The Iroquois, Haudenosaunee or "People of the Longhouse" are a league of indigenous peoples of North America consisting of the Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Mohawk, & Tuscarora nations.
Laura Cornelius Kellogg was an Oneida First Nations woman who devoted her life to activism for Native American rights. She was the voice for Oneida people, as well as the other Haudenosaunee tribes. She fought for land in New York (Haudenosaunee territory) tribal autonomy and self government.
Mohawks protest at Oka development site on edge of pine forest
“See all this land? This is Kanesatake. It doesn’t belong to Oka, it belongs to the (Mohawk) people of Kanesatake,” said Ellen Gabriel, during a tense exchange with Oka mayor Pascal Quevillon. “We’re not going to allow you to build any more homes on our land.”
We all know the rules of The Bechdel Test. In recent years, fans of more feminist-friendly films have included their own character tests, like The Mako Mori Test, The Furiosa Test, The Sexy Lamp Test, the list goes on. While these are all helpful (though comical) tools feminists have used to criticize media narratives, very few of them seem to empower or apply when viewing Indigenous and Aboriginal women in media narratives / storytelling.
As a Native woman, I’ve experienced disappointment and heartache from the way Native women were represented on film, television, cartoons, and other forms of media. From stereotypical “Indian princesses” to the distressing amount of physical and sexual violence in live action period pieces, it felt that a Native woman was not a character you were meant to love and root for. She was never a character you were supposed to relate to or want to be. In almost every role she’s in, she cannot exist without being a prop for another character’s story, and if she has a “happy ending,” it’s usually in the arms of a white colonist or settler.
I’ve created the Aila Test to bring my own concerns to the table when feminists criticize media. Not only should these issues be analyzed and addressed, but content creators who write about Indigenous / Aboriginal women should consider writing characters who pass this test. We need them now, more than ever.
To pass the Aila Test, your film / animation / comic book / novel / etc, must abide by these three important rules:
1. Is she an Indigenous / Aboriginal woman who is a main character…
2. Who DOES NOT fall in love with a white man…
3. And DOES NOT end up raped or murdered at any point in the story.
Do you know characters that pass the Aila Test? Please submit them to this page!
Ah-Weh-Eyu (aka Pretty Flower, aka Goldie Jamison-Conklin) the daughter of Jacob J. Jamison and Eliza D. Jamison, and the wife of Charles Conklin - Iroquois (Seneca) - 1909
Who I am
Hello! I am Oneida Iroquois, wolf is my clan. I live in Canada; I reside in town. I speak a little bit of Oneida (I’m learning to speak it) I’m at peace and I’m happy, I’m really shy. I enjoy good food, pets and mocc’s (who doesn’t) I care about my family and friends. If I made a mistake forgive me, this is as far as I can do it. Thank you, have a nice day.
~ Happy world indigenous peoples day ❤️🖤💛
I was reading about creepy Native American legends because I love creepy/morbid stuff and I was pretty surprised there was nothing about Stone coats
Brief background:
Stone Coat (Atnayalho in Oneida) is a rock giant in Iroquoian tribes. In some tribal traditions there is only one Stone Coat, while in others, there is a whole race of them. Stone Coats are descibed as being about twice as tall as humans, with their bodies covered in rock-hard scales that repel all normal weapons. They are associated with winter and ice, and they hunt and eat humans. In some legends Stonecoats were once human, and became cannibal monsters as a curse punishing them for evil deeds, like the Windigos in Ojibwa mythology. In other legends Stonecoats were never human, but were a tribe of primordial man-eating monsters.