Helen Peterson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Helen Peterson
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| Born |
Helen Louise White
August 3, 1915 |
| Died | July 10, 2000 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Helen L. Peterson, Helen Louise White Peterson, Helen White Peterson, |
| Occupation | Native American activist |
| Known for | one of the first women lobbyists advocating for Civil Rights of American Indians |
Helen Peterson (native name: Wa-Cinn-Ya-Win-Pi-Mi, August 3, 1915 – July 10, 2000) was an important Cheyenne-Lakota activist. She was also a lobbyist, which means she worked to influence government decisions.
Helen Peterson was the first director of the Denver Commission on Human Relations. She was also the second Native American woman to lead the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). At that time, the government had a plan called the Indian termination policy. This policy aimed to end the special relationship with Native American tribes. It wanted to get rid of tribal governments and make Native Americans blend into the main culture. Helen Peterson fought against this.
She wrote a resolution about Native American education. This idea was approved at a big meeting in Cuzco, Peru. In 1986, Peterson was honored in the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Her important papers are now kept at the National Museum of the American Indian.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Helen Louise White was born on August 3, 1915. Her birthplace was the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Bennett County, South Dakota. Her parents were Lucy and Robert B. White.
She was given the native name Wa-Cinn-Ya-Win-Pi-Mi. This name means "woman to trust and depend on." Her family lived in northern Nebraska. Helen went to Hay Springs High School and finished in 1932.
She then studied business education at Chadron State College. In 1935, Helen married Richard F. Peterson. She worked to help them pay for school. Richard joined the military during World War II. Helen had their only child, R. Max, soon after. In 1942, Helen and Richard divorced. Helen then moved to Denver with her mother.
Working for Change
Helen Peterson started working at the University of Denver. She was the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Council of Inter-American Affairs. In 1948, the mayor of Denver, J. Quigg Newton, hired her. He wanted her to work on the Commission on Community Relations.
The mayor wanted to end segregation in the city. Segregation meant keeping different groups of people separate. Helen worked with Bernie Valdez to help different communities connect. She helped build bridges between established Latin American citizens and new migrant farm workers. These workers had come to Denver to work on beetroot farms.
Helen went door-to-door in neighborhoods to register voters. She also helped organize the community. She created cultural programs. She met with city leaders to talk about fair labor and housing laws. By the end of the year, she became the director of the Committee on Human Relations. She was the first person to have this job. In this role, she helped hire minority workers. She also helped the mayor pass laws against unfair employment and housing practices.
In 1949, she went to Peru as an advisor for the United States. She attended the Second Inter-American Indian Conference. There, she wrote a resolution to improve education for indigenous people. The conference approved her idea.
Leading the National Congress of American Indians
In 1953, Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged Helen to move to Washington, D. C.. She wanted Helen to help reorganize the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). This group was started in 1944 to fight against the government's Indian termination policy. The NCAI was having problems and was almost out of money. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted the group to close down.
Helen Peterson had experience organizing programs for minority groups. She used her skills to slow down the government's plan to make Native Americans assimilate. Assimilation means forcing one group to adopt the culture of another. She also helped tribes stand up for their sovereign rights. Sovereign rights mean a group's right to govern itself. Helen was hired to be the executive director of the NCAI.
In 1954, Helen organized an emergency meeting for tribal leaders. They met to discuss the termination policy. This meeting was the largest protest ever organized by American Indians. It was held because of a new law, House Concurrent Resolution 108. This law called for ending federal responsibility for certain tribes. Helen and her mother prepared all the meeting materials themselves.
Another bill was introduced that year. It aimed to remove rules about land sales for Native Americans. Helen had to get tribal leaders to contact their congressmen to stop this bill. The issue was whether land would be given directly to tribal members. Many members did not know much about land values or laws. Or, would the land deeds be held in trust until people understood property ownership? Helen's work against unfair laws was recognized. In 1955, she was named the "Outstanding Indian of 1955."
New Strategies and Challenges
As the NCAI slowed down the termination policy, Helen helped create new ways to protect Native rights.
- In 1956, she started a summer school program for ethnic studies with D'Arcy McNickle.
- In 1957, she convinced NBC to show a program about the termination policy. It showed how the policy affected the Klamath Tribes.
In 1958, Helen and NCAI president Joseph R. Garry visited Puerto Rico. They studied "Operation Bootstrap." This program had changed the economy between Puerto Rico and the United States. They hoped a similar program could help Native Americans become self-sufficient. However, lawmakers did not act on this idea.
In 1960, Helen met with McNickle and John Rainer. They prepared for a conference in Chicago the next year. They wrote the "Declaration of Indian Purpose." This declaration asked for the termination policy to be reversed. It suggested new programs for economic, educational, social, and legal development. It also asked for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to be replaced by a commission. Half of the commission members would be Native American.
As the conference neared in 1961, some disagreements appeared. Some people felt the NCAI acted too much like a non-Indian group. Others felt it did not focus enough on tribal identity. By August, these disagreements led to calls for changing the NCAI. Helen Peterson then resigned.
Return to Denver and Later Career
In 1962, Helen returned to Denver. She again became the director of the Commission on Community Relations. The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 caused many Native Americans to move to Denver. However, the government did not provide enough money for the program. Helen's office tried to help. They offered social services, job help, and job training for Denver's Native American community.
Helen remained active in the NCAI through the early 1990s. She participated in a 1993 conference in Albuquerque. This meeting focused on building relationships between different tribes.
After eight years, Helen left the Commission. She took a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). She worked as a field liaison officer in Denver. In 1971, she moved back to Washington, D. C. She served as an assistant for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In 1978, the BIA moved her to Portland, Oregon. She worked to make sure that different levels of government worked together. Her goal was to serve the American Indian community. She focused on treaty obligations and Indian health. She stayed with the BIA until she retired in 1985.
Awards and Legacy
The year after she retired, Helen Peterson was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. The next year, her papers were given to the National Anthropological Archives. Later, they were moved to the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center.
After retirement, Helen worked on local projects in Portland. She was involved with the Episcopal Church.
Helen Peterson died on July 10, 2000, in Vancouver, Washington. She is remembered for leading the NCAI to stop, or at least slow down, the termination movement. The ethnic studies program she helped create became a model for universities across the United States.
