They endeavored to replace Indians’ tribal social units with small, patriarchal households. Women’s labor became a contentious issue because few tribes divided labor according to the gender norms of middle- and upper-class Americans. Fieldwork, the traditional domain of white males, was primarily performed by Native women, who also usually controlled the products of their labor, if not the land that was worked, giving them status in society as laborers and food providers. For missionaries, the goal was to get Native women to leave the fields and engage in more proper “women’s” work—housework.
The removal of tribal social units and the brainwash of gender norms twisted indigenous women's identity recognition, and subcontiously made them feel less belonged. There are researches on Native American elders' psychological traumas that result in extremely high suicidal rates among this social group. The tragic facts are in relation of these negative historical reformations.