Native American Women

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Grace ThorpeGrace Thorpe, a tribal judge, anti-nuclear activist, and the daughter of Olympic great Jim Thorpe, died of heart failure at the age of 86.
Ms. Thorpe was a direct descendent of Sac and Fox chief Black Hawk and was of Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and Menominee heritage.
She was a World War II veteran, having served as a Women's Army Corps corporal in the Philippines and Japan. She was awarded a Bronze Star for her actions at the battle of New Guinea.
She was a personnel interviewer for General Douglas MacArthur at his headquarters in Tokyo during the occupation of Japan.
She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a paralegal degree from the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C.
She also was an Urban Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed MBA course work at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.
She was a tribal district court judge.
Ms. Thorpe served as a congressional liaison to the US House of Representatives American Indian Policy Review Commission. She was also known as a champion of the environment, serving as director for the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans.

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Vanessa Paukeigope JenningsVanessa Paukeigope Jennings (born 1952) is a Kiowa-Apache-Gila River Pima regalia maker, clothing designer, cradle board maker, and bead artist from Oklahoma.
Jennings is enrolled in the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and is the granddaughter of artist Stephen Mopope.
"I do my grandmother's work," Jennings said. "I do my great-grandmother's work. This is what they used to do. They are the ones who should be honored." Besides finished pieces, she is one of the few artists who brain-tans her own hides.
In 1989 Jennings was made a National Heritage Fellow. She was also named a Living National Treasure by the US President and the congress. In 2004, she was named the Honored One by the Red Earth Festival.
She lives in Red Stone, east of Fort Cobb, Oklahoma.

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Judy JacobsJudy Jacobs is a recording artist, ordained minister, teacher and sought-after conference
speaker. She is the host of the television program Judy Jacobs Now!, which airs on major Christian
networks, as well as the yearly “Press, Push, and Pursue” conferences at various locations
worldwide. She is also the author of Take It by Force! and Stand Strong.
Jacobs, whose heritage is rooted in the Native American Indian Lumbee Tribe, a group that fought
vigorously for its civil rights of equality and freedom, shares stories from her life. Once the shy,
daughter of a sharecropper with 11 siblings who grew up in the church, Jacobs has become an
accomplished singer and a speaker to thousands of people around the world.

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Adrienne LyleAdrienne Lyle is a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma citizen, and a professional equestrian dressage rider.
Equestrian dressage, is a sport where the horse and rider perform a series of movements known as a dressage test. The horse and rider appear to be dancing a grand waltz.
The sport is considered the highest order of equestrian events, and its purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse’s natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. The tests are performed before a panel of seven judges, who award scores for individual movements and for the overall routine.
Her expertise in the sport that involves a rider's guiding a horse by slight movements of the hands, weight, and feet through a series of complex maneuvers, won her an Olympic spot.
Adrienne and her horse Wizard placed an impressive fourth place in the US Equestrian Federation Dressage Festival of Champions and the USEF Dressage Olympic Selection Trials.
Adrienne also cares deeply about the environment and is involved in conservation. The United States Equine Rescue League is her favorite charity. “I love any charity that rescues abused or neglected horses or animals.”

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Mary KillmanMary Killman (born April 9, 1991) is an American synchronized swimmer.
Killman was born in Ada, Oklahoma, and grew up in Texas. She is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a federally recognized tribe based in Oklahoma.
Originally a competitor in racing events, Killman began to participate in synchronized swimming competitions at the age of 11, and at age 15 gave up racing to focus exclusively on synchronized swimming.
Killman joined the Lindenwood University synchronized swimming team, one of six collegiate varsity synchronized programs in the United States and is currently a four times USA synchro athlete of the year (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014); she holds four US senior national solo titles (2010, 2013, 2014, 2015) and three US collegiate national solo titles (2013, 2014, 2015).

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Temryss LaneTemryss MacLean Lane (born May 22, 1982 in Bellingham, Washington), is a female soccer player.
Lane is of Lummi American Indian and European American descent. She is trained in ballet, and competed in track, basketball and soccer in high school. She earned the title of 1999 NSCAA Washington State Adidas Player of the Year, NSCAA/Adidas Far West Region All-American Team and WESCO League Player of the Year and MVP. Additionally, Seattle-area soccer club Emerald City FC awarded her the Golden Boot Award in 1999 and 2000, an award given to the best female (and male) players in the entire club organization. She was also a member of the Region IV Olympic Development Program team from 1997-1999.

