Women ‘are backbone of native society’

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Navajo Nation Council Delegate Glojean Todacheenie hopes to one day have a stronger representation of women on the council. She is one of nine women currently serving as delegates.

There is no question who Navajo women have to thank for getting a foothold in tribal politics, Todacheenie said.

“Annie Wauneka paved the way for us,” Todacheenie said.
Wauneka, the daughter of the last Navajo chief, Henry Chee Dodge, was the first woman elected to the Navajo Council and won national recognition for her efforts to improve health and living conditions for her people.
She was the first Native American to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Todacheenie and fellow Delegate Katherine Benally attended the Heart of the American Indian Women’s Network Leadership Conference, held at the Chaparral Suites Resort in Scottsdale.

Other Navajo participants included Grace Boykin, of Sheep is Life, and Coconino County Supervisor Louise Yellowman.

This year’s theme was economic development, and that’s what drew her to attend, Todacheenie said. She serves on the Navajo Nation’s Economic Development Committee.

This is the 19th annual conference, said Hearts Network Chairperson Mevelyn Kirkpatrick, of the Chickasaw Tribe of Oklahoma.

“It’s a way to get together and share thoughts and ideas, and see how different tribes handle different problems,”

Kirkpatrick said. Many women leaders weren’t getting a lot of assistance from their male counterparts, so the network was formed as a support system, Kirkpatrick explained.

There are myriad difficulties facing Native Americans today, but none are problems that can’t be solved by working together, said network board member Grace Goodeagle.

“The solution is innate, it’s inside us and we have to find a way to bring it out,” said Goodeagle, a member of the Citizen Band Pottawatomie and Quapaw tribes.

Goodeagle also served a term as Quapaw chairwoman.
With previous experience as a tribal administrator, Goodeagle said she didn’t face many difficulties becoming involved in politics.

Chickasaw leaders had always been men, so there was some issues when the first woman became chairman, Kirkpatrick said.

There was some resentment over women vying for leadership positions, but “that’s not how it was years ago,” Kirkpatrick said. As with many other tribes, the women played a central role in the Chickasaws’ tribal affairs, she said.

Rena Duncan, another Chickasaw woman leader, served 15 years as a legislator — which is what the Chickasaws call their council representatives.

She had been executive director for the tribe’s cultural resources department, and was the first woman to serve as secretary on the Legislature.

In addition to being a woman, Duncan said she was also one of the youngest legislators.

“A double whammy,” she laughed.

But Rena’s family has a long history of involvement in Chickasaw affairs. Her grandfather from five generations back was Levi Colbert, the chief during the time the tribe was relocated from the southeast to Oklahoma, what was then known as “Indian Territory.”

Her family has also provided other women leaders, Duncan said her mother helped draft the tribe’s constitution.

The Chickasaws have accepted women leaders, Duncan said. When she first joined the Legislature there were three women and 10 men, that has practically flipped around with the make-up of the current Legislature, she said.

President Diane Enos, of the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, said her community’s leadership has always had a female presence. However the first woman president wasn’t elected until 2002. Enos defeated her in 2006 to become the second woman president of the SRPMIC.

More and more opportunities to pursue leadership positions are available for women, and they need to “take the risk,” Todacheenie said. After all, she said, women have always been the backbone of native society.

“They were the hands that rocked the cradleboard,” Todacheenie said.