Gender, Belonging, and Native American Women: The Activism of Cecelia Fire Thunder and Sarah Deer

Abstract

Indigenous notions of belonging from a gendered perspective considers social belonging, political and social agency in the context of disciplinary forces, as well as in terms of gendered experiences of Native women and men within homes, local and tribal communities, and nation-state(s). However, indigenous women’s political activism has been marginalized in dominant society, and in Native American Studies. Indigenous women activists, for example, in Native American Studies have been pressured to stay in solidarity with their men, ignoring widespread sexism. In a patriarchal society, furthermore, women are supposed to be nonpolitical, and confined in the domestic sphere. This essay will consider the relationship among Native Americans, gender, belonging, and tribal sovereignty in Native communities by examining the sexism that indigenous women activists in general often confront. My discussion focuses on the activism of Cecelia Fire Thunder, a Lakota woman and former tribal chairwoman of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, and Sarah Deer, a Muscogee lawyer, whose actions redefine tribal nationalism, sovereignty, and belonging from a Native and gendered lens.