Podcast Series with Professor Jaquetta Shade-Johnson: Episode 3

Hi Everyone,

We hope that everyone is continuing to stay healthy, and that you have had an opportunity to watch our first two podcast segments of the series with Professor Shade-Johnson. The links to the first two podcasts and blogs related to this series can be found on the Podcast and Blog webpages. In this third segment, Professor Shade-Johnson compares and contrasts the Cherokee tribe’s structure to other Native American cultures. In addition, she highlights the effect that colonialism had on the organization of the tribe and also discusses the prevalence of organizations that support its citizens today. She shares that in order to understand the various tribes, it is important to understand their origins and how they are organized today. As their own sovereign nations, they practice their own cultures and implement their own governance methods. Each native American tribe is either patrilineal or matrilineal and some tribes currently practice variations of each, so there are no general comparisons of the models. Similar to many Native American tribes, the Cherokee people were originally matrilineal in nature before their assimilation with European settlers, who were patrilineal.

Professor Shade-Johnson further discusses how many Native American tribes adopted the patrilineal and patriarchal systems of functioning in order to engage, both politically and socially, with European settlers. She also alludes to the fact that it was likely more of an existential necessity, rather than a choice for them to change lineality practices. This had an impact on the role of women in the cultures over time and slowly diminished the stature of women in the community. She also addresses the topic of missing and murdered indigenous women, which is a less known topic in the mainstream.

Lastly, the segment touches on the close-knit nature of the tribal communities and the existence of cultural organizations, both within and across the tribal nations. These organizations support the community, including maintaining statistical databases, searching for lost missing individuals, making recoveries, assisting with funeral services, and other life events.

In the next and final segment, we will continue the conversation and shift our focus to Professor-Shade Johnson’s own work. We will also discuss her perspective on the connection to native identity and preserving indigenous wisdom.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and I encourage you to stay tuned for our concluding episode.

Gabby