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Jaclyn RoesselJACLYN ROESSEL was born and raised on the Navajo Nation, between the communities of Kayenta, Round Rock and Lukachukai, Arizona. She is the owner of the greeting card company Naaltsoos Project and has founded and co-founded two blogs, Grownup Navajo and presence 4.0 projects which connect to her role as a modern Navajo woman. She is a host of the podcast schmooze: lady connected dedicated to sharing Arizonan women’s stories. Currently, the Education and Public Programs Director at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, Roessel’s work as an arts and museum professional, cultivated her belief in the value of utilizing cultural learning as a tool for developing communities and engaging community members. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master in Public Administration from Arizona State University. She was the inaugural recipient of the Arizona Humanities Rising Star Award in 2013 given to young professionals whose work elevates the importance of humanities in the community. Her volunteer career includes on-going commitments with the Phoenix Symphony, Valley of the Sun United Way and Whisper n Thunder and is driven by expanding educational opportunities to underrepresented communities.

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Elizabeth Cook-LynnElizabeth Cook-Lynn (born 1930) is an editor, essayist, poet, novelist, and academic, and member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. She has been a formidable voice within the discipline of Native American Studies, Native Studies, and Indigenous Studies. She is considered to have a strong voice and views about Native American politics, particularly in regards to tribal sovereignty. For instance, she has often been quite vocal and critical of authors putting forth tenuous claims to Native/Indigenous ancestry in order to advance their own careers, and has reflected on the negative implications that these "tribeless" authors have not only on Native Studies as a discipline, but also in the development of economic and social life of Native nations. Cook-Lynn was born in Fort Thompson, South Dakota on the Crow Creek Reservation. She is a Dakota and member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. Cook-Lynn attended South Dakota State College where she earned a BA in English and Journalism. By 1971 she had married, had four children, divorced, and earned a Master of Educational Psychology and Counseling from the University of South Dakota.
Cook-Lynn co-founded Wíčazo Ša Review ("Red Pencil"), an academic journal devoted to the development of Native American studies as an academic discipline. She retired from her long academic career at Eastern Washington University in 1993, returning to her home in Rapid City, South Dakota. She has held several visiting professorships since retirement. In 2009, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.

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AwashonksIn 17th Century Algonquian society, a woman could inherit tribal leadership from a parent. One woman who did was Pohunna Saunks, Squaw Sachem Awashonks. She became woman Chief of the Sakonnets in the southeast corner of Rhode Island. She signed the Plymouth Treaty forced on Metacomet (King Philip) in 1671 that humiliated the Wampanoag Tribe and took some of their land. She kept her people out of war with the European settlers even when the Plymouth Company gave some Sakonnet land to white men, without asking or compensating the tribe. Awashonks did join with Metacomet on the losing side of King Philip’s War, 1675-’76.
After it became apparent who was going to win the war, Awashonks talked the Sakonnets into giving up. She moved them to a safe place and sent word to Plymouth that peace between her people and the whites seemed like a good idea. The Sakonnets would not harm or molest the settlers, so long as they themselves were left in peace and their land rights were respected by white men in the future. The peace proposal was accepted by the colonials.
Eighty years later, an epidemic passed through southeast Rhode Island and decimated the Sakonnet population of approximately four hundred people. After the turn of the 19th Century, the tribe was so reduced in numbers that they were forced to join their Wampanoag cousins. Had it not been for Awashonks’ pragmatic wisdom, it might have happened a century earlier.

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Karen J. DaltonKaren J. Dalton (born Karen J. Cariker; 1937–1993) was a Cherokee folk blues singer, guitarist, and banjo player. She was associated with the early 1960's Greenwich Village folk music scene, particularly with Bob Dylan.
Dalton was born in Enid, Oklahoma. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to jazz singer Billie Holiday, though Dalton said Bessie Smith was a greater influence. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown—making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string guitar and a long neck banjo.
Dalton's first album "It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best" was released by Capitol records in 1969, and her second album, "In My Own Time" in 1971.

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Babcia Twylah Hurd Nitsch(1913-2007)
Grandmother Twylah Nitsch
An elder of the Seneca nation, Gram was the founder and leader of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge, an international organization that promotes the teachings of her ancestors. Her Seneca name, Ya-weh-node, means “She Whose Voice Rides the Four Winds.”

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Laura Beltz WrightBorn in Candle, Alaska, Laura Beltz Wright was a member of the Eskimo Scouts, also known as the Tundra Army and the Alaska Territorial Guard (ATG). The units were created in 1942 during WWII out of the United States’ concern over enemy invasion of the territory of Alaska. They patrolled 5,000 miles of Aleutian coastline and 200,000 miles of tundra to defend Alaska and provide intelligence on any enemy operations. The Scouts also rescued downed US airmen.
Wright proved to be a sharp shooter: During a training drill
she hit the bull's-eye 49 out of 50 times. She also delivered the U.S. mail by dog team,
delivered babies, conducted funerals, and was involved in community activities. The Alaska
Federation of Natives named her "Most Outstanding Living Eskimo," and she was listed in Who's
Who of American Women in 1967. She also was nominated for the Alaska Mother of the Year
award in 1968. Wright was described by a family friend, the Rev. William Warren, as living
a life that was "more unbelievable than a novel," "She had a compassion for placing others'
needs before her own," her family said. "Her cheerful heart and home were always open. She
was an inspiration to all who knew her."