This studylooks for a clear answer to the theoretical and practical problems entailed by the definition of an identity for U.S. women in particular and for ethnic women in general. Firstly, Martínez analyses the basis of the patriarchal and colonising discourse that has limited and marginalised native women through alienating, silencing images. The author then establishes a dialogue with the two main critical responses to this discourse: on the one hand, she examines the tendencies that mark the native, female difference, by rewriting and asserting a positive voice; on the other, she analyses those which advocate overcoming the frontiers as well as the reconstruction of marginalising languages to demand hybridity and crossbreeding. Thus, the author puts forward a definition of the post-Indian identity, which she describes as an overcoming of simple categories of gender and ethnicity through the subversion and recreation of meanings, and the reconstruction of old images and new narratives which highlight dialogue and integration.