Women of All Red Nations facts for kids
Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was a Native American women's organization. It was established in 1974 by Lorelei DeCora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, Janet McCloud, Marie Sanchez and others. WARN included more than 300 women from 30 different tribal communities. Many of its members had previously been active in the American Indian Movement and were participants in the 1973 Wounded Knee incident. The inaugural conference took place in Rapid City, South Dakota.
WARN championed the health of Native American women, the restoration and securing of treaty rights, eliminating Indian mascots for sports teams, and combating the commercialization of Indian culture. They highlighted the high rates of health issues caused by nuclear mining and storage on Indian land, such as birth defects, miscarriages and deaths. They also expressed concerns about the adoption of Indian children by non-Indians.
History of the group
Information varies on whether WARN was founded in 1974 in Rapid City, South Dakota or founded in 1978. Prior to forming their own organization, some of the women who founded WARN were activists working within the American Indian Movement (AIM) and were active in the Wounded Knee Insurrection of 1973. Madonna Thunderhawk and Lorelei DeCora Means were both part of the Pig Patrol in AIM during the occupation of Wounded Knee. Two other co-founders, Janet McCloud and Phyllis Young, had also taken part in other Red Power movement activism.
The group was formed as a result both of mounting frustration with a lack of visibility, and because of the persecution of the male leaders of AIM. The federal government made arrests of many of the male activists but did not arrest the female activists. The prolonged incarceration or trials for male leaders necessitated women to fill in leadership roles. The women formed WARN in order in response to this lack of attention towards them, and to continue to campaign for Indigenous rights. The formation of WARN also provided indigenous women with the opportunity to focus on issues that affected them as women specifically.
Uranium mining
In 1980 WARN conducted and published a study on the effects of radiation contamination in water from uranium mining on human reproductive health titled "Radiation: Dangerous to Pine Ridge Women" in the journal Akwesane News. J. Haworth Jonte was the biochemist that measured radiation levels within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation water sources. The federal guidelines indicated that any measurement over 5 picocuries of radiation per liter of water was a severe health hazard. The surface water measurement was 15 picocuries per liter. The reservation's aquifer had a measurement of 11 picocuries per liter.
A new well was proposed to solve water contamination issue. The study also tested water at the site of the new well and found that water to be fourteen times higher than the federal guidelines.
WARN conducted a community survey in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, close to the border of Nebraska. The survey found an abnormally high rate of miscarriages, leukemia, and cancer mortality in the population of the reservation and surrounding areas. Other adverse health effects were also found in the area: 60 to 70 percent of children who were born in the Pine Ridge Hospital suffered respiratory problems as a result of underdeveloped lungs or jaundice. Thirty-eight percent of pregnant women admitted to the Public Service Hospital had miscarriages and many of these women experienced excessive bleeding after miscarrying. Cattle living on the reservation also saw an increase in birth defects. These negative health effects were linked to the effects of radiation from uranium mining. The radiation from mining in the Black Hills in South Dakota and Edgemont contaminated the Cheyenne River, a source for the Lakota Aquifer. WARN called for a complete Congressional investigation of the health and water situation in the Pine Ridge Reservation.
See also
- Eugenics in the United States
