The Traditional Roles of Women in Leadership

This Book is a combination of life writing and literary analysis of selectoral stories regarding the leadership role of the woman in Blackfoot culture. Idiscuss the leadership qualities of The Holy Woman, The Woman Chief/Warriorand The Blackfoot Woman Storyteller and the importance of these identities forcontemporary Piikani Women. I explain traditional Blackfoot women's roles bydescribing the connection between traditional women's roles, oral stories,ceremonies, Blackfoot language, and the land. A literary analysis and acomparison of the oral stories found in Percy Bullchild's The Sun Came Down:The History of The World as My Blackfeet Elders Told It, Beverley Hungry Wolf'sThe Ways of My Grandmothers, and Clark Wissler and D C Duvall's Mythology ofThe Blackfoot Indians will demonstrate archetypal women in leadership roles,and will show the origins of these traditional roles. The argument for this Book isto encourage Piikani women to return to traditional Blackfoot roles for thepurpose of establishing traditional Blackfoot leadership to balance powerbetween women and men; create healthy communities; and empower futuregenerations of Piikani Women leaders.