Community is the opposite of patriarchy. It does not make you earn belonging through your attractiveness or caretaking. It does not isolate women into romantic dependency. It does not parade the isolated islands of nuclear families as the pinnacle of achievement and success.

Here is how the Esperanza Project put it:

“[Maslow] estimated that “80–90% of the Blackfoot tribe had a quality of self-esteem that was only found in 5–10% of his own population.”

“...he did not see the quest for dominance in Blackfoot society. Instead, he discovered astounding levels of cooperation, minimal inequality, restorative justice, full

“A braid is so significant to us as Lakota people because in our culture, women are the next best thing to God. And the reason why we understand that and believe in that way is because I’ve never seen a male of any species give birth. Only the females.

They have a great gift. And that is to give life.

And so we wear our hair in two separate