| Despite the concerted and deliberate efforts of the United States government and culture, American Indian nations survive today as distinct cultures. In many ways, and on many fronts, American Indian women are responsible for this continued survival and burgeoning renaissance. Women such as Anna Mae Aquash, Janet McCloud, Winona LaDuke and organizations such as Women of All Red Nations (WARN) and the Indigenous Women's Network act as both the agents of change and the keepers of tradition in Indian Country as they resist the continuing colonization of their peoples. Quite often American Indian women's activism comes from a motherist stance similar to that described by Patricia Hill Collins as “motherwork” and stemming in part from the historical denial of their motherhood opportunities and responsibilities through boarding schools, coerced sterilization, and continuing removal of children from their natal families. Relying on traditional understandings of women's power and influence among their people, American Indian women's resistance to genocide and ethnocide can be found in art, music, and political and community activism from Pine Ridge Reservation to the 1995 United Nations Conference for Women. |
