Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
This paper explores a reading of Zitkala-Ša’s short story “A Warrior’s Daughter” as a reaction against the portrayal of Native American warriors in western media.
Cherokee writer Thomas King describes the Hollywood Indian Warrior as “the familiar character who rode around wagon trains, burned settlers’ cabins to the ground, bashed babies against trees, and trapped cowboys and soldiers in box canyons” (34). Other scholars of indigenous studies such as Sierra Adarre have traced variations on this stereotype as far back as the 1600s, conclusively showing that this warrior trope was easily recognizable in the United States by the beginning of the 20th century (21). Many of these scholars have discussed the dangerous hypermasculine expectations this trope causes by overemphasizing the role of a male warrior in native cultures and removing native manhood from the context of the family; however, this discussion rarely presents alternate models of warriorhood or connects the warrior role to Native American femininity.
I argue that Zitkala-Ša addresses these issues in “A Warrior’s Daughter” by creating diverse models of warriors in order to undermine the validity of hypermasculinity in Native American culture and creating a space for female warriorhood. Through explorations of different types of warriors in the story, Zitkala-Ša recenters warriorhood into a context of kinship, undermines the validity of hypermasculinity in Native American culture, and creates a female space within the role of a warrior. As she widens the definition of warriorhood in her writing, Zitkala-Ša also prepares the way to her work with female activists in the rest of her life.
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Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Michael Taylor
A Warrior Heart: Hypermasculinity, Feminine Roles, and the Warrior Trope in Zitkala-Ša’s “A Warrior’s Daughter”
This paper explores a reading of Zitkala-Ša’s short story “A Warrior’s Daughter” as a reaction against the portrayal of Native American warriors in western media.
Cherokee writer Thomas King describes the Hollywood Indian Warrior as “the familiar character who rode around wagon trains, burned settlers’ cabins to the ground, bashed babies against trees, and trapped cowboys and soldiers in box canyons” (34). Other scholars of indigenous studies such as Sierra Adarre have traced variations on this stereotype as far back as the 1600s, conclusively showing that this warrior trope was easily recognizable in the United States by the beginning of the 20th century (21). Many of these scholars have discussed the dangerous hypermasculine expectations this trope causes by overemphasizing the role of a male warrior in native cultures and removing native manhood from the context of the family; however, this discussion rarely presents alternate models of warriorhood or connects the warrior role to Native American femininity.
I argue that Zitkala-Ša addresses these issues in “A Warrior’s Daughter” by creating diverse models of warriors in order to undermine the validity of hypermasculinity in Native American culture and creating a space for female warriorhood. Through explorations of different types of warriors in the story, Zitkala-Ša recenters warriorhood into a context of kinship, undermines the validity of hypermasculinity in Native American culture, and creates a female space within the role of a warrior. As she widens the definition of warriorhood in her writing, Zitkala-Ša also prepares the way to her work with female activists in the rest of her life.