Series: Women of the Pimería Alta

Native women in the Pimería Alta were not passive victims of colonization or the mission system. They actively shaped the communities in which they lived and influenced the overall trajectory of colonial and mission life.

• Article 1: Women of the Pimería Alta-Gender and Sex

  

  Sexual fluidity is as common to the historical record as it is today. O'odham and European conceptions of gender and sex sometimes clashed as missions entered the Pimería Alta. Learn about the sociocultural conceptions of gender and sex within O'odham society before colonization. Read more

• Article 2: Women of the Pimería Alta-Establishing Missions

  

  In the Pimería Alta, gender determined relationships and power in politics, economics, and social relationships. With the arrival of Spanish missionaries, O'odham women played an important role in navigating political and cultural interactions, especially in the initial establishment of Spanish missions. Read more

• Article 3: Women of the Pimería Alta-Symbolic Figures

  

  Women were key facilitators, both symbolically and literally, in political negotiations and diplomacy between O'odham and Yoeme communities and European missionaries. See how missionaries used female symbolism to get them through the doors of O'odham diplomacy and the roles that women played in the unfolding of colonization. Read more

• Article 4: Women of the Pimería Alta-Intersectional Bias

  

  Overlapping combinations of biases related to religion, race and gender meant that indigenous women had to face many intersectional layers of prejudice. These colonial European biases limited roles and opportunities of indigenous women. Read more

• Article 5: Women of the Pimería Alta-Gendered Violence

  

  Male honor or “machismo” played a big part in the Spanish conquest of the Pimería Alta. Machismo was often expressed through violence, especially against indigenous people, and particularly, women. Read more

• Article 6: Women of the Pimería Alta-Sickness and Health

  

  Native women played an integral in developing botanical, herbal, and medicinal knowledge in their communities. They continued to provide healing expertise in mission communities. Native women also suffered disproportionately from diseases introduced by European colonists. Learn more about their triumphs and struggles with disease and health here. Read more

• Article 7: Women of the Pimería Alta-Cultural Exchange

  

  Indigenous women played important roles in mission communities by functioning as cultural brokers or mediators. They negotiated the many tensions that occurred as colonial and local indigenous societies blended. Read more

• Article 8: Women of the Pimería Alta-Cultural Preservation

  

  Women were not passive victims of colonization or the mission system. They resisted pressures to conform to European and Spanish cultural norms and worked to preserve their traditions, while choosing to incorporate those new things that they found beneficial. Read more