How did Native American women deal with periods?

by DancingMidnightStar
DarthNetflix

I imagine that you want to know specifically how they dealt with menstrual blood or other biological effects or menstruation. Unfortunately, there are very few reliable sources on that specific aspect of Native women in my geographic area (18th century Southeast). This is at least partially due to some of the practices of Native women regarding their periods.

Creek women in what is now South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama segregated themselves from male contact entirely during their periods. Menstruation for the Creeks, and most Southeastern Native groups, was a time requiring ritual purity. It was a sign of innate female spiritual power in the form of female capacity to bring life into the world. No interaction with the opposite sex was allowed . Women usually retreated to a specially designated shelter/cabin for about 3 days. They maintained this practice even if they converted to Christianity or married a white man.

As for how they personally managed their periods, the people who wrote our records, all men, were little interested in how Native women managed their reproductive cycles. Even the white husbands of Native women did not mention more than the segregation practice.

Sources:

Natalie Inman - Brothers Born of One Mother

Greg O’Brien - The Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age