that's better and safe for women. That is a progressive way of living and that was shunned through colonization. It made it not progressive.

All these 'radical movements' and these feminist movements of getting rights back, or even getting rights in general for the first time for some women... As a 'primitive' culture, supposedly, we had a lot of these progressive ideas that people talked about a lot, and it's just really interesting to see these movements happening while also having this background and being like 'Well yeah, why didn't you guys get this in the first place?'

"There's definitely wisdom that people are missing out on now. In governing systems and social rights, and social change, you need a woman's voice too, and it's really hard with labels included because our society is very label oriented. To where people already label me as a feminist or a liberal, and I'm like, 'No, I grew up in a completely different environment where feminism isn't a thing because it's not a movement that I have to work for.' In Native society it's something that is already accepted."

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