Madonna Swan facts for kids

Madonna Mary Swan-Abdalla (born September 12, 1928 – died 1993) was a brave Lakota woman. She was born on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, USA. Madonna Swan faced many tough challenges, like the widespread tuberculosis sickness among Native Americans in the 20th century. Despite these difficulties, she lived a full and inspiring life. She overcame poverty, limited schooling, poor healthcare, and being confined to a hospital for TB patients and the reservation. She went to college, became a Head Start teacher, got married, raised a child, and was even named Native American Woman of the Year. Madonna Swan became a true inspiration for both Native American and non-Native American women.

Her life story is told in the book Madonna Swan: A Lakota Woman's Story, written by Mark St. Pierre.

Madonna's Early Life

Madonna Swan was born in 1928 on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Her parents were Lakota, part of the Western Sioux tribe. She was the fifth of ten children, but only five of them lived to become adults. Her Native American name, given by her father, was Makoka Winge' Win, which means "Goes Around The World Woman."

Her parents, James Hart Swan and Lucy Josephine High Pine-Swan, were born around the early 1900s. Madonna's father, James, went to school at the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma, where he learned skills like farming. He also studied for two years at Haskell Indian College, which was like a junior college.

For the first five years of her life, Madonna's family lived with her great-uncle, who they called Grandpa Puts On His Shoes, or just Grandpa Puts. Elders like Grandpa Puts, who were born before 1900, remembered the old nomadic ways of their people before they were settled on reservations. Madonna's childhood was full of traditional Native American beliefs and customs. She even shared a story about her father curing her warts by rubbing a raw potato on them!

School and Sickness

Madonna went to Immaculate Conception, a Catholic boarding school in Stephan, South Dakota. She really enjoyed school and played on the basketball team. In the fall of 1943, while at this school, Madonna first learned that some of her classmates had tuberculosis (TB). The school staff also noticed the disease when several girls started coughing, having chest pain, losing weight, and even bleeding. Sadly, some girls died from what was called "quick consumption," another name for TB. Soon, Madonna herself started showing symptoms of the disease.

Battling Tuberculosis

In the spring of 1944, Madonna's brother Kermit died. He had been wounded in World War II and also got malaria. When Madonna returned to Immaculate Conception in the fall of 1944, she received the official diagnosis: tuberculosis. In the Lakota language, TB was called chanhu sica, meaning "bad lung."

At that time, TB carried a huge stigma, meaning people often looked down on those who had it. Native Americans sometimes saw it as a social disease. Homes where someone had TB were quarantined, and a red tag was put on them. This tag was only removed when the person died or went to a special hospital called a sanatorium.

In December 1944, Madonna Swan was taken to the Sioux Sanatorium in Rapid City. For many years at the San, as it was called, Madonna was treated for her TB by having bean bags placed on her chest. She had to lie flat on her back for hours. This was a way to compress her lung, an idea supported by an Italian doctor named Carlo Forlanini. The idea was that collapsing the lung would kill the bacteria that caused TB by cutting off the air they needed to grow. However, this treatment did not cure Madonna Swan.

Another important part of TB treatment was enforced rest, along with a good diet and a well-organized hospital life. Unfortunately, these things were often not available at Native American sanatoriums. The living conditions there were not good for recovery. Madonna Swan said the food was always the same, not very good, and even had rodents and their droppings in it.

Even though a medicine called streptomycin had been developed and was known to kill the TB bacteria, it was not given to Native American patients at sanatoriums when Madonna Swan was there. Both the poor living conditions and the lack of medicine were common. Healthcare for Native Americans was often not as good as for others because of discrimination.

In her sixth year at the sanatorium, Madonna's younger brother Orby, who also had TB, died. He had begged his sister to ask their parents to take him home so he could die there. He was taken home and passed away later that same day. Madonna was not allowed to go to her brother's funeral. The thought of dying in the sanatorium made Madonna want to leave even more. She left without permission and went back to her family's home.

Her father refused to send Madonna back to the Native American sanatorium, even though it meant facing the threat of quarantine. Instead, he wrote to an old school friend, Henry Standing Bear. Henry advised them to see a doctor in Pierre and try to get Madonna admitted to the "white" TB sanatorium, Sanator, in Custer, South Dakota. This was not easy because of discrimination. The authorities denied her entry, telling them she had to go back to the Sioux San. Madonna's father, James Hart Swan, would not accept this. He managed to get a meeting with the governor of South Dakota, Judge Sigurd Anderson. James Swan explained their difficult situation. The governor, who cared about human rights, understood that Native Americans were not treated fairly. He arranged for Madonna to be admitted to Sanator.

Healing at Sanator

Madonna was admitted to Sanator—the South Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium—in September 1950. She found this hospital very different. The hospital grounds had trees and flowers, and patients were allowed to wear their own clothes and walk around outside. Her doctor, Dr. W. L. Meyers, promised Madonna's parents he would do everything he could to help their daughter.

At first, they tried pumping air into her abdomen, but it didn't work. Then they tried pumping air into her back to collapse the sick lung, which also failed. Next, they tried an operation called a phrenic procedure, which was supposed to permanently collapse her infected lung, but it also didn't kill the TB.

After attending a medical conference, Dr. Meyers learned about a new procedure. This operation involved removing ribs and the upper part of her most infected lung. Then, another operation was needed to remove the rest of the lung. Madonna Swan was one of the first patients to have this new procedure in the United States. Doctors learned a lot about treating TB from her experience. After successfully removing part of her lung and ribs, they were able to treat her remaining lung with an antibiotic called INH (Isoniazid), which was designed to kill the TB bacteria.

Because all the ribs on one side of her body were removed, Madonna was paralyzed from her neck through her left arm and couldn't sit up. She battled depression, but with a brace for support, she slowly and bravely recovered, gradually regaining feeling. While recovering, she learned how to repair jewelry by reading and practicing in the Sanator classroom. She even received a certificate in horology, which is the repair of watches and clocks.

Life After Illness

In 1953, after ten years since her first symptoms, Madonna was finally cured of TB. She worked at Sanator as a receptionist and later left to repair jewelry, watches, and clocks. Her father passed away in 1953.

In 1956, she married Jay Abdalla, who was an army friend of her brother Kermit. Together, Madonna and Jay raised Austin Paul, who was her sister's son. Madonna became an assistant in the Head Start program and later became a teacher. She earned her Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED) in 1967. Even though she completed many college credits, Madonna was never able to get her full college degree because of her delicate health.

She was very proud of her "son" Austin Paul, who graduated from college in 1979.

In 1983, Madonna Swan-Abdalla was chosen as the North American Indian Woman of the Year by her tribal sisters at Cheyenne River.

Madonna's Legacy

Madonna Swan is remembered through her story, which she shared with author Mark St. Pierre. Her life serves as a powerful example of courage, perseverance, and strength for everyone who reads her story.