Native American women

Just off a quiet stretch of US Highway 34, just 3 miles east of Trenton, Nebraska, stands a 35 foot tall shaft of Minnesota pink granite. Near the top of the 91-ton monument is a carving of a Sioux warrior named John Grass facing west, and a Pawnee brave named Ruling His Son stares east. The quiet prairie that surrounds the monument gives little hint at the events of August 5, 1873—the last battle between Great Plains Indians in North America that gave this location its name—Massacre Canyon.
Texas Jack had been hired by the federal government as a "trail agent" in the summer of 1872 to accompany the Pawnee on their annual buffalo hunt. A successful buffalo hunt ensured that the Pawnee had enough meat to feed man, woman, and child through the long winter. One of the keys to a successful hunt was having the right man as trail agent.
The trail agent's job was to ensure that white settlers didn't keep the Pawnee from having a successful hunt. White hunters and homesteaders would often shoot at herds to scare them off so that there would be no animals left in the area for Pawnee hunting parties. Texas Jack did this job well, as evidenced by a letter sent by the Quaker Indian Agent in charge of the Pawnee, thanking Jack for returning to the Pawnee warriors some horses that were stolen by white thieves during the hunt. But as important as this job was, it was secondary to the trail agent's priority, which was ensuring that the Pawnee and the Sioux, who had long been foes and bitter enemies, didn't start a "picnic"—scout slang for skirmishes between the rival tribes.
During the 1872 hunt, Texas Jack successfully prevented any "picnics," to the point that his hunt was at various points joined by Royal Buck and George Bird Grinnell. The hunt was so successful, in fact, that the following year the Pawnee's Indian Agent believed that they did not require a trail agent to keep them from battling with their Sioux rivals. Pitaresaru (Chief of Men) was the chief over all of the bands of Pawnee, and had been on the hunt with Texas Jack the previous year. He petitioned the Indian Agent to hire Omohundro again, and to have Texas Jack seek out the Whistler, the Oglala Lakota chief, and to formalize the peace of the previous summer. Texas Jack went so far as to volunteer for the assignment, willing to forgo his fee from the previous summer to join his friends the Pawnee and their chief Pitaresaru on the hunt. The Indian Agent initially refused, and then delayed, and by the time he finally sent a formal request, Texas Jack had traveled to Chicago with Buffalo Bill for their theatrical debut.
For the Pawnee, the Indian Agent's actions proved fatal. Without Texas Jack, they were joined by an inexperienced and ineffectual trail agent. As the Pawnee trekked towards the Republican River, a group of white hunters warned them about a large band of Sioux to the east. The Pawnee thought that this was another example of white men trying to keep them from hunting, and their trail agent was unable to convince them otherwise. But the hunters had spoken the truth, and the group of Oglala and Brulé under the command of Spotted Tail, Two Strike, and Pawnee Killer was the largest that would ever again cross the plains of Nebraska. One of the Pawnee accused their new trail agent of cowardice. Historian Paul Riley writes that " At that point [the young man] failed as trail agent. In a conflict between boyish egotism and his empowered duty, egotism won." The young trail agent failed to stop the Pawnee from advancing forward to hunt, and failed to prevent their slaughter at the hands of the larger group of Sioux.
Tirawahutresaru (Sky Chief)—convinced that the white hunters were lying to keep the Pawnee away from the herds of buffalo—refused to send out scouts. When buffalo were sighted, Sky Chief and the Pawnee men scattered to hunt, one of them borrowing the trail agent's rifle and leaving him unarmed. As the trail agent followed the Pawnee hunters along with the women and children, he noticed that the hunters had halted, stopping the hunt, and that a group of three chiefs were conferring. A boy of about sixteen rode back to the trail agent, tied a piece of red flannel to the bridle of his horse, and told him that the Sioux were coming. They had already killed several of the hunters as well as Sky Chief, who had dismounted to skin a buffalo he had taken down.
The Pawnee women, children, and pack horses rushed to the safety of a nearby canyon as the young trail agent urged the braves to retreat to a more defensible position. Fighting Bear demanded that the Pawnee make their stand where they were, and the trail agent was unable to convince him to move to safety. As the Sioux pressed in, it became clear that the Pawnee were massively outnumbered, and the trail agent rode toward the Sioux waving a white flag in an attempt to avoid a massacre. Ignoring his flag, the Sioux began firing, and the trail agent's horse was shot out from under him as he turned back towards the safety of the canyon. The Sioux divided into two groups and took command of both sides of the low canyon entrance, firing indiscriminately down into the surrounded Pawnee.
As the Pawnee ran towards safety at the opposite end of the canyon, the Sioux decided not to pursue, mercifully avoiding more casualties. They instead gathered and burned the possessions left by the Pawnee as they fled, ra**ng the wounded Pawnee women and killing the wounded Pawnee children. The bodies of the dead Pawnee warriors were tossed into the flames. All told, as many as 156 Pawnee were killed, while the Sioux lost only between ten and thirteen warriors.
According to one newspaper account from just days after the massacre, “Texas Jack says his sympathies are with the Pawnees in their fight with the Sioux, and he hopes the government will interfere on behalf of the Pawnees, as they are the best ‘Injuns’ and inferior in number to the Sioux.” Pressure to leave their ancestral Nebraska land and move to a reservation in Oklahoma had been resisted by Pitaresaru and the Pawnee, but the loss of life at Massacre Canyon broke the collective spirits of the people. Soon the Pawnee collected their belongings and left their Nebraska homes on foot to set off for Oklahoma. Today, the tall stone monument on the quiet Nebraska prairie stands like a sentinel above the spot where the Pawnee way of life changed forever. See less

