Standing Traditions on its Head: Role Reversal Among Blood Indian Couples

Authors

Janet Mancini Billson, Rhode Island College

Date of this Version

1991

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 11:1 (Winter 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

The woman is the foundation on which nations are built.

She is the heart of her nation.

If that heart is weak the people are weak.

If her heart is strong and her mind is clear

then the nation is strong and knows its purpose.

The woman is the centre of everything.

But equally, women must honour men;

If not, then everything is out of balance

and we can have nothing but chaos and pain.

These are the first elements that must be

put back together

or nothing, but nothing

can come right again. ¹