"women In Between"

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(Women in between): Indian Women in Fur Trade Society in Western Canada," is an article written by Sylvia Van Kirk, who has done a significant amount of research on the Indian women's role in the fur trade society in Western Canada. In Van Kirk's article, she makes an argument by showing how unhappy the Indian women were with their Native husbands, which in turn made them seek refuge In marrying and forming alliances with the European explorers. The women of the Fur trade wanted to improve their status as women, as it was the most significant way to form alliances between the two groups of men, i.e. the European traders and the Indian men. This article shows the positive and negative examples of how women were treated when living with the two groups of men. By providing these examples, the author has been able to prove her argument in showing the positive and negative aspects of how women were treated when living with the two groups of men.

Throughout the article Van Kirk bases her argument on how different fur traders gave examples of Indian women and their roles in society. These fur traders described how the men within their own tribes often mistreated women. The author argues that these men thought that women had no souls; they were plagued with a lifestyle of certain taboos and customs, which they often dreaded. For example, Van Kirk gives certain tribes like Ojibwa, parts of the animal, which were the better parts, were always reserved for the men. According to the author, the Indian fur traders believed, that death would come near any women who tried to eat their portions of food, which were reserved for the man. In the Indian tribes, women's main purpose was to become the domestic leader...