Have a wonderful day. In everything give thanks. Never think hard about the past, it brings tears & don’t think more about the future, it brings fears. Live in this moment with a smile, it brings cheers. Be kind & shine.

146 years ago, on this day, the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho defeated General George Armstrong Custer along with the U.S. 7th Calvary, June 25, 1876 at the Battle of Greasy Grass/Big Horn, MT. After General Custer found gold in the Black Hills, SD, he tried to use the 7th Calvary to help force our ancestors out of the Black Hills and onto reservations and overtake the Paha Sapa (Black Hills). Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Inkpa Duta and our Oceti Sakowin warriors, joined with Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho Warriors to defeated General Custer and the 7th Calvary, saving the lives of many women and children…and to this day, we have never sold the Black Hills. Happy Victory Day relatives!

Lozen (c. 1840-June 17, 1889) was a warrior and prophet of the Chihenne Chiricahua Apache. She was the sister of Victorio, a prominent chief. Born into the Chihenne band during the 1840s, Lozen was, according to legends, able to use her powers in battle to learn the movements of the enemy. According to James Kaywaykla, Victorio introduced her to Nana, "Lozen is my right hand ... strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people".

Indigenous have lost many "Queens". Never forget where we come from and why we still fight for our rights and values/beliefs.
🧡🪶🧡🪶🧡

Beautiful Native American Sister
Tribe & Photographer: Un Known

I am just a wanderer here on earth,
A wandering soul,
When my time is up,
I'll quietly return home.
My soul will be free,
Like the morning wind,
I watch as day gives way to night,
Those who can no longer be here with me,
I know they're waiting for me to come home.
See you on the other side,
We'll be together again, like we used to be,
When I fought all my battles here.

My Own Poem.

Rick Mora và Zahn McClarnon trong Yellow Rock

Cheyenne Dog Soldiers

Of all the typical Plains tribes, the Cheyenne were most distinguished for warlike qualities. Few in number, they overcame or held in check most of the peoples who opposed them, and when the westward movement of European civilization began, they made more trouble than all the rest combined. In short, they were preeminently warriors among peoples whose trade was war.

As in other Plains tribes, the warriors of the Cheyenne were organized into societies or orders. These societies were fraternal, military, and semi-religious organizations with special privileges, duties, and dress, usually tracing their origin to some mythical culture hero or medicine man. Each society had its own songs and secret ritual and exacted certain observances and standards of its members.

Of these organizations, none played such a part in the history of the Plains as the “Dog Soldiers” of the Cheyenne.

We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.
~ Chief Joseph, Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, (3 Mar 1840 - 21 Sept 1904) Chief Joseph was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain band of Nez Perce who were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley (Oregon). Photo by Edward H. Latham (28 May 1903)

“Before I was six years old, my grandparents and my mother had taught me that if all the green things that grow were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the four-legged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the winged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all our relatives who crawl and swim and live within the earth were taken away, there could be no life. But if all the human beings were taken away, life on earth would flourish. That is how insignificant we are.”
Russell Means, Oglala Lakota Nation (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012).

