Native Women of the Northern Pacific Coast: An Historical Perspective, 1830-1900

Abstract

Contact with whites often heralded a contraction of native women’s roles and brought about a corresponding decline in their status. Yet the experiences of the Nishga and Tsimshian women of the northern Pacific coast during the fur trade and mission eras defy such generalizations. These women continued their traditional productive activities while assuming expanded roles as traders and workers at the Hudson’s Bay Company fort, and later took employment as inside workers in the newly established canneries. Nor did missions seriously erode their status, for the continuing economic independence and power of Nishga and Tsimshian women meant that they were not compelled to accept the narrow domestic roles and notions of female submissiveness promoted by the missionaries.