Women in the Erie Culture

• The Erie tribe at one time lived as far west as Ohio and as far east as Pittsburgh.Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  If suppositions about the Erie tribes' cultural similarity with the 5 Nations are correct, Erie women enjoyed more rights than their European and colonial counterparts. They were responsible for tilling, planting and harvesting along with the domestic duties traditionally associated with women in Western cultures. In return for these responsibilities, the women controlled the noncommunal property, which passed from mother to daughter. Women were also the clan mothers, with veto power over the male chiefs' decisions.
  
  

Men in the Erie Culture

• The Erie warriors were renowned for their bravery as well as the use of poisoned arrows.Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  It is supposed that the Erie tribes, like those of the Iroquois, allowed for more overlap between gender rolls than did their European counterparts. Men generally hunted and served as the warriors of the tribe, as well as building the houses and clearing the farm land. However, according to some sources it was not unheard of for women to also participate in these tasks.
  
  

Clan Mothers and Chiefs

• The women of the Iroquios and Erie tribes enjoyed veto power and suffrage while European women were still classified as property.Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  As mentioned previously, Erie women had many rights that their European counterparts lacked. If their tribal culture was as similar to Iroquois culture as most historians presume, the women would have been the clan mothers. This means they were responsible for their clans' welfare and survival, and they alone elected the male leaders, or chiefs. These male leaders were responsible for the politics between villages or nations, but as mentioned earlier, clan mothers could overrule them.
  
  

Matrilineal Succession

• Again assuming similarities with the Iroquois tribe, Erie clan membership passed matrilineally from mother to children. When a couple got married, the man moved into the woman's family longhouse. If a couple divorced, the mother was granted full custody; most women remarried. There was no social stigma attached to divorce for members of either sex.