Sacagawea
May c. 1788 – December 20, 1812 or April 9, 1884)was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American people and contributing to the expedition's knowledge of natural history in different regions.
Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is very limited. She was born c. 1788 into the Agaidika ('Salmon Eater', aka Lemhi Shoshone) tribe near present-day Salmon, Lemhi County, Idaho. This is near the continental divide at the present-day Idaho-Montana border.
In 1800, when she was about 12 years old, Sacagawea and several other children were taken captive by a group of Hidatsa in a raid that resulted in the deaths of several Shoshone: four men, four women, and several boys. She was held captive at a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.
At about age 13, she was sold into a non-consensual marriage to Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper. He had also bought another young Shoshone girl, known as Otter Woman, for a wife. Charbonneau was variously reported to have purchased both girls from the Hidatsa, or to have won Sacagawea while gambling.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to recount her accomplishments

This was written by Chief Dan George, in 1972..
"In the course of my lifetime I have lived in two distinct cultures. I was born into a culture that lived in communal houses. My grandfather’s house was eighty feet long. It was called a smoke house, and it stood down by the beach along the inlet. All my grandfather’s sons and their families lived in this dwelling. Their sleeping apartments were separated by blankets made of bull rush weeds, but one open fire in the middle served the cooking needs of all.
In houses like these, throughout the tribe, people learned to live with one another; learned to respect the rights of one another. And children shared the thoughts of the adult world and found themselves surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins who loved them and did not threaten them. My father was born in such a house and learned from infancy how to love people and be at home with them.
And beyond this acceptance of one another there was a deep respect for everything in Nature that surrounded them. My father loved the Earth and all its creatures. The Earth was his second mother. The Earth and everything it contained was a gift from See-see-am… and the way to thank this Great Spirit was to use his gifts with respect.
I remember, as a little boy, fishing with him up Indian River and I can still see him as the sun rose above the mountain top in the early morning…I can see him standing by the water’s edge with his arms raised above his head while he softly moaned…”Thank you, thank you.” It left a deep impression on my young mind.
And I shall never forget his disappointment when once he caught me gaffing for fish “just for the fun of it.” “My son” he said, “The Great Spirit gave you those fish to be your brothers, to feed you when you are hungry. You must respect them. You must not kill them just for the fun of it.”
This then was the culture I was born into and for some years the only one I really knew or tasted. This is why I find it hard to accept many of the things I see around me.
I see people living in smoke houses hundreds of times bigger than the one I knew. But the people in one apartment do not even know the people in the next and care less about them.
It is also difficult for me to understand the deep hate that exists among people. It is hard to understand a culture that justifies the killing of millions in past wars, and it at this very moment preparing bombs to kill even greater numbers. It is hard for me to understand a culture that spends more on wars and weapons to kill, than it does on education and welfare to help and develop.
It is hard for me to understand a culture that not only hates and fights his brothers but even attacks Nature and abuses her. I see my white brothers going about blotting out Nature from his cities. I see him strip the hills bare, leaving ugly wounds on the face of mountains. I see him tearing things from the bosom of Mother Earth as though she were a monster, who refused to share her treasures with him. I see him throw poison in the waters, indifferent to the life he kills there; as he chokes the air with deadly fumes.
My white brother does many things well for he is more clever than my people but I wonder if he has ever really learned to love at all. Perhaps he only loves the things that are his own but never learned to love the things that are outside and beyond him. And this is, of course, not love at all, for man must love all creation or he will love none of it. Man must love fully or he will become the lowest of the animals. It is the power to love that makes him the greatest of them all… for he alone of all animals is capable of [a deeper] love.
My friends, how desperately do we need to be loved and to love. When Christ said man does not live by bread alone, he spoke of a hunger. This hunger was not the hunger of the body.. He spoke of a hunger that begins in the very depths of man... a hunger for love. Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. Instead we turn inwardly and begin to feed upon our own personalities and little by little we destroy ourselves.
You and I need the strength and joy that comes from knowing that we are loved. With it we are creative. With it we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others. There have been times when we all wanted so desperately to feel a reassuring hand upon us… there have been lonely times when we so wanted a strong arm around us… I cannot tell you how deeply I miss my wife’s presence when I return from a trip. Her love was my greatest joy, my strength, my greatest blessing.
I am afraid my culture has little to offer yours. But my culture did prize friendship and companionship. It did not look on privacy as a thing to be clung to, for privacy builds walls and walls promote distrust. My culture lived in big family communities, and from infancy people learned to live with others.
My culture did not prize the hoarding of private possessions, in fact, to hoard was a shameful thing to do among my people. The Indian looked on all things in Nature as belonging to him and he expected to share them with others and to take only what he needed.
Everyone likes to give as well as receive. No one wishes only to receive all the time. We have taken something from your culture… I wish you had taken something from our culture, for there were some beautiful and good things in it.
Soon it will be too late to know my culture, for integration is upon us and soon we will have no values but yours. Already many of our young people have forgotten the old ways. And many have been shamed of their Indian ways by scorn and ridicule. My culture is like a wounded deer that has crawled away into the forest to bleed and die alone.
The only thing that can truly help us is genuine love. You must truly love, be patient with us and share with us. And we must love you—with a genuine love that forgives and forgets… a love that forgives the terrible sufferings your culture brought ours when it swept over us like a wave crashing along a beach… with a love that forgets and lifts up its head and sees in your eyes an answering love of trust and acceptance..."
~Chief Dan George was a leader of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation as well as a beloved actor, musician, poet and author. He was born in North Vancouver in 1899 and died in 1981. This column first appeared in the North Shore Free Press on March 1, 1972.

