American Indian Women of Proud Nations

CHERRY MAYNOR BEASLEY, Ph.D., is the former Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. MARY ANN JACOBS, Ph. D., is a Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. ULRIKE WIETHAUS, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita in Religious Studies at Wake Forest University.

List of Figures – Dedication – Nadine F. Patrick: Foreword as a Song: We’re Still Here – Acknowledgments – Ulrike Wiethaus: Introduction – Lisa J. Lefler: Future of Kituwah (Cherokee) Matrilinearity – Roseanna Sneed Belt: Cherokee Women Heal Boarding School Trauma – Marjorie Joyce (Gatlin) Johnson/Eva Marie Garroutte: Journey Towards Ethnic Renewal – Rosemary White Shield/Rod K. Robinson/David J. Rogers: Community Healing Responses to MMIP – A. Kay Oxendine: Lifting Community Voices to Address NA MMIW – Cherry Maynor Beasley/Ulrike Wiethaus: Blending Traditional and Western Medicine – Tasha Oxendine: Traditional Healing Practices Among Lumbees – Halay Turning Heart (fka Renée Grounds): Breathing New Life into the Yuchi Language – Mary Ann Jacobs and Heather Kimberly Barton Dial Sellers: Decolonizing the University Curriculum – Christy M. Buchanan and Camden B. Jordan: Indigenous Parenting for Adolescent Well-being – Rose Stremlau and Jane Haladay: Indigenous Women’s Voices in Higher Education – Contributors – Index.

For centuries, Indigenous women have displayed strong and steadfast resilience to Eurocentric and patriarchal violence. This resilience has been manifested when Indigenous mothers faced having their children’s culture, and sometimes their lives, removed through the Federal government’s Indian Board School policies, and the targeted violence imposed on women in Indigenous communities through the epidemic that has been called “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.” Fortunately, these injustices are receiving increasing attention, thanks largely to the efforts of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna), the first Indigenous Cabinet Secretary.

The second edition volume of American Indian Women of Proud Nations. Essays on History, Language, Healing and Education brings together scholars from across the US to celebrate Indigenous women’s resiliency. The collection is a welcome opportunity to let the thoughts and words of the authors breathe new life into Indigenous women’s traditional education, health and wellness and nurturing. I invite you through this excellent work to journey through Indigenous history to appreciate the beautiful voices of contemporary Indigenous women as they stand strong with their elders and ancestors.
Ronny A. Bell, PhD, MS
Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor, Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
UNC-Chapel Hill

In their article “Peoplehood: A Model for the Extension of Sovereignty in American Indian Studies,” Tom Holm, J. Diane Pearson, and Ben Chavis suggest that American Indian studies does not have a central paradigm because of the interdisciplinary focus. Readers of American Indian Women of Proud Nations: Essays in History, Language, and Education, edited by Cherry Maynor Beasley, Mary Ann Jacobs, and Ulrike Wiethaus, will feel their own paradigms shift as they explore this collection of essays on wide-ranging topics relating to Indigenous women. Readers are provided with knowledge but also urged to take action on a number of important issues—from the #MMIW movement to traditional healing practices to curriculum changes on a college campus. Throughout, the book honors the voices of Indigenous women by using interviews and other story-telling techniques to convey information. The book also follows in the tradition of intellectual sovereignty advocated by Robert Allen Warrior to bring knowledge back to the tribal community. In addition to interviews, the articles draw on social media, stories, international human rights documents, and podcasts, along with more “traditional” sources. By the end of the book, the reader, too, has become part of the conversation, one that continues beyond the printed text.
Mae Claxton, Ph.D., Professor, Department of English and Cherokee Studies, Western Carolina University, Welty Award Recipient for Distinguished Achievement 2022.