20 Native Women to Know

Ryneldi Becenti was the first Native American to play in the WNBA. Before playing for the Phoenix Mercury in 1997, she had successful seasons in Sweden, Greece and Turkey. She was a two-time National Junior College Athletic Association All-American and was the country’s top junior college point guard during the 1990-1991 season. In 1996, she became the first and only woman to be inducted into the Native American Hall of Fame. In 2013, she was the first women’s basketball player to have her jersey (No. 21) retired by Arizona State University.

Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Daniel is the founder of Rising Hearts Coalition — an Indigenous-led grassroots group that works to uplift and defend Indigenous rights around the country. She has also worked as the Indian affairs liaison to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. Jordan has contributed significantly to language revitalization, social and economic development, and suicide prevention for over 180 tribes across Indian country.

Peggy Flanagan is a mom, activist and the 50^th lieutenant governor of the State of Minnesota. Her career has consistently centered advocacy for children, families and community, from her time on the Minneapolis Board of Education to training leaders and community organizing at Wellstone Action to leading the Children’s Defense Fund in Minnesota as executive director. Before elected as lieutenant governor, she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. Lieutenant Governor Flanagan became the first Native American woman elected to statewide office in Minnesota as well as the second Native American woman, after Denise Juneau, elected to statewide office in the United States.

Navajo nurse and midwife Nicolle Gonzales founded the first Native American-led birth organization, The Changing Women Initiative, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which supports Native American mothers to have access to cultural and health services during pregnancy and birth. Its mission is to renew cultural birth knowledge, promote reproductive wellness, healing through holistic approaches and to strengthen women’s bonds to family and community. Gonzales works to decolonize Indigenous women’s birth experiences and help lower the high rates of Indigenous women birth mortality in the United States. The organization is the only one of its kind so far in the United States.

Joy Harjo, Muscogee Creek, has been tapped by the Library of Congress to serve a second term as U.S. poet laureate. She said the appointment is an honor, “especially during these times of earth transformation and cultural change.” During the coronavirus pandemic, Harjo’s work has been featured in The Poetry of Home, a new video series from The Washington Post and the Library of Congress featuring four U.S. poet laureates on the theme of “home” at a time when so many people are sheltering in place. Harjo, 68, was first appointed in 2019, becoming the first Native American to hold the position. She will now serve as the nation’s 23rd poet laureate consultant in poetry for 2020-2021.

To some, she is the “Apache Joan of Arc.” You’ve likely heard of Geronimo, but you’ve probably never heard of Lozen (meaning “Dexterous Horse Thief”), a medicine woman, prophetess, midwife and two-spirit warrior, who fought by his side with her brother, Victorio. She could ride and shoot and was a brilliant military strategist who seemed to be able to predict the enemy’s movements — skills that became invaluable once the U.S. government began encroaching on Apache lands. She fought alongside Geronimo for six years until she was imprisoned at a military arsenal in Alabama, where she died of tuberculosis and was buried in an unmarked grave.

The historical figure we know by her nickname “Pocahontas” (playful one) was named Amonute and went by the name Matoaka. She was born around 1595 and was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan tribal nation of 30 Algonquin communities. In 1607, English people arrived on Powhatan land. Matoaka was a liaison and communicator at a time of violence from English colonizers. In 1608, she helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners. After marrying Kocoum in 1610, Matoaka was kidnapped during a war between the Powhatan people and the English. While in captivity, she learned English and is believed to be the first Powhatan Native woman to convert to Christianity. Four years later, she married John Rolfe, a relationship that also strategically contributed to peace among Powhatan and English people.

Autumn Peltier, 16, Anishinaabe-kwe of the Wikwemikong First Nation in northern Ontario, Canada is an internationally recognized water protector that has been named a “water warrior,” since she first addressed world leaders at the UN General Assembly in 2018 at just thirteen years old. She works to raise awareness to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the United Nations about hundreds of unsafe drinking water issues of First Nations people. Peltier encourages youth around the world to protect Mother Earth and sacred, living water to ensure humanity’s survival. For three years in a row, Peltier has been nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize.

Maria Tallchief was born on January 24, 1925 in Fairfax, Oklahoma to a father who was a member of the Osega Nation. Her family relocated to California, during her childhood, to nurture and advance her and her younger sister’s dance ambitions and provide them with better opportunities. At 17, she relocated to New York City in hopes of joining a major ballet company. She was the first American to perform in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. She is considered the first American Prima Ballerina and is believed to have revolutionized ballet.

“We are all striving, praying, desiring the same things – that is hózhǫ́ – (love, beauty, balance, joy, kinship) in the midst of our differences.” – Lini Wilkins

Lini Wilkins is a Twin Cities poet, actor and grandmother. Lini grew up on the Dine (Navajo) reservation in Arizona, an hour north of the Grand Canyon. As a child, she followed her grandmother, a medicine woman around while collecting medicinal herbs for ceremonies. At an early age, Lini was mandated to attend boarding School by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Lini has used the traumas she experienced as a child in boarding schools and observed throughout her life and has transformed it into beautiful words and a relationship with her daughter.