WHEN PARENTS GET OLD ...
Let them grow old with the same love that they let you grow ... let them speak and tell repeated stories with the same patience and interest that they heard yours as a child ... let them overcome, like so many times when they let you win ... let them enjoy their friends just as they let you … let them enjoy the talks with their grandchildren, because they see you in them ... let them enjoy living among the objects that have accompanied them for a long time, because they suffer when they feel that you tear pieces of this life away ... let them be wrong, like so many times you have been wrong and they didn’t embarrass you by correcting you ... LET THEM LIVE and try to make them happy the last stretch of the path they have left to go; give them your hand, just like they gave you their hand when you started your path! ❤

“Honor your mother and father and your days shall be long upon the earth”.

courtesy : Melanie Melder Welch.

Popcorn has long been associated with the movies, or in recent years, the microwave, but although many of us may have wondered why popcorn pops, few of us have asked where popcorn actually came from.

The Indigenous people of the Americas first domesticated the strain of corn which produces popcorn thousands of years ago.

Europeans learned about popcorn from Natives. When Cortes invaded Mexico, and when Columbus arrived in the West Indies, each saw natives eating popcorn, as well as using it in necklaces and headdresses.

In fact, popcorn artifacts dating back to 6,700 years ago were discovered in Peru. So the next time you grab a handful of your favorite snack, remember it’s not just Orville Redenbacher you should be thanking.

Mrs. Taha George, the wife of Chief George Slahholt, on the Burrard Reserve in Vancouver, British Columbia - Tsleil-Waututh - 1957

{Note: Chief George Slahholt and Mrs. Taha George were the parents of Chief Dan George (b.1899 - d.1981).}

In a world full of Barbies, be a Pretty Nose.

Pretty Nose was a powerful Arapaho woman who was an important part of the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn). She lived to be at least 101 years old and reportedly became a war chief. She was a woman known for her courage, honor, and selflessness.

"Laughter - that is something very sacred, especially for us Indians."
--John (Fire) Lame Deer, ROSEBUD LAKOTA

Laughter is mental, laughter is emotional, laughter is physical, and laughter is spiritual. Laughter helps us find balance. If we get too angry, laughter will turn that emotion in a balanced direction. If we have a mental picture of someone who is too strong, laughter will help ease the tension. If the body is stressed, laughter will release natural relaxants into our muscles and our nervous system. Laughter often changes our attitude. We need to lighten up and laugh more.
Great Spirit, teach me to laugh.

Never be Ashamed of a scar
It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.

Native Red Cloud
Pine Ridge SD-Oglala Lakota CO

Sacheen Littlefeather who refused to accept an Oscar On Marlon Brando behalf in 1973 has finally received and apology from The Academy.
When she stepped on stage at the Oscar’s this is what she said.
“Hello. My name is Sacheen Littlefeather. I'm Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech, which I cannot share with you presently because of time but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry – excuse me – and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando.”
Despite the boos and jeers coming from the audience, she maintained her composure. John Wayne attempted to physically attack her as she exited the platform and had to be restrained by security. By claiming that he was giving the medal on behalf of "all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford Westerns," Clint Eastwood made fun of her. Littlefeather was thereafter put on a Hollywood blacklist and never again engaged in the film business.
On September 17, 2022, Littlefeather will return to the Academy once again as a guest of honor.

"The soil you see is not ordinary soil, It is the dust of the blood, the flesh and bones of our ancestors
you have to digdown through the surface before you can find nature's earth, as the upper portion is Crow. The land, as it is, is my blood, and my dead, it is....consecrated."

