Here as it unfolds is the chronology of the native American woman's life.
Here are the birth rites of Caddo women from the Mississippi-Arkansas
border, who bore their children alone by the banks of the rivers and then
immersed themselves and their babies in river water; here are Apache
puberty ceremonies that are still carried on today. Women were both
guardian of the hearth and, on occasion, ruler and warrior, leading men
into battle, managing the affairs of her people, sporting war paint as
well as necklaces and earrings.