I had a few years ago read this great journal article, which I would love to share the ideas of, this is a great example of things that are outside the box. The percieved themes, arguements, and ideas are my own, however my inspiration and review is of the following Journal Article (as citied appropriately)
Bar, Juliana. From Captives to Slaves: Commodifying Indian Women in the Borderlands. Journal of American History 92 (1,2): 19-46. 2005
In the piece “Commodifying Indian Women in the Borderlands” Juliana Barr makes the claim that the Native Americans of the western lands, such as the Apache, Comanche, and Wichitas used Indian women, and traded them among Europeans in order to create relationships of trade, and reciprocity with each other. She also claims that this type of trade is human trafficking and a form of human slavery.
The author then cites numerous cases where this sort of captivity and slavery occurred. In her work Barr begins by explaining Native American customs, and capture or trade of women. While it was often used through rituals such as revenge, women were taken from other tribes to be adopted or to be married into a clan or a tribe. This could be considered a form or trade or slavery; however trade relations were not viewed the same way among Native American women and children as they were among African Americans. Native American women were not seen as a group of people that were enslaved in large groups in order to perform tasks; therefore they were not viewed in the same light.
The trade of Native American women then transforms among Native Americans, and extends to the Europeans; a specific example of such is that of the trade between the Kadohadacho warriors and the French. The Kadohadacho warriors wished to war with the Spanish and tried to enlist the help of the French, promising them all the money, for they only wanted to take the women. When the Natives met with the Frenchmen they were given two of their own women back, which was to be a sign of friendship, and were bought from Arkansas Indians, showing a clear example of trading women in order for peace. Trade was not only used for piece however, sometimes it was used for personal reasons, such as marriage, and the need of a servant.
Another good example of such slavery is that of Sacagawea, while history often attributes her fame to choice, she was a slave taken by the Hidatsas and then purchased by a Frenchman, Toussaint Charbonneau, who claimed her as his wife in the history books and made her famous during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Not only are these situations documented but there are situations documented of the Witchitas were selling captive Apache children to the French, using them as slaves or adopting them as their own children. This paved the way for other uses of women and children as slaves, one account is that French traders would often send women that they bought to villages as an object of peace and then would follow with their products in order to sell them to the village with out being accosted or treated badly. In this example women are used as material to be bartered in order for consent or for a peaceful entry.
Like Sacagawea women were traded to be used for slaves by bartering. It was normally an occurrence in which an Indian woman was sold; however there are accounts of European women being used for this purpose. In one case the Wichitas used a Spanish woman by the name of Ana Maria Baca in order to trade for a large amount of supplies. This shows how women were often used as currency from both Native American perspectives and from European perspectives, though it was usually with Native American women and rarely women such as Ana Maria Baca.
These were not the only reasons to capture women and children in society. Europeans did not just use them for trade as one would slaves. Spaniards were known for capturing women from Comanches and Wichitas in order to use them to communicate and conduct political business with the tribes or families from which they were captured. This form of slavery, according to the author was mainly used in an Indian to European fashion, rarely were European women captured and used as leverage. For instance the author explains evidence of this event through an instance were an Apache band captured a Wichita chief’s wife. This wife was then given to the Spanish, with whom the Wichita were at war with. The chief rode to the Spanish in order to conduct political meetings that would allow him to have his wife back and would end the war, because the Spanish had such leverage through a woman who was treated as an object.
Through out the article the author used numerous other examples which demonstrate these different forms of Native American trafficking, trafficking for political reasons, in order to promote peace, and a for basic slave trade in exchange for other goods and supplies.
The claim that women are treated as trading material backed up by multiple examples and sources of evidence, or data which allow her to reach the conclusion that European and Indian men used Native American women as social and political capital because it would was accommodating and in fact it transformed women into objects to be used as currency, or as sex and that it was a type of slavery even though it was not classified as such. The author warrants that if this type of slavery was shared it would bring American slavery into a new perspective which would be better when comparing the United States to other countries’ geopolitics and culture around the world.