("She's His" 19th century Reno Crow)

“Cows run away from the storm while the Buffalo charges toward it- and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the Buffalo”
- Wilma Mankiller ( First Female Chief of Cherokee Nation , Oklahoma )

15 REMINDERS FROM THE ELDERS:

1. Get up with the sun to pray. Pray alone.
2. Be tolerant of those who have lost their way. Ignorance, presumption, anger, jealousy and greed come from a lost soul. Pray for them to find guidance.
3. Find yourself, by your own means. Do not let others make your path for you. It is your path, and only yours. Others may walk with you, but no one can make your way (or walk your path) for you.
4. Treat guests in your home with great consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours, whether from a person, a community, from the jungle or from a culture. It was not given or won. It is not yours.
6. Respect all the things that are on this earth, be they people, plants and animals.
7. Honor the thoughts, desires and words of all people. Never break them in, or make fun of them, or imitate them rudely. It gives each person the right to their personal expression.
8. Never talk about others in a bad way. The negative energy you put into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All people make mistakes. And all the mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness to the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us. It is PART of us. She's part of your family in the world.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Sow love in your hearts and water them with wisdom and life lessons. When they grow up, just give them space to grow up.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of their suffering will return to you.
14. Be true (transparent ) all the time. Honesty is the test of one's will in this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental person, your Spiritual person, your Emotional person, and your Physical person: they all have the need to be strong, pure and healthy.

Absolutely beautiful! Miss Indian World Tashina Red Hawk! She is Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud, SD. She also won Gathering of Nations Horse and Rider world championship and best of show!
Tashina is a role model for young people with many achievements including two terms as South Dakota High School rodeo queen, recipient of the 4-H Youth in Action Award for agriculture and being the first South Dakotan to receive that national honor.
In her high school career, she has also attended college courses from Black Hills State University and Sinte Gleska University, accumulating credits towards her goal to be a veterinarian.
Added to her young career, she is also a owner and operator of her business, opening her own drive through coffee shop ‘Tashina’s Coffee’ in Mission.
Her achievements come from her philosophy of one of her quotes, “Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.”
Such an inspiration to our young ones.

Girls of the Purhepecha Plateau.
They are so cute - especially the two on the bottom !
The one at the very bottom is an up and coming Fashionista....
But, the little girl behind her, she just likes having here picture taken and knows what to do, (i.e. smile) !

Dahteste (Tah-das-te) .(1860–1955)
Dahteste was a famous Apache woman warrior, and it was widely known that she could out-ride, out-shoot, out-hunt, out-run, and out-fight her peers, both male and female. She took part in battles and raiding parties alongside her husband and best friend Lozen, another Apache woman warrior. She and Lozen were good friends with Geronimo, and he chose her to be his official translator in his talks with the US Cavalry. After negotiating treaties with the US government, she was imprisoned in Alabama and Florida, and later, Fort Sill, surviving both tuberculosis and pneumonia. 19 years later, she was released and lived out the rest of her life on the Mescalero Apache reservation.

I will never meet colonial beauty standards. My face shape is too round, too squishy they said. My eyes squint too close together they told me. My skin complexion changes too often from ivory in the winter to a deep brown in the summer that resembles dirt they yelled. My body is too stocky and compact, way too big b***d they discerned.
I am proud I will NEVER meet colonial beauty standards because my ancestors carved me carefully by hand as they did their beautiful ivory pieces. My face is shaped so that my aunties could give me big Iñuk kisses on my cheeks and my ancestors could find me in the great beyond. My eyes squint so that I could see across the blinding snow to find my way home. My skin changes from ivory to dirt brown just as my land changes throughout the seasons. My body is stocky and compact so I can preserve energy throughout the long cold winters. Colonial beauty standards COULD NEVER.

Inner beauty is the most beautiful of beauties, because it never goes away, in addition to being reflected on the outside,..for that reason let's use our outer beauty with good principles, before it's too late, because when it's gone it doesn't come back, honor and respect are the strengths of a good character!!!

Indigenous women have been sacrificed in the name of capitalism since the dawn of contact. Pre-colonization, women, girls and two-spirit individuals held positions of high authority in Indigenous governance systems as guardians and protectors of sacred resources, because of our ability to bear and protect life. ❤️❤️❤️

Tsianina Redfeather. 1900.
Tsianina was a Muscogee singer, performer, and Native American activist, born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, then within the Muscogee Nation. She was born to Cherokee and Creek parents and stood out from her 9 siblings musically. From 1908 she toured regularly with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a composer and pianist who gave lectures about Native American music that were accompanied by his compositions and her singing. He composed classically based works associated with the Indianist movement. They toured in the United States and Europe.
She collaborated with him and Nelle Richmond Eberhart on the libretto of the opera Shanewis (or "The Robin Woman," 1918), which was based on her semi-autobiographical stories and contemporary issues for Native Americans. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. Redfeather sang the title role when the opera was on tour, making her debut when the work was performed in Denver in 1924, and also performing in it in Los Angeles in 1926.
After her performing career, she worked as an activist on Indian education, co-founding the American Indian Education Foundation. She also supported Native American archeology and ethnology, serving on the Board of Managers for the School of American Research founded in Santa Fe by Alice Cunningham Fletcher.