Native American Women

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Gayle RossGayle Ross has a rich heritage of storytelling. Her grandmother told stories and it is from this rich Native American heritage that Gayle’s storytelling springs.
Gayle has appeared at almost every major storytelling and folk festival in the United States and Canada, as well as theaters and performance arts halls through out the U.S. and Europe.

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Sheila TouseyFor the past 11 years Sheila Tousey, Menominee, has been a hard-working actress whose work seems to always go unnoticed. She burst onto the scene back in 1992 with the lead female role in "Thunderheart" starring Val Kilmer and Graham Greene. She followed with TV projects, voice over narration and the Sam Shepard film "Silent Tongue" (1994). That year Tousey also returned to the University of New Mexico to direct her first play "An Evening at the Warbonnet." It may have been her last go at directing but Tousey would always return to the stage where she learned her craft as an actress. She performed on and off Broadway as well as in regional theater.
It is clear that someday Tousey will be honored for her underrated work as an actress, but for now her acting speaks for itself and we hear her loud and clear.

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Kelly HolmesKelly Holmes, Lakota from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, is the founder and editor of Native Max Magazine. Kelly founded Native Max Magazine when she was only 16 years old. Today, Kelly is a lead writer for the publication, as well as creative director, event consultant, stylist and multimedia designer.

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Juanita Growing Thunder FogartyJuanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (born 1969) is an Assiniboine Sioux bead worker and porcupine quill worker.
She creates traditional Plains clothing and accessories, such as purses, pipe bags, dolls, cradle boards, rifle scabbards, and knife cases – all adorned with beadwork or porcupine quill embroidery.
Her quillwork is labor-intensive. She gathers her own quills from freshly killed porcupines, then washes and dyes them. She uses both synthetic and natural dyes, such as bloodroot, blackberries, and wolf moss. Sorting the quills by color and size is the lengthiest step in the process. The quills are then softened in a bath of warm water, and Fogarty flattens them with her own teeth. She then appliqués or wraps the quills to moose or deer hide to create intricate patterns.
The designs of her artwork are both abstract and realistic and are based on nature, daily life, and the mythology of her tribes. She says that traditional designs of her tribe would, "reflect what the people saw, and what they had going on in their lives at the time ... maybe somebody in their family had gone to war or battle."
Fogarty has won best of class four times at the Santa Fe Indian Market. She also dances at powwows in regalia created by her family over the course of seven years. She lives in North San Juan, California.

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St. Kateri TekakwithaKateri Tekakwitha, (1656-1680) known as Lily of the Mohawks, was a Roman Catholic saint.
Twice a refugee. Twice an orphan. An outsider among her own people. Kateri Tekakwitha lived in a time of war, famine, disease and turmoil. She was baptized at 20 and dead at 24 but lived such an extraordinary life of faith, courage and hope that the Church declared her the first North American aboriginal saint, patron of ecology and ecologists, of exiles and youth.

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Buffalo Calf Road WomanBuffalo Calf Road Woman, or Brave Woman (b. c. 1850s? -d. 1878), was a Northern Cheyenne woman who saved her wounded warrior brother Chief Comes in Sight, in the Battle of the Rosebud.
During the Battle of the Rosebud, the Cheyenne and Sioux, allied under the leadership of Crazy Horse, had been retreating, and they left the wounded Chief Comes in Sight on the battlefield. Suddenly Buffalo Calf Road Woman rode out onto the battlefield at full speed and grabbed up her brother, carrying him to safety. Her courageous rescue caused the Cheyenne to rally, and they defeated General George Crook and his forces. In honor of Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Cheyenne called the Battle of Rosebud "The Fight Where the Girl Saved Her Brother".
Buffalo Calf Road Woman is documented as also having fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn. There she fought alongside her husband Black Coyote. In June 2005, the Northern Cheyenne broke their more than 100 years of silence about the battle. In a public recounting of Cheyenne oral history of the battle, tribal storytellers said that Buffalo Calf Road Woman had struck the blow that knocked Custer off his horse before he died in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

