Katsi Cook facts for kids

Katsi Cook (pronounced Gudji) is a Mohawk Native American woman. She is a midwife, an environmentalist, and an activist for Native American rights and women's health.

She is well-known for her important work in her home community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in upstate New York. There, she studies how the environment affects health and how to improve women's health.

Katsi Cook leads an organization called Running Strong for American Indian Youth. She also started the "Woman is the First Environment Collaborative." This group helps Native women of all ages with health projects and teaches them about reproductive health. She has created several groups in Akwesasne, like the Women's Dance Health Program and the Mother's Milk Monitoring Project.

Cook believes that "Women are the first environment." She says that women's bodies connect generations to society and nature. She explains that women nourish and create life, just like Mother Earth.

Katsi Cook's Early Life and School

Katsi Cook was born on January 4, 1952. She was the youngest of four children. Her parents were Kawennaien Evelyn Mountour Cook and William John Cook. They lived on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, also known as the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne.

Her father was a pilot who fought in World War II and the Korean War. He passed away in a plane accident when Katsi was only nine months old. Her mother grew up in Quebec and was educated by Catholic nuns. She died when Katsi was 11 years old. After that, Katsi lived with her grandmother, Kanatires Elizabeth Herne Cook. Her grandmother was a midwife who had helped deliver Katsi and many other children in Akwesasne.

Katsi Cook went to a Catholic boarding school. However, as a teenager, she began to practice the traditional Longhouse Religion. From 1970 to 1972, she attended Skidmore College. She then moved to Dartmouth College, joining its first class of women. Soon after, she left school to join the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Later, in the mid-1980s, Cook went back to school. She finished her degree in Biology and Society at Cornell University.

Katsi Cook's Career and Community Work

From 1972 to 1977, and again from 1979 to 1983, Katsi Cook worked on a newspaper called Akwesasne Notes. This newspaper published articles important to the Akwesasne community.

In 1977, Cook decided to become a midwife. She learned that traditional birthing practices could help Native women regain control over their bodies. She trained as a spiritual midwife in Tennessee in 1978. Then, she got clinical training at the University of New Mexico.

Cook also attended the first meeting of Women of all Red Nations (WARN) in 1978. She later worked at the Red Schoolhouse Clinic, a WARN project. There, she started the Women's Dance Health Project. In 1980, Cook moved back to Akwesasne.

In Akwesasne, Cook continued her work as a midwife. She provided care before, during, and after birth. She also offered family planning and counseling. In 1979, she helped start the Akwesasne Freedom School. This independent school teaches children from kindergarten to eighth grade. Around the same time, Cook also set up the Women's Dance Health Program in Akwesasne.

The St. Lawrence River flows through Akwesasne. The reservation land is also near General Motors (GM) factories and waste sites. In 1981, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) found harmful chemicals called PCBs in the water under GM property. These chemicals were later found in private wells on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation.

At the same time, people in the community were worried about health issues. These health issues were linked to exposure to PCBs. Starting in the 1980s, Cook began to study how pollution affects the health of mothers and babies. She believes that problems like pollution and health concerns in Native communities are connected. They should not be seen as separate issues.

Cook has also spoken about how pollution harms the traditional way of life for Native communities. For example, because of the PCB pollution in the St. Lawrence River, the New York State Department of Health advises people to eat very little fish from the river. Cook says this pollution has hurt Akwesasne culture. She explains that fishing was more than just catching fish. Children learned about their culture and the world on the river. The community's social practices and identity are tied to the river. Because of the pollution, fewer children are now learning traditional skills like fishing.

In 1984, while studying at Cornell University, Cook talked with Brian Bush, a chemist. They discussed starting a breast milk study in Akwesasne. In 1985, the Women's Dance Health Program became the Mother's Milk Monitoring Project. This project still helps and supports the community today. In her environmental research, Cook has helped connect the Akwesasne community with scientists and government workers.

Cook has also been active in women's health movements around the world. She has worked with Mayan midwives in Guatemala. She was the first aboriginal midwife at the Six Nations Birthing Centre in Ontario, Canada. This center has a training program for aboriginal midwives. She is on the board of the National Women's Health Network. She also serves on the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives of Canada. This council helps create laws for midwifery to ensure that indigenous rights are respected. Cook's goal is to have an aboriginal midwife in every aboriginal community.

In 2009, she helped create the Konon:kwe Council. This council is led by women in Akwesasne. It aims to empower women and promote policies that stop violence in the community.

Cook has also worked as a program director for the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program. She also directed the Indigenous Communities Leadership Program for Indigenous Girls and Women at the NoVo Foundation. This non-profit organization supports women and girls in minority communities.

Katsi Cook's Academic Work

Between 1994 and 1998, Katsi Cook taught at the State University New York (SUNY) at Albany School of Public Health. She was also a visiting fellow at Cornell University's American Indian Program. In 2001, she was a visiting scholar at Dalhousie University. Later, she gave talks on different health therapies at the SUNY Buffalo Medical School and Cornell University.

From 2004 to 2005, Cook received an award for Indigenous Knowledge Cultural Research from the University of Toronto. In 2008, her important papers were added to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. In 2011, she became a fellow at the University of California at San Francisco's (UCSF) Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.

Articles and Public Appearances

Katsi Cook has written many news articles for Indian Country Today. All of her scholarly articles are kept in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. In 2007, she was a special speaker at the Live Earth Concert. This event took place at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C..

Katsi Cook's Family Life

In the early 1970s, Katsi Cook married José Eugenio Barreiro. He is an academic and an indigenous activist from Cuba. They have five children and eight grandchildren.