“The stunning “Honoring the Women of Wounded Knee” exhibit foregrounds the forgotten indigenous women leaders at the center of the iconic reservation occupation of 1973—and their fights for self-determination before and since.
It reveals that the movement’s “matriarchs” not only coordinated the insurgent camp’s logistics, fed its masses, and healed its wounded. Rather, they also organized the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO), developed their local organizing strategy, brought in the key allies from the American Indian Movement (AIM), founded and led the Independent Oglala Nation, coordinated the occupation’s communications strategy, took up arms on the front lines, stood guard on lonely night watches, and even taught the movement’s young men how to use their guns. While contemporary news coverage often cast the warrior women as mere helpmates to the more visible male spokesmen, the oral histories, archival documents, and photographs presented in this exhibit tell a more complete and accurate history that instead underscores the women’s radical agency.
In fact, the matriarchs of Pine Ridge provided the vision, leadership, and guts that empowered the larger reservation community, transforming themselves along the way. In becoming activists and leaders, they had the rare experience of “true freedom,” as matriarch Madonna Thunder Hawk put it. Among the ranks of the warrior women were direct descendants of the tribal leaders who had negotiated the 1868 treaty, victims of the 1890 Ghost Dance massacre, and participants in other renowned AIM actions from Alcatraz to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As this exhibit reveals, the Wounded Knee struggle also attracted women from across Indian Country, many of whom would carry the fight for sovereignty, justice, and cultural revival into indigenous communities across the continent. Closer to home, after the 1973 occupation, the warrior women stared down threats and intimidation from Dick Wilson’s tribal “goons”--including being fired from their jobs as Community Health Representatives—to continue defending the Paha Sapa, building schools, clinics, and other community controlled institutions, and becoming water protectors as they helped give birth to a new generation of activism at Standing Rock.
The exhibit itself reflects the best in community-engaged public history. Its beautifully-designed panels, gripping archival photographs, and poignant interview excerpts bring the matriarchs to life, while embedded QR codes link to web pages featuring extended individual biographies and video clips from the project’s original oral histories. It is clear that the final product represents the culmination of an extended, mutually-respectful collaboration among the researchers, community members, and the warrior women themselves. Finally, the exhibit’s opening at Pine Ridge High School was a smashing success, with young people appreciating the ways in which the matriarchs both made history and were written out of it. But no longer—the picket signs created for the exhibit art aptly reflects the women’s collective perspective (and this exhibit’s vital contribution): “We are the reason for Wounded Knee.”
Max Krochmal, Ph.D.
Professor of U.S. History and Director of Justice Studies, University of New Orleans