This book offers twenty original scholarly chapters featuring historical and biographical analyses of Native American women. The lives of women found her contributed significantly to their people and people everywhere. The book presents Native women of action and accomplishments in many areas of life. This work highlights women during the modern era of American history, countering past stereotypes of Native women. With the exceptions of Pocahontas and Sacajawea, historians have had little to say about American Indian women who have played key roles in the history of their tribes, their relationship with others, and the history of the United States. Indigenous women featured herein distinguished themselves as fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, potters, basket makers, musicians, and dancers. Other women contributed as notable educators and women working in health and medicine. They are representative of many women within the Native Universe who excelled in their lives to enrich the American experience.
Clifford E. Trazer is distinguished professor of history and Rupert Costo Chair in American Indian Affairs at the University of California, Riverside. Donna L. Akers (Choctaw) is professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. Amanda K. Wixon (Chickasaw) and is Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of California, Riverside.
Preface Introduction Chapter 1 American Artist, Pueblo Potter: Maria Antonia Montoya Martinez (?-1980) by Emily Molesworth-Teipe Chapter 2 A Bridge Between Worlds: Mourning Dove (c. 1888 - d. 1936) by Amanda K. Wixon Chapter 3 Premier Basket Artist: Elsie Comanche Allen (b. 1899 - d. 1990) by Meranda Roberts Chapter 4 Dancing Activist: Maria Tallchief (b. 1925 - d. 2013) by Michelle Lorimer Chapter 5 Native Woman, Native Voices: Paula Gunn Allen (b. 1939 - d. 2008) by Hal Hoffman and Clifford E. Trafzer Chapter 6 Poet Warrior: Joy Harjo (b. 1951-) by Christie Time Firtha Chapter 7 Civil Justice: Louise Erdrich (b. 1954-) by Christie Time Firtha Chapter 8 The Voice of a Generation: Indigenous Singer-Songwriter, Actor, Activist and Icon, Buffy Sainte-Marie (b. 1941 -) by Kimberly Norris Guererro Chapter 9 A Woman of Vision: Vivienne Jake by Daisy Ocampo Chapter 10 Mary Jim Chapman (Xinstanik): Preserving the Memory of Snake River Country (c. 1910 - 2000) by Benjamin T. Jenkins Chapter 11 Cultural Historian, Linguist and Ethnobotanist: Katherine Siva Saubel (b. 1920 - d. 2011) by Lisa Riggan Chapter 12 Community, Educational, and Cultural Activist: Lorene Sisquoc (b. 1960) by Kevin Whalen Chapter 13 Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich: Desegregating the Last Frontier (1911-1958) by Benjamin T. Jenkins Chapter 14 Preserving Indigenous Cultures and Languages: Ofelia Zepeda (b. 1952) by Jordan Cohen Chapter 15 Roberta Conner (Sisaawipam): Public Historian and Sustainability Activist (b. by Benjamin T. Jenkins Chapter 16 Public Health Reformer: Susan La Flesche (b. 1865 - d. 1915) by Robert D. Miller Chapter 17 Navajo Health Activist and Educator: Annie Dodge Wauneka (b. 1910- d. 1997) by Brendan Lindsay Chapter 18 Activism through Medicine: Lori Alvord (b. 1958) by Jeffrey Allen Smith Chapter 19 Remembering What We Always Knew: Kahnawake Community-Based Activist Terry Maresca, M.D. (b. 1958-) by Sarah Wolk FritzGerald Chapter 20 Activist Centered Healthcare: Beverly Patchell (b. 1951) by Robert D. Miller About the Editors About the Contributors
