History of Feminism

Like the Farming instruments, in Eastern Woodland Culture, Weapons belonged to the women. If a man wanted to go on the warpath (or even to go hunting) he had to ask her for permission to use the weapon. If she said no, he did not go (Most times she gave permission).

That she owned the weapons meant she could put them out of his reach. It is one way to resolve issue of spousal abuse.

Side note: Abuse among Native Americans is a subject of much debate. Reports of husbands beating wives among Native Americans are common from White reports, but almost always reports of reports of reports (denied by Native Americans when asked directly), thus given little weight. It occurred for such abuse incur in all cultures, it is the level that is debated. Given that the wives had control over weapons, cooking tools AND farming instruments, that would be one way to minimize such abuse.

Please note, this control over weapons seems to disappear as the Plain Indians adopted the Horse starting about 1700, and become a much more macho and male oriented culture then had been the case with the Eastern Woodland Native Americans. This change can be seen in the differences between the Woodland Sioux and the Plain Sioux. The Woodland Sioux (or Dakota) retained more of Eastern Woodland culture when compared to the Plain Sioux after the Plain Sioux adopted the horse, abandon farming and turned to a male oriented Bison hunting culture. There was a good bit of intermixing between the two as late as the 1860s, but the cultural divide had set in. Through it also appear that the Dakota never did embrace farming as did tribes to their east:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vRAQm175ii0C&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=Woodland+Dakota+-parks+-resort&source=bl&ots=oFX9--QJXo&sig=QxFvGUEknc_zfS8guEuaXqXUtiM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cdZNVI7iONOHsQTZ7IHYDg&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Woodland%20Dakota%20-parks%20-resort&f=false