Lakota woman

Introduction

Mary Brave Bird is a Sicangu Lakota woman who dedicated much of her life to the labor for Indian rights. She increased up on the Rosebud Reservation with her mother and sister, and dwelled with her grandparents for much of her childhood. They were Catholic, but they talked Lakota. Though her grandparents were good to her, she had a tough childhood. Her stepfather presented her to drinking at the age of 10. Also, she was called Iyeksa (half-breed) because her dad was white, and looked down upon by whites and full-bloods. She was embarrassed of her white blood for much of her youth.

Discussion

Like many Indian young children, Brave Bird was compelled to join a boarding school by the government. At the St. Francis Boarding School, she faced racism and overt endeavors at acculturation into white society. The young women were struck frequently and she wise to despise and mistrust white people. Too furious and unaligned to put up with mistreatment for long, she assisted start an underground bulletin called the Red Panther. The bulletin recounted the misuses of boarding school and after a couple of publications it was found out by school employees, who put an end to it. When she got older, Brave Bird battled back verbally and bodily when she was punished by the nuns at the school. After an altercation with a cleric she stops boarding school. Brave Bird did not get along well with her mother at the time so she went on the street with associates, drinking and stealing.

Brave Bird's life took a foremost turn in 1971 when she came to a powwow at Crow Dog's Paradise. She contacted Leonard Crow Dog who had just reached from the occupation of Alcatraz and heard to him speak. Brave Bird was motivated by his phrases and became an activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM). She took part in the Trail of Broken Treaties and the occupation of the BIA building in Washington D.C. of 1974. Reflecting on that time span of her life, she said, "We were not angels. Some things were finished by AIM, or rather by persons who called themselves AIM that I am not pleased of. But AIM provided us a raise awfully required at the time. It characterized our goals and expressed our innermost yearnings." Her engagement with AIM assisted her to overwhelm the stigma of being a half-blood and glimpse herself as a genuine Indian.

 

Wounded Knee

Brave Bird proceeded participating in demonstrations all through her first pregnancy. During her eighth month she connected the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee that was intended o call attention to Indian grievances. The occupation continued 72 days and at times there was gunfire from both sides. Supplies were occasionally reduced because the FBI had blockaded all entries to the site. However, Brave Bird was very resolute to have her baby the Indian way, with the assist of her associates, and denied to proceed to a hospital. The day she provided birth to ...