Katsi Cook facts for kids

Sherrill Elizabeth Tekatsitsiakawa “Katsi” Cook is a Mohawk Native American midwife, environmental activist, and a strong voice for Native American rights and women's health. She is famous for her work studying how pollution affects the health of mothers and babies in her home community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in New York.

Katsi (pronounced Gudji) believes that protecting women's health is connected to protecting the Earth. She once said, “Women are the first environment. We are an embodiment of our Mother Earth... In this way the Earth is our mother, our ancestors said. In this way, we as women are earth.”

She founded several groups to help her community, including the Mother's Milk Monitoring Project, which studied the effects of pollution on mothers' milk. She is also the director of Running Strong for American Indian Youth.

Early Life and Schooling

Katsi Cook was born on January 4, 1952, on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. Her father, William John Cook, was a pilot who fought in World War II and the Korean War. He died in a plane crash when Katsi was only nine months old. Her mother, Kawennaien Evelyn Mountour Cook, died when Katsi was 11.

After her parents' deaths, Katsi was raised by her grandmother, Kanatires Elizabeth Herne Cook. Her grandmother was a midwife, a person trained to help women during childbirth. She had delivered Katsi and many other babies in their community. This inspired Katsi's future work.

As a teenager, Katsi began to practice the traditional Longhouse Religion of her people. After high school, she went to Skidmore College and later Dartmouth College. She briefly left college to join the American Indian Movement (AIM), a group fighting for the rights of Native Americans. In the mid-1980s, she returned to school and earned a degree from Cornell University.

A Career of Helping Others

Becoming a Midwife

In 1977, Katsi decided to become a midwife. She learned that traditional birthing practices were an important way for Native women to have control over their own health and bodies. She trained as a midwife at The Farm in Tennessee and later got clinical training at the University of New Mexico.

In 1980, she returned to her home at Akwesasne to work as a midwife. She provided many services, including care for pregnant women, help with childbirth, and counseling for families. She also helped start the Akwesasne Freedom School in 1979, a school for children from kindergarten to 8th grade.

Fighting Environmental Pollution

The Akwesasne reservation is located near the St. Lawrence River. Nearby factories, including one owned by General Motors (GM), had created a lot of pollution. In 1981, dangerous chemicals called Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in the water and soil on the reservation.

People in the community were worried. They noticed higher numbers of miscarriages and babies born with health problems. Scientists have shown that PCBs can cause these issues. Katsi realized that the health of her people was directly connected to the health of the environment.

She started a project called the Mother's Milk Monitoring Project. This project studied the breast milk of Mohawk mothers to see if it contained PCBs from the pollution. Katsi worked as a bridge between her community, scientists, and the government to study the problem and find solutions.

The pollution also harmed the Mohawk way of life. Fishing is an important cultural tradition, but because the fish in the St. Lawrence River were contaminated, people were told not to eat them. Katsi explained that this meant children were no longer learning traditional skills on the river.

Working for Women and Communities

Katsi Cook has worked to help women and indigenous communities around the world. She has worked with Mayan midwives in Guatemala and helped start a birthing center in Ontario, Canada.

In 2009, she co-founded the Konon:kwe Council in Akwesasne. This group is led by women and works to support and empower them. She has also worked for the [NoVo Foundation], a group that helps girls and women in minority communities.

Teaching and Sharing Knowledge

Katsi became a respected expert and teacher. She taught at the State University New York (SUNY) at Albany and was a visiting fellow at Cornell University. She gave lectures at several universities about health and the environment.

Because of her important work, her papers and research were collected by the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in 2008. This means her work is saved for future generations to study.

Personal Life

In the early 1970s, Katsi Cook married José Eugenio Barreiro, an activist and professor. Together, they have five children and eight grandchildren.