History Of Shinnecock Women Brought To Life In Photos

Cholena Smith’s love for the Shinnecock Indian Nation and its rich history was cultivated in her from a young age by her parents, Josephine and Gerrod Smith. Ms. Smith, now 24, is committed to sharing that love by educating her fellow community members—those who live on the reservation, and those living abroad—and she’s recently focused on the history of women, in particular.

In early June, Ms. Smith participated in the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, the largest gathering of female historians in the world, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead. She was part of a panel discussion—along with Ellen Trevorrow of the Ngarrindjeri Nation in Australia—titled “Unfiltered: Indigenous Women and Photographic Histories Across Two Continents, Shinnecock and Ngarrindjeri Perspectives.”

Ms. Smith and Ms. Trevorrow shared and discussed a selection of rare historical photographs they curated that focus on significant women in their respective communities in the early and mid-20th century,

Ms. Smith’s collection of photographs largely came from her great-aunt, Shirley Smith, although she also presented photos gleaned from other sources. According to the younger Ms. Smith, her great-aunt had an extensive collection of photos of various women from a male photographer who had visited the reservation in the 1950s and 1960s, depicting women in their daily lives—weaving baskets, working the land, participating in Native American ceremonies.

There are also many portraits of well-known and celebrated Shinnecock women, including several taken by Shinnecock resident Wickham Hunter, which are on display in the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum. The women in those photos hold their heads high, portraying a sense of confidence and pride, but many of them have a look of weariness at the same time, which perhaps speaks to the plight they endured throughout their lives, a consequence of both their ethnicity and their gender.

In addition to rights denied them by the influence of colonial patriarchal norms, and because of their race, the women also endured hardships such as the sinking of the freight ship Circassian in December 1876 off Mecox Bay. Ten Shinnecock men died in that wreck after being sent to try to salvage the ship’s cargo, despite the life-threatening weather conditions. Many of those men were tribal leaders, and the women in their lives were left to help bolster the community after their deaths.

Ms. Smith said she learned a great deal from poring over the photos with her great-aunt, who made it clear to her that storytelling was one of the major responsibilities of Shinnecock women across the decades, and that they were revered for those stories and the knowledge they possessed.

Ms. Smith added that, traditionally, Shinnecock women were revered and held in high esteem in their own community, and given crucial roles as elders and leaders—but that, over time, after contact with colonists, patriarchal norms began to take hold.

Dr. Karen Hughes is a senior lecturer in Indigenous Studies at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, with expertise in indigenous histories. She mentored Ms. Smith, working with her to co-author a peer-reviewed academic journal article titled “Un-filtering the Settler-Colonial Archive: Indigenous community-based photographers in Australia and the U.S., Ngarrindjeri and Shinnecock perspectives.” It will be published in the Australian Aboriginal Studies Journal in its December issue.

Dr. Hughes said there are many similarities between the Shinnecock and Ngarrindjeri cultures, including a traditional equality among men and women.

“In Ngarrindjeri and Shinnecock societies, from pre-colonial times to the present, women held equivalent roles to men, having their own distinctive knowledges, ritual responsibilities and rights in land, long before their non-indigenous counterparts had the right to vote or to own property,” Dr. Hughes said.

“Shinnecock women, for example, were keepers of the land, on which all else depended. They were also signatories to important treaties and agreements. Similarly, Ngarrindjeri women were important ‘putaris’—female doctors with their own rights in land, decision making and ceremony, arranging important alliances through marriage—and we see their continuing strength over time today.”

Ms. Smith said she has noticed a return in recent years to the kind of equality that was traditionally the norm, pointing out that Nichol Dennis Banks was elected as the first female Tribal Trustee in 2013, and that women again were granted the right to vote for tribal positions in the 1990s. But in the many years in between, Shinnecock women had to endure marginalization and unfair treatment on two fronts—from their own community as well as the surrounding one.

Ms. Smith spoke about how many of the women in the photographs would walk into town and go to work for wealthy white families, cleaning and caring for their children—before going home to do the same for their own families. That had an effect on them, particularly given their geographic location.

“We were poor and we still are,” she said. “As soon as we walk off the reservation, we’re hit with this reality, with huge mansions all around us. It’s the opposite of what we have. Compared to other [indigenous communities] that might be out in the country, hours from the nearest town, where it’s not as in their face.

“For us, I think that’s so hard,” she added. “For our women to find a way to make relationships outside of the reservation and educate the community about who we are, I think that takes a lot of strength.”

Ms. Smith spoke about that desire to educate that was present in many of the women she learned about, including Lois Hunter, known as Princess Nowedonah, who was extremely well-versed in Shinnecock culture and history, became a teacher and extensively researched the tribe’s history, and also was an author.

Ms. Smith graduated from Southampton High School in 2010 before going to Stony Brook University, where she graduated in 2014 with a double major in sociology and anthropology. She’s now passing on her knowledge to the youngest Shinnecock children, as the teacher for the 3- and 4-year-olds at the Shinnecock preschool, teaching the basics for children that age as well as the Shinnecock language.

Ms. Smith is also working on curriculum development at Southampton Elementary School, making sure the stories of her people are told off the reservation as well.

Participating in the Berkshire Conference was outside of her responsibilities as a preschool teacher, but Ms. Smith said she remains dedicated to enriching her own education and sharing it with people of all ages.

“Anything that has to do with strengthening my knowledge about who we are and educating my own community and the surrounding community, I want to do it,” she said.

And the role of women, in particular, has become a particularly important cause to her, thanks to the photos that provide an illustration for their important place in Shinnecock history.

“We’ve always been the backbone of our nation,” Ms. Smith said. “And we’ve had equal or sometimes higher responsibilities in the community, and I want to see that continue.

“I think we’re showing more respect and equality on that level and moving away from that forced settler colonial mindset. We can see through history that we’re reverting to that original state. It’s such an exciting time to be this age and see what’s happening for indigenous people around the world. It’s really important to remember the stories and struggles, and what women have contributed.”