#sally j. torpy

[disruptiveempathy]

In order to preserve their cultural identity, Native Americans realized that their children had to be taught the languages and traditions of their individual tribes. WARN founders [Phyllis] Young and [Madonna] Thunderhawk were instrumental in providing Indian children with an alternative educational opportunity to BIA schooling. Launched in the 1970s, these autonomous Indian-taught schools called Survival Schools saved many children from the dreaded boarding schools and gave students an opportunity to be taught by Native Americans who could also provide knowledge of their cultural heritage. By teaching about traditional ways, Indian educators hoped to bolster self-esteem and pride in their race, giving students strength and knowledge to become self-governed indigenous nations. Survival School supporters hoped this would motivate students to acquire a sense of ethnic identity and stability that might equip them with the tools to better address any future violation of Native American rights.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[healthandgender-blog]

References

Burlew, Larry. D., & Shurts, W. Mathew. 2013. Men and Body Image: Current Issues and Counseling Implications. Journal of Counseling & Development, 91(4), 428-435.

Carpio, M. Vicenti. 2004. The Lost Generation: American Indian Women and Sterilization Abuