Mary Louise Defender Wilson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mary Louise Defender Wilson
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| Wagmuhawin | |
Defender Wilson in 2016
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Mary Louise Defender
October 14, 1930 Shields, North Dakota, U.S.
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| Other names | Gourd Woman |
| Occupation | Storyteller, tribal elder, administrator |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Spouse(s) | William Dean Wilson (married 1969–99) |
| Awards | National Heritage Fellowship, United States Artists fellowship |
Mary Louise Defender Wilson was born on October 14, 1930. Her Dakotah name is Wagmuhawin, which means Gourd Woman. She is a respected storyteller, teacher, and historian of the Dakotah and Hidatsa people. She also used to work in health care.
Mary Louise has received many awards for her cultural work. These include a National Heritage Fellowship in 1999 and a United States Artists fellowship in 2015. These awards show how important her work is.
Contents
Growing Up and Early Life
Mary Louise Defender was born in 1930. Her family lived near Shields, North Dakota on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Her ancestors were forced to move to this area in the 1890s.
Her mother, Helen Margaret See The Bear, was a midwife, helping mothers give birth. Her grandfather, Tall Man See The Bear, took care of sheep. Mary Louise's father, George Defender, died when she was only two years old. She went to a small, one-room school on the reservation.
From a young age, Mary Louise heard many stories. Her family spoke the Dakotah language. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were all storytellers. Her grandfather told stories about places, plants, and animals. He spoke in the Wicheyena dialect of the Dakotah Sioux language. Mary Louise started telling stories herself at age 11. She would tell them in both English and Dakotah, often repeating stories she heard from her elders.
In 1954, Mary Louise Wilson was chosen as the second Miss Indian America.
Working Life and Storytelling
Mary Louise moved to New Mexico with her husband. There, she worked for government groups that helped Native Americans. She worked in areas like family planning and health care. In 1976, she moved back to the reservation.
Early in her career, she helped tribal members with land issues. This included helping Native Americans who lost their land when dams were built on the Missouri River. In the 1980s, she taught about tribal culture and language. She taught at Standing Rock Community College, which is now Sitting Bull College.
She stopped working full-time in 1996. Her last job was directing the Native American Culture Center. This center was at the North Dakota State Hospital. After retiring, she worked as a helper for "Wisdom of the Elders." This group brings together Native American elders.
Sharing Stories with Audiences
Mary Louise Defender Wilson started telling stories to bigger audiences in the early 1980s. She has shared her people's stories and culture in many places. She has taught the Dakotah language to school children. She has also spoken at colleges and universities across the United States. She has performed at churches, women's festivals, and storytelling events. These include the American Indian Storytelling Festival in 2001 and the Minnesota Storytelling Festival in 2005. She even gave a talk to NASA scientists about how climate change affects native lands.
Mary Louise has told stories all over the United States. She has also shared them in Canada, Iceland, and Germany. Her stories teach about four main Dakotah values:
- Being kind and caring (compassion)
- Helping others
- Working hard
- Talking and listening well (communicating)
She also worked on a project called "The Respect and Honor Documentary Project." This project collected oral history from Native Americans.
Troyd Geist, a folklorist from North Dakota, described her storytelling. He said her stories "speak to the human experience." He added that these old stories are still important today. They talk about feelings like love, hate, joy, and sadness. They also teach about being good people.
For many years, starting in 1984, Mary Louise played her great-grandmother in a show. The show was called "Good Day, Medicine Woman" or "Good Day, a Yanktoni Sioux Woman." Her great-grandmother lived from about 1850 to 1930. The show taught about the values and culture of the Yanktoni Sioux people. It showed how their lives changed after they were sent to reservations.
In the late 1990s, she hosted two radio shows on KLND-FM. One show, Oape Wanzi, was on Saturday mornings. It shared tribal legends, culture, and history. She spoke in the Wichiyena dialect and then in English. Her other show, Oyate Tawoabdeza ("The Public View"), was a call-in show on Thursdays. On this show, she and her listeners talked about important issues for Native Americans.
Music and Recordings
In 1999, Mary Louise Defender Wilson released her first spoken word album, The Elders Speak. Her second album, My Relatives Say, came out in 2001. A review said this album was great for libraries wanting more quality Native American folk tales. Her third album, Un De' Che Cha Pí ("The Way We Are"), was released in 2003. All three of her albums won a Native American Music Award for Best Spoken Word recording.
Presentations and Recognition
In 2004, she was a speaker at the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. She also performed with fellow storyteller Keith Bear at the Library of Congress in 2006.
In 2010, Mary Louise was one of four Native American women invited to give a special lecture at the University of South Dakota. In 2015, when she was 85, she received a $50,000 fellowship from United States Artists. She was the first person from North Dakota and the first storyteller to win this award.
As of late 2019, Mary Louise Defender Wilson continues to share her stories. She was a special guest at the Elder-in-Residence program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mary Louise has worked hard to save oral history and fight for the human rights of Native Americans. She has served on many important groups. These include Arts Midwest and the North Dakota Council on the Arts. She was also the only Native American on the North Dakota Centennial Commission.
In 2022, a large portrait of Mary Louise Defender Wilson was painted. It is on the Glass City River Wall in Toledo, Ohio. Her image represents an elder or grandmother. She is honored along with a mother and child as representatives of the region's first farmers. These images are painted on grain silos over 100 feet tall. The entire mural is the largest in the United States. Mary Louise, who was 92 at the time, attended the special ceremony.
Mary Louise Defender Wilson was also featured in a 2023–2024 exhibit. It was called "On the Edge of the Wind: Native Storytellers & the Land." This exhibit was at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Personal Life
Mary Louise met her husband, William Dean Wilson, in 1949. They met at Haskell Indian Nations University. They got married in 1969. William worked as a Navajo tribal judge in New Mexico. He was also one of the original 29 World War II Navajo code talkers. He was recruited for this job when he was only 15 years old. William died in 1999. He later received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2001 for his service as a code talker.
One of Mary Louise's two brothers, Dan Defender, was a Navy frogman during World War II. He later worked for the Peace Corps. He also worked to help his community on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. He passed away in 1995.
In 1988, Mary Louise was one of 15 people from North Dakota who went to the 1988 Democratic National Convention. She supported candidate Jesse Jackson.
In 2002, a prairie fire destroyed Mary Louise's home in Shields, North Dakota. She lost all her family photos and many old family treasures. These were items she used in her presentations.
After the fire, she moved to Porcupine, North Dakota. This is a small community on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. She still lives there. She has also served on the town's council.
Published Works
Books
- The Taken Land (1980s): stories collected by Defender Wilson and James V. Fenelon
- Die Welt Wird Niemals Enden: Geschichten der Dakota (2006): stories by Defender Wilson, translated into German by Michael Schlottner
- Sundogs and Sunflowers: Folklore and Folk Art of the Northern Great Plains (2010): stories collected by Defender Wilson, Paul T. Emch, and Deborah Gourneau
Discography
- The Elders Speak (1999)
- My Relatives Say (2001)
- Un De' Che Cha Pí ("The Way We Are") (2003)
Awards and Honors
- North Dakota Centennial Commission Award (1989)
- The Bismarck Tribune Award (1990)
- Nominee for North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award (1993)
- National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1999): This is the highest honor in folk and traditional arts in the U.S.
- Native American Music Award, Best Spoken Word recording for The Elders Speak (2000)
- Notable Document Award from the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association for The Elders Speak
- Featured on a National Women's History Month poster (2002)
- Native American Music Award, Best Spoken Word recording for My Relatives Say (2002)
- North Dakota Governor's Award for the Arts (2003)
- Bush Foundation grant (2004)
- Native American Music Award, Best Spoken Word recording for Un De' Che Cha Pí (2004)
- Honorary Doctor of Leadership degree from the University of Mary (2005)
- H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award from the National Education Association for Human and Civil Rights (2009)
- Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund (2009)
- Enduring Vision Award from the Bush Foundation (2009)
- United States Artists Fellowship in Traditional Arts (2015)
- Women in American History Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution (2015)
- Native American Hall of Honor inductee (2017)
- Portrait included on the Glass City River Wall in Toledo, Ohio (2022)
