From the National Park Service (Click on the above link)
"Indigenous women of numerous Native Nations had rights, sovereignty, and integrity long before European settlers arrived on these shores. They had complete control of their lives, maintained economic independence in marriage, and lived in a culture free from gender-based violence. While women in the United States are recognizing that 100 years ago the Constitution finally recognized the right of U.S. women to vote, Native Nation women have had political voice on this land since the founding of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) confederacy over 1000 years ago. And today, the Six Nations clan mothers continue to have the responsibility to nominate, hold in office, and remove their chiefs. Just as our suffrage foremothers before us, non-native women have much to learn from Native women and their centuries of experience."