North America
From the deserts of the south to the woodlands and tundra of the north, meet the women of Turtle Island a thousand years ago.
June 2018
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Gudridr Thorbjarnardottir and Thjorborgr Litlvolva
Hjerolfsnes, Greenland A respected pagan seeress and a shipwrecked Christian teenager work together to protect a farm during a terrible winter. The fluidity of religious practice in the period of Christian conversion is explored in this story from Icelandic sagas. |
June 2018
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The Weaver of Xuenkal
Xuenkal, Mexico An elite woman weaves to meet the tribute needs of the expanding empire of Chichén Itzá. Women weavers revolutionalised textile production so that their cities could adapt to shifting powers in the Yucatán as the Classic Maya empire declined. |
August 2018
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The Oneota Messenger
Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA Two women from a Late Woodlands background meet during the winter hunting season and discuss the recent city-building incomers from the south. Their differing opinions on Mississippian culture represents the development of the Oneota culture. |
August 2019
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Jigonsaseh
Onondoga Lake, New York, USA One of the three founders of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy gives the Women's Nomination Belt to a Clan Mother, investing her with the power to nominate chiefs to the Confederacy. She is called the Mother of Nations for her founding role. |
February 2020
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The Singer and Dancer of Calos
Mound Key, Florida, USA A young girl and her grandmother notice two leaping dolphins on their way to a celebratory feast. The king's house has recently been completed, and the young girl will sing while her grandmother dances. |
March 2021
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The Inuk and the Tunik
Cape Krusenstern, Alaska, USA A woman from the Birnirk culture, ancestors of the modern Inuit, looks across the stream at a distant Ipiutak woman. The Ipiutak disappeared at the same time as the Birnirk and other proto-Inuit cultures began to expand east into Alaska, a transition alluded to in Inuit oral history. |
June 2021
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The Gamblers of Parowan
Parowan, Utah, USA Four Fremont women gather together to play a dice game. The women wagered everything from jewellery to chores. Thousands of people came from all over the Fremont cultural area to participate in games and other ceremonies and festivities in the Parowan Valley. |
November 2021
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The Dog Breeder of Desolation Sound
Grace Harbour, British Columbia, Canada A Coast Salish woman cuddles her wool dog. The Salish wool dog is the only dog ever to be bred for its wool, which women weavers used to make beautiful blankets and other textiles. Wool dogs were a sign of wealth for Salish women and were kept on little islands to control their breeding. |
March 2022
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Ayagigux'
Akun Island, Alaska, USA A transgender Unangan woman smiles up at the sky in the Aleutian Islands. As soon as her beard started to grow in, her family plucked out her facial hair and gave her women's tattoos. Transgender people were fully accepted and integrated into Unangan society. |
August 2022
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The Parrot Keepers of Wind Mountain
Wind Mountain, New Mexico, USA Two women grin as the young scarlet macaw they've been training flies successfully through a wooden hoop. This moment was made possible by religious pilgrimages and cultural exchange between the Mimbres Valley and the Gulf Coast of Mexico. |
April 2023
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The Maize Farmer of the Illinois River Valley
Rench, Illinois, USA A woman leaves her wigwam to begin harvesting maize in the autumn. She has grown a surplus which she will trade for pottery from the growing city of Cahokia to the south. |
December 2023
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Iyadzehe Sicuaa Dzico Ñaña
Magdalena Jaltepec, Mexico A Mixtec princess sips chocolate at a feast hosted by the rulers of Añute, a city-state in the Nochixtlán Valley. She will one day become the queen of a neighbouring kingdom and use her influence as the heir to Añute's throne to forge powerful political alliances that would shape the history of Oaxaca forever. |