There are too many places, in and out of Indian country, where the lot of women has fallen tragically to the brawn and will of men and the ravishes of an alcohol-infested existence. Such has happened in too many communities on too many reservations and in Pine Ridge, S.D., it has become as well a pitiful and traumatic fact of life.
Thus we hail the decisive election victory of Cecilia Fire Thunder as the new president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. She defeated Russell Means by more than 600 votes in her first attempt and his third to seek the tribal presidency. Both Fire Thunder and Means agree that the women’s vote put the first woman president of the OST over the top. Fire Thunder asserts the vote represents the women’s power coming to bear on Pine Ridge. The tribe’s first woman president was quoted last week saying: “The women have played an integral role in keeping things going. Going to school, getting degrees, working, taking care of the family (and winning the election) was, that’s the value of the Lakota woman re-elevated back to where it belongs.” (KOTA News)
Fire Thunder has dedicated much of her adult life to the defense of the Indian family and the struggle against abuse of Indian women and children. She is an advocate of the rescue and use of the Lakota language by the younger generation. Marjene Ambler, in Tribal College Journal, wrote, “Lakota language advocate Cecilia Fire Thunder uses healing ceremonies to free the tongues of people too ashamed to ‘remember’ their Native language. In many cases, these feelings toward the language have led to hating their own skin color.” Indian Country Today columnist Suzan Shown Harjo wrote on our Web site edition recently about Fire Thunder’s work “to educate Lakota people about Lakota traditions of gender balance and the sacredness of children and elders.” Harjo pointed out that Fire Thunder’s Lakota name means “Good Hearted Woman.” A practical nurse, Fire Thunder established an organization, Sacred Circle, to address domestic violence. Her career stands as testimony of the effort to help rebuild the self-esteem of women in her community and nationally. She is just the kind of courageous and outgoing woman leader that a people wanting to re-strengthen their nation from the ground up, family by family and tiospaye by tiospaye, could appeal to for understanding and assistance.
The election of a woman to the nation’s highest office is a first for the Oglala people and we hope it signals a new volition to confront the issue of respect and rebuilding of families for that embattled community. Pine Ridge is not alone as a community, not by a long shot, to be in the quagmire and tragedy of family violence. However, it could be the place where the body politic begins to heal itself, from the women outward. The election of Cecilia Fire Thunder – a grass-roots advocate to properly challenge even Russell Means – represents just this kind of potential new mandate by the voting community.
We congratulate Cecilia in her victory and wish the outstanding woman leader all the perseverance and support she deserves. If the Oglala families – including the strong family men – get behind their new leader and work with her to build coalitions for political power and development, much could be accomplished. Not only from the federal government but also from foundations and private donors, Cecilia is well suited, as a woman leader heading up a new administration, to bring home important benefits in response to the aspirations of the Oglala communities.
Most importantly, Cecilia Fire Thunder will be an inspiration to young women to reach for leadership and pursue the path of self-esteem and self-dignity. From consideration as sacred and as centrally important to the nations, Indian women have too often been denigrated and abused. This is the conclusion of the “Family Violence and American Indians/Alaska Natives: A Report to the Indian Health Service Office of Women’s Health,” a compendium produced in October 2002, by Dr. Laura Williams, et. al. Sexual assault against Indian women is more than double that among blacks and three times that of whites. Forty-six percent of violence and 70 percent of crime is alcohol related. Acquaintances (38 percent) and strangers (46 percent) have the highest rates as perpetrators against Indian women. Family and intimates account for around 10 percent. In domestic violence, poverty and alcohol are the major factors.
We commend Cecilia for focusing immediately on the economic and financial transparency situation at the tribe. She notes it is her first mandate and has been the sore point about the Oglala Sioux Tribe for her whole base of supporters. The Pine Ridge reservation suffers from extreme unemployment – a severe lack of any work opportunity for most of the tribal youth and membership. Yet, specific business and tiospaye-building initiatives are growing in capacity and are important pieces of the nation-rebuilding puzzle. These are essential building blocks of any new campaign to tackle the serious problems of Indian country. We urge the foundation world and the NGO community to pay attention to Pine Ridge, its issues and problems; to support the work of both government but also of independent organizations as they confront the problems of their people. More importantly, we urge Indian country itself to identify ways it can create or stimulate employment opportunities for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and South Dakota’s other tribal communities. It is time to end the despair and restore opportunity.
Again, congratulations to Cecilia Fire Thunder and to the children, women and men of the Oglala Sioux Oyate. May your path be well guided on the Red Road to peace and prosperity.