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Christine Quintasket
Mourning Dove
Mourning Dove was the pen name of Christine Quintasket, an Interior Salish woman who collected tribal stories among Northern Plateau peoples in the early twentieth century. She described centuries-old traditions with the authority of first-hand knowledge, and also wrote a novel based on her experiences.
Mourning Dove’s reputation as a female ethnographer and writer has grown steadily over the past few decades. Her novel, Cogewea, is the first known published novel by a Native American woman.
One day between 1884 and 1888, according to family lore, a woman of Lakes and Colville ancestry named Lucy Stukin (d. 1902) was canoeing across the Kootenai River in north Idaho when she went into labor. She gave birth while the boat was partway across the river, and wrapped the newborn girl, whom she named Christine, in the steersman's shirt. Although other sources give her birthplace as Boyds, Washington (above Kettle Falls), a canoe birth would have been an appropriate beginning for a woman who would travel restlessly through the Inter-mountain West and battle against prevailing social, cultural, artistic, and political currents for the rest of her life.

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Kenojuak AshevakKenojuak Ashevak, artist (born 3 October 1927 in Ikirasaq camp, South Baffin Island, NWT; died 8 January 2013 in Cape Dorset, NU). She remains perhaps the best-known Inuk artist because of her famous print The Enchanted Owl, which was featured on a Canada Post stamp. The first woman to become involved with the newly established printmaking shop at Cape Dorset, Kenojuak began drawing in the late 1950's; her works have inspired about 200 prints produced since then. Her drawings, primarily of birds, were characterized by a strong sense of composition, color, design and draughtsmanship. Although best known as a graphic artist she also carved, making sculptures and (with her late husband Johnniebo) a mural for the 1970 World's Fair in Osaka, Japan.

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Mary and Carrie DannMary and Carrie Dann are Western Shoshone sisters who are spiritual leaders, ranchers, and land rights activists. Carrie and Mary Dann filed a request for urgent action with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. They had been active in the movement to recover millions of acres of land in Nevada and bordering states that originally belonged to the Western Shoshone tribe. The Dann sisters persuaded the UN of their case. It ordered the US government to halt all actions against the Western Shoshone people, a mandate which was mostly ignored. In 1993 the Dann sisters received the Right Livelihood Award.

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Kalyn FreeFree was born in Red Oak, Oklahoma, and after she graduated from law school she began her legal career with the United States Department of Justice; she was the youngest attorney ever hired by the Department of Justice. At DOJ, Free prosecuted federal environmental laws across the country with a special emphasis on tribal lands. In 1998, she ran for and became the first woman and the first Native American ever to be elected District Attorney in Southeastern Oklahoma. During her administration, she focused her efforts on fighting for women, children, and crime victim's rights.
Kalyn established the very first political action committee devoted to electing Native American candidates at the local and state level, INDN's List (Indigenous Native Democratic Network).

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Theresa Hayward BellBorn: 1952
Birthplace: Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The daughter of a military officer, Bell moved frequently as a child. However, as a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe, she spent considerable time at the reservation in Mashantucket, Conn. After graduating from Ledyard High School in Ledyard, Conn., around 1970, Bell began working on tribal affairs, helping promote a resurgence in Pequot identity. In the 1970s she served on the tribal council and the housing authority. In the late 1980s Bell served on the Connecticut governor's task force on Indian affairs. In 1989 she became responsible for managing tribal events, such as lectures and cultural programs. In addition, she initiated a tribal library and founded the Pequot Times, a tribal newspaper. In 1994 Bell became executive director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket. She was also named Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Reparation Officer. In 1999 she received the Harriet Tubman Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the National Organization of Women.

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DatsolaleeDat So La Lee, whose birth name was "Dabuda", meaning "Young Willow", (English name Louisa Keyser), (ca. 1829 – December 6, 1925) was a renowned American basket weaver and one of the most famous Native American artists of the 20th century. A member of the Washoe people in northwestern Nevada, her basketry came to national prominence during the Arts and Crafts movement.
In her lifetime she made over 250 baskets. Many of these baskets are in museums all over the country.