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I don't have many heroes. I'm often just way too cynical. But I do have a few, and now I've been lucky enough to have come across another person to add to that short list. President Cecelia Fire Thunder. As my last post, borrowed from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snowwy indicated, in response to the SD legislature's recent anti-woman tactics, essentially banning almost ALL abortions, she's said that she'll open a Planned Parenthood Clinic on her land which is outside the South Dakota government's jurisdiction.
I may be personally against abortion at this time in my life. But I am still, as I have always been, a passionate supporter of the right of ALL women to make their own choices. So that simple act caught my attention.
I went to Google and did some more research on President Fire Thunder. As I read more about her and her life, I discovered that this is a woman who has dedicated her life to the betterment of her people. She makes decisions and takes actions because they are the RIGHT THING TO DO.
Here is a quote from President Fire Thunder....which was reprinted in Well Nations Magazine in a profile of her shortly after the Tribal Council voted down an effort to impeach her as the first woman President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in 2005:
"At a keynote address [Cecelia Fire Thunder] delivered on May 8, 1990, at the National Indian Child Welfare Association meeting, her topic was “Community Empowerment.” She said, “My journey began 43 years ago. I was brought into this world, as many of you have experienced, I was delivered at home by a midwife as we say in the English language. An Indian woman helped my mother bring me into the world. Today she is 83 years-old. She is my teacher and she is my guide, she is the person I go to when I need to know if what I am doing is right. She told me one day, ‘you know its right when it hurts, you know its right when you cry, don’t even hesitate, DO IT, do what you have to do.’
“And that taught me a very important lesson, cause as Indian people, too often we put up these barriers — we can’t talk about it, or discuss it — we have roles that only women are suppose to do this, and only men can do that. I have come to the realization that when I look at the statistics in my community, I don’t give a damn anymore. I have to do something. I will step on toes, it is my responsibility. And that leads me to something else. In our communities, because of that oppression we talked about, we hurt each other more, and what I started to realize was that these barriers that people put in front of me can be overcome."
and then:
“I am not going to respect somebody just because they are old, and I am not going to respect somebody just because they are in office. I am ONLY going to respect them as they respect themselves, and they respect their families, and they do things to help us provide, and start to realize what respect really means. The bottom line is this, my friends and my relatives — when our children are being used for sex — six, seven, and eight year-olds are being used for sex by grown adults, people we’re at the very bottom as Indian people on our reservations and communities.
And we have to start to come back up, to re-build, and this is your responsibility, it is our responsibility, this is my responsibility. It is the responsibility of leaders, tribal leaders, natural leaders, community leaders, of medicine people, of holy people, that these things are going wrong or caused by us, its done by our hands and our words. So we need to start to heal ourselves, we need to take ownership of the problems. And once we recognize it is our problems, then we start to build and address it.”
If you'd like to read more about a remarkable woman, go here:
http://www.wellnations.com/v6i2st2.html
Me, I am in awe. Damn! What a fine woman...what a fine PERSON.
snowwy indicated, in response to the SD legislature's recent anti-woman tactics, essentially banning almost ALL abortions, she's said that she'll open a Planned Parenthood Clinic on her land which is outside the South Dakota government's jurisdiction.I may be personally against abortion at this time in my life. But I am still, as I have always been, a passionate supporter of the right of ALL women to make their own choices. So that simple act caught my attention.
I went to Google and did some more research on President Fire Thunder. As I read more about her and her life, I discovered that this is a woman who has dedicated her life to the betterment of her people. She makes decisions and takes actions because they are the RIGHT THING TO DO.
Here is a quote from President Fire Thunder....which was reprinted in Well Nations Magazine in a profile of her shortly after the Tribal Council voted down an effort to impeach her as the first woman President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in 2005:
"At a keynote address [Cecelia Fire Thunder] delivered on May 8, 1990, at the National Indian Child Welfare Association meeting, her topic was “Community Empowerment.” She said, “My journey began 43 years ago. I was brought into this world, as many of you have experienced, I was delivered at home by a midwife as we say in the English language. An Indian woman helped my mother bring me into the world. Today she is 83 years-old. She is my teacher and she is my guide, she is the person I go to when I need to know if what I am doing is right. She told me one day, ‘you know its right when it hurts, you know its right when you cry, don’t even hesitate, DO IT, do what you have to do.’
“And that taught me a very important lesson, cause as Indian people, too often we put up these barriers — we can’t talk about it, or discuss it — we have roles that only women are suppose to do this, and only men can do that. I have come to the realization that when I look at the statistics in my community, I don’t give a damn anymore. I have to do something. I will step on toes, it is my responsibility. And that leads me to something else. In our communities, because of that oppression we talked about, we hurt each other more, and what I started to realize was that these barriers that people put in front of me can be overcome."
and then:
“I am not going to respect somebody just because they are old, and I am not going to respect somebody just because they are in office. I am ONLY going to respect them as they respect themselves, and they respect their families, and they do things to help us provide, and start to realize what respect really means. The bottom line is this, my friends and my relatives — when our children are being used for sex — six, seven, and eight year-olds are being used for sex by grown adults, people we’re at the very bottom as Indian people on our reservations and communities.
And we have to start to come back up, to re-build, and this is your responsibility, it is our responsibility, this is my responsibility. It is the responsibility of leaders, tribal leaders, natural leaders, community leaders, of medicine people, of holy people, that these things are going wrong or caused by us, its done by our hands and our words. So we need to start to heal ourselves, we need to take ownership of the problems. And once we recognize it is our problems, then we start to build and address it.”
If you'd like to read more about a remarkable woman, go here:
http://www.wellnations.com/v6i2st2.html
Me, I am in awe. Damn! What a fine woman...what a fine PERSON.
