Ordinal Position and Role Development of the Firstborn American Indian Daughter Within Her Family of Origin

This book is based on an exploratory study whose purpose was to explore the variables that influenced and contributed to the role development of firstborn middle-aged American Indian daughters within their families of origin. It is the first research of its kind that explores the role development of the firstborn American Indian daughter within the context of her family of origin that was conducted by, for, and on behalf of, American Indian women. While there is a dearth of literature written about American Indian women, what has been written has been by Anglo men, based on studies of men, and whose findings are generally superimposed on women. This research is groundbreaking in that it gives voice to the middle-aged firstborn American Indian daughters studied within the context of ecological theory and in combination with self-in-relation and feminist theoretical perspectives.

This ethnographic study illuminates the everyday lives of the firstborn daughters whose role development was shaped and influenced by the experiences of their parents and grandparents, steeped in forced assimilation by U.S. government policies, who were removed from their own parents and sent to boarding schools. These ethnographic presentations of the women’s lives and families are moving the study of American Indians in new directions of viewing cultural history from an intimate feminist point of view. This book contributes to the historic writings of the American Indian cultural experience in America, as well as provides a new foundational insight into the role development of firstborn American Indian daughters within the context of their families, for deeper understanding by scholars and practice interventions for helping professionals across disciplines.