Compromising and Accommodating Dominant Gendered Ideologies: the Effectiveness of Using 19th-century Indian Boarding Scholl Autobiographies as a Tool of Protest

Abstract

Gendered ideals dominant in nineteenth-century America have been significantly different from gendered ideals in Native American communities. In using their Indian boarding schools autobiographies as tools of protest, these Native writers had to compromise and accommodate these gendered ideals dominant in American society. This thesis analyzes how Zitkála-Šá, Luther Standing Bear and Charles Eastman have used the gendered ideals concerning the public and domestic sphere, emotion and reason in writing, and ideas about individuality and analyzes how this has affected the effectiveness of using their autobiographies as tools of protest for their people.