The Untold Story Of Indigenous Women And The Suffrage Movement

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October 27, 2020

Updated March 03, 2023

This summer marked the 100^th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America after decades of fighting for it. Without A Whisper: Konnon:Kwe is a short film directed by Katsitsionni Fox, a filmmaker and educator who resides in the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne, where she makes films about indigenous women. The film focuses on the untold story of how indigenous women influenced early leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, a contribution largely unknown. That story could "change the way people think about the women’s suffrage movement,” Fox says. “Our women are pretty much written out of history."

When early suffragists were looking for examples of a society based on gender equality, they turned to the Haudenosaunee women for inspiration. The Haudenosaunee are a matrilineal society, presenting a contrast to what many European women, with few political or social rights, experienced at the time of the suffrage movement. Haudenosaunee women owned property, held leadership positions in their communities, and were viewed as the foundation of society.

“That’s innate in me because that's the way our culture is.” Fox says. “That’s an honor that we have as women to be able to bring life in the world.”

The film follows Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner as they travel to New York City to tell the story of how the Haudenosaunee women influenced the suffrage movement. Louise and Sally’s close friendship is an important symbol of the early influence between indigenous women and European women. “I wanted it to kind of reflect that relationship that happened in the past,” Fox says.

Fox hopes that stories like this will change the conversation around indigenous history in America. “Most of our indigenous history is relatively unknown,” she says. “I remember when I was a young person in school and I would very rarely hear anything about my own people in class. And when I did, most of the time it was negative. That's why it's so important for us, as filmmakers, as teachers, as educators, as artists, that we start to share some of this, this history of the indigenous people on the land.”

Without A Whisper: Konnon:Kwe airs on Friday, Nov. 6 at 9:30pm on GBH 44.