WOMEN IN THE INDIGENOUS RACIAL POWER MOVEMENT
A FEW OF THE WOMEN
JANET MCCLOUD
March 30, 1934 - Nov. 25, 2003
Dubbed “the Rosa Parks of the American Indian Movement” after the 1974 Boldt decision where the U.S. Supreme Court decided the State of Washington could continue to fish and harvest the fish as they traditionally would have, as was protected by U.S. treaties.
McCloud was the co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (1974), which concentrated on the health along with treaty rights of Native American women, amongst other communal issues. She also founded the Northwest Indian Women's Circle and the Indigenous Women's Network. The issue of forced sterilization were all of these groups' focal points.
After a few of her male family members were arrested for fishing illegally in 1962 although it was protected under the Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1854, the McClouds founded the Survival of American Indians Association. The group started organizing protests of the federal government’s regulations on fishing. The “fish-ins” consisted of members of the organization illegally casting nets into waters at Nisqually River and Puyallup River, both located on tribal lands. During these “fishing wars,” McCloud documented her viewpoint through newsletters.
McCloud was arrested during the fishing protests and encouraged her young children to stay involved throughout the entire experience.
REGINA BRAVE
Also known by many as “Grandma Regina,” is a Lakota woman and veteran known for her activism at both Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973 and in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests of 2017.
She was one of the first people in Wounded Knee to occupy the tribal lands as a part of the American Indian Movement on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Wounded Knee occupation was geared towards gaining rights for the people of the Sioux tribe and ultimately pushed for an investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, run by the federal government. The area they occupied was an area with an alarmingly low life expectancy rate and was also a site of historical significance for the Sioux.
Recently, she was one of 47 protestors arrested in Cannon Ball, North Dakota on February 23, 2017 during the Standing Rock, North Dakota protests. She was protesting the implementation and construction of a pipeline that would run through and potentially erupt in tribal lands. She is said to be in her early eighties.
WILMA MANKILLER
Nov. 18, 1945 - April 6, 2010
Wilma Mankiller was the first female principal chief of the Cherokee nation and served from 1985 to 1995. While serving, she founded the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department and saw an increase of tribe members that went from 55,000 to 156,000.
An Oklahoma native, Mankiller experienced extreme culture shock and poverty when she moved to San Francisco as a child. This aided her in becoming an activist for indigenous rights.
Mankiller was involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 where members of the Lakota tribe attempted to reclaim their tribal lands due to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, and occupied Alcatraz Island.
As the first female chief of the Cherokee nation, she made changes to the deeply male-dominated leadership. In her three terms as chief, she implemented a number of programs, primarily giving attention to restrengthening the nation in terms of education and healthcare, giving power to the women of the tribe, and creating a stronger relationship between the nation and the federal government. President Clinton awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 for all of her accomplishments.
LIZZY FASTHORSE
Lizzy Fast Horse occupied Mt. Rushmore in September of 1970, capturing national attention with the help of others in the American Indian Movement. The group made a camp behind President Roosevelt’s head in a protest of the damage of the black hills.
Fast Horse climbed to the top of Mt. Rushmore while handcuffed to her nine year-old great-granddaughter. After the two of them along with 21 other protesters camped out for four weeks, they were dragged down the mountain by a number of federal government troopers until their wrists were cut. During their time on the mountain, they planted a flag with the words “Sioux Indian Power” over the monument.
MARTHA GRASS
Martha Grass was a Cherokee woman from Oklahoma, known for her social activism for the women of the American Indian Movement.
During the Trail of Broken Treaties of 1972 in which marches across the nation took place led by spiritual leaders in the American Indian Movement, Martha Grass opposed Interior Secretary of State Morton, explaining to him the struggles that women particularly had been facing due to officials in Washington not holding treaties with integrities.
She was best known for telling Morton, “Enough of this bullshit!” She was an important female figure for the movement as a mother, worker and proud Cherokee woman. She spoke to Morton on the struggles of being a mother and raising her children in this nation. Grass was a strong figure representing the strength women had in this movement.
LADONNA BRAVE BULL ALLARD
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is a Lakota historian and Indigenous activist. Her parents came from both the Ihunktonwan of the Jamesetown Valley and on the other side, the Hunkpapa and the Blackfeet. She was the founder of the first Dakota Access Pipeline resistance camp in Standing Rock, North Dakota in April of 2016.
Brave Bull Allard is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. After she founded the first resistance camp on her property, the rest of the Standing Rock protests were put into place through December of 2016. She is the former historian for the tribe and said her family had been in that plot of land since the 1800s.
Brave Bull Allard felt personally connected to this cause because she owns the closest property to where the pipeline would go. She spoke of how her son was buried on the hill, and no one would be digging or placing a pipeline anywhere near him.