Category: Indigenous Women

Basic Information Laura (Miriam) Cornelius Kellogg, born on September 8th, 1880, in Seymour, Wisconsin, was a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which encompassed the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations (Stanciu, 2013). Kellogg’s life’s work aimed to revitalize Haudenosaunee culture and return to traditional practices rather than assimilation into White American culture. Her…

Basic Information Sarah Winnemucca was an indigenous woman born around the year of 1844. Her tribe’s territory was located in what is currently the state of Nevada (Hopkins, 2015, p. 4; 2017, p. 9). Given the mistreatment of indigenous people during European colonization, Winnemucca became an activist for indigenous rights. She started by advocating for…

Basic Information Emma Kaʻilikapuolono Metcalf Beckley Nakuina (1847 – 1929) was born to a Native Hawaiian noble mother, Chiefess Ka’ilikapuolono, and an elite American sugar planter father, Theophilus Metcalf. She was “neither queen nor a commoner, but somewhere in the middle” (Young, 2017). She is best known as Judge Emma Nakuina, the first female judge…

Basic Information Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, also known by her pen name Zitkála-Šá, was born as Gertrude Simmons February 22nd, 1876. She was born on the Yankton Reservation, at the time making up what was left of Sioux land, and what white Americans know as South Dakota. After getting an education at Quaker institutions, she would…