Ada Blackjack’s story is so amazing it should be made into a movie. Called a “female Robinson Crusoe” she survived in the tundra for 703 days, 57 of them alone. It was the thoughts of reuniting with her ailing son that kept her going. Here is her story. Ada Blackjack...
Native American Women Explorers – Tookoolito I feel like I’m freezing when just talking about the Arctic! The men and women who wanted to explore this desolate part of our planet were certainly courageous. Many of them, like Captain Sir John Franklin disappeared while leading his ships the HMS Erebus...
Native American Women Explorers – Sacagawea (Shoshone – c. 1788-1812) Sacagawea helped to ensure the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Coast in 1805 while a teenage mother. Her courage and gentle disposition were noted by both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. She is honored today...
It is time to turn the clock back to the 17th century. Many indigenous women converted to Christianity. One is remembered as the first Native American woman to be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church – Kateri Tekakwitha. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680 – Mohawk/Algonquin) Kateri Tekakwitha was born to...
Sarah Winnemucca (Paiute, ca. 1844-1871) Author, Activist We don’t have many books written by women in the nineteenth century let alone Native American women. There is very little in print from indigenous peoples from the 1800’s. The tribes passed down their stories orally for the most part. We are fortunate...
Sharon Eagleman and Angel De Cora Native American women have contributed to the field of education in many ways. One of the earliest educators, Susette La Flesche Tibbles, traveled and spoke in the nineteenth century. Ella Cara Deloria[1]devoted her life to the study of the language and culture of the...
When I realize all the work that God has given me to do, it almost takes my breath away to think how little justice I can do to it. But it is a comfort to turn and do the next thing to relieve some poor soul’s trouble. Susan La Flesche...
Oh! Let every little girl [and boy] thank our heavenly father for the blessed gift of His dear Son on the first Christmas Day, eighteen hundred and eighty years ago. As we come to the end of nearly two years of posts on Black Women in America, I am thrilled...
I have always seen failure as a challenge to pull myself up and keep going.
“I would rather die,” she wrote in a letter to her brother, “than abandon the 43 people I am responsible for”. Felicite Niyitegeka was caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that took the lives of nearly one million Tutsis.[1] Men, women and children, including entire families were massacred at...
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