Pacific Northwest Coast Peoples
The wide variance in gender roles between Pacific Northwest Coast peoples has been a subject of sociological study for a century and a half, as is their different history of having gone directly from hunting-and-gathering to commerce and exploration.
The Haida are matriarchal or matrilineal, whereas many other Pacific Coast peoples are patriarchal or patrilineal. The Kwakwaka'wakw are considered bilineal.
It was erroneously thought by many 19th-century anthropologists that the Kwakwaka'wakw were becoming more patrilineal as time went on, but studies of history show that the opposite was in fact taking place. (Some early anthropologists subscribed to the now-disproven hypothesis that all societies move from matriarchy to patriarchy as they advance.)
Of the inland Ktunaxa people, or "Kootenai tribe," the early 19th century person Kaúxuma Núpika lived a third gender role of the culture, beyond contemporary Anglo-American definition limits of homosexuality.
Read more about this topic: Gender Roles In First Nations And Native American Tribes
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