[100 years ago this week, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act. That landmark legislation was the product of work from a number of influential and inspiring individuals, so this week I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of them, leading up to this weekend tribute to 21st century figures continuing the fight!]
Five inspiring
indigenous activists making sure la lucha continua:
1)
Madonna Thunder Hawk (born
1940): One could trace the last half-century of Native American history through
just the organizations Thunder Hawk has helped lead: the American
Indian Movement (AIM), Women
of All Red Nations (WARN), and the Black
Hills Alliance, among many others. In recent years she has been a leading
voice in the fight to stop
the Dakota Access Pipeline, making clear that her activism is far from
finished.
2)
Winona
LaDuke (born 1959): LaDuke might be best known as the Vice Presidential
running mate for Ralph Nader on his Green Party tickets in 1996 and (ugh) 2000
(that hyperlinked open letter to Nader and LaDuke says it all). But it would be
beyond unfortunate to limit this lifelong environmental activist
and author to those fraught political moments; her two co-founded and still
extant organizations, the White Earth Land
Recovery Project and Honor the Earth,
are more than sufficient to illustrate her far wider and deeper influence.
3)
Deb Haaland (born 1960): The
first Native American Cabinet Secretary is a groundbreaking role that speaks
for itself, but it also only begins to scratch the surface of Haaland’s
lifelong, and equally groundbreaking
work and activism. Which started long before her political career, as
illustrated by her both starting
a salsa company, receiving a law degree, and being elected to the Laguna
Development Corporation Board of Directors all while she was a single
mother to a young daughter. What else do I need to say?
4)
Dallas
Goldtooth (born 1983): 21st century audiences have come to know
and love Goldtooth through his roles in a number of recent TV shows, most
especially Reservation Dogs but
also Echo, Fallout, and many more; that acting work itself builds on Goldtooth’s
founding of the 1491s, an influential
Native American sketch comedy group. But he’s also a lifelong environmental activist
who served as a water
protector at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, reminding us that, just
as Wednesday’s subject Nipo Strongheart did a century ago, pop culture performers
can be dedicated activists as well.
5)
Matika
Wilbur (born 1984): Speaking of art as activism, there’s photographer
Matika Wilbur and her amazing Project
562, an effort to photograph at least one member of every one of the 562
federally recognized Native American Tribal Nations. The resulting book looks quite stunning
in every sense, but it’s also just one layer to a
project that is both artistic and activist in equal measure—and as
inspiring as America gets.
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Contemporary activists or efforts you’d highlight?
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