Sparking a Fire
When I was in college trying to liberate my mind, I was searching for answers to questions that I couldn’t really even form yet. I just knew that I was not experiencing ‘truth’ in history, and that there had to be a deeper story which explained the world’s contradictions. Cracking the facade of the ‘fake’ history that has been peddled by almost every U.S. institution since time immemorial required a lot of digging and painful critical thinking. This moment came when I read about a Lakota woman named Marcella LeBeau.
I was writing my honors thesis on “Women in WWII”. I was fascinated that wartime propaganda could so quickly shift the possibilities of a woman’s life - from happy homemaker to munitions factory worker and right back again after the war - all with no regard for the reality of women’s lived experiences. As a woman, I didn’t see myself reflected in this history at all.
“History begins with the stories of women like Marcella LeBeau. ”
Then I saw this photo of Marcella LeBeau in the back section of a history book, nestled amongst a few short paragraphs about Lakota women’s service during WWII. It was the confident look on her face that just sparked a fire that has never gone out and indeed, never will. History begins with the stories of women like Marcella LeBeau. I had to know more. I needed to understand where that look came from and over 25 years later I still have that raging fire seeking historical truth - and have realized that liberating my mind is a process that never ends.
Marcella LeBeau walked on to be with the ancestors today and I hope you learn more of her incredible 102 year journey as a highly decorated US Army Nurse, a life-long health advocate and the matriarch of a huge family.
This story is from 25 years ago, a lifetime away for me, but it also tells me something very powerful about that path I have chosen, or more likely the path that has chosen me and the people I have the amazing privilege to work with. I have spent my adult life building a collection of oral histories with women who have changed the course of history but have thus far been absent from it. I am now working with a team of critical thinkers and dreamers who want to see these histories shared with others, to change even more lives. It is no coincidence that the great grandchildren of Marcella LeBeau are actually part of this team, embodying this desire to tell the unknown histories to inspire this next generation. I can’t wait to read the book that Ryia LeBeau is writing about her great grandmother and to see where she helps take The Warrior Women Project as we grow. The photograph portraits of land and people by Dawnee LeBeau show us our relatives in love and light.
Excellence is intergenerational. I hold deep gratitude for Marcella LeBeau - for living a life which honored the past and shaped a hopeful future through her descendents.