A Nation of Women chronicles changing ideas of gender and identity among the Delaware Indians from the mid-seventeenth through the eighteenth century, as they encountered various waves of migrating peoples in their homelands along the eastern coast of North America. In Delaware society, to be a woman meant to engage in activities performed by women, including diplomacy, rather than to be defined by biological sex. Among the Delaware, being a "woman" was therefore a self-identification, employed by both women and men, that reflected the complementary roles within Delaware society. Decades of interaction with other cultures gradually eroded the positive connotations of being a woman. To salvage some sense of gender complementarity men and women redrew the lines of their duties more rigidly. Some Delawares asserted a masculine identity as a warring nation, others sught ways to retain an older understanding of what it meant to be a women and peacemakers.