Invoking power: restoration of Native American women's power through the Mississippian Earthmother

Abstract

Historians and scholars have written much in feminist Indigenous studies about the Native women who call North America, or Turtle Island, home. But when historians wrote about Mississippian women or their descendant communities, they left out crucial information about these women and how they lived day to day. They have also failed to realize just how much their religions shaped their worlds. Earthmother was a Mississippian deity that can still be seen today in the rituals and ceremonies of the Southeast Indigenous nations who descend from the Mississippians. Through research into archaeological and iconographic records, evidence of how Earthmother shaped women's roles and gave them power over certain aspects of society can be seen. If the teachings of Earthmother could be restored, women could regain their sacred power and take a more prominent place in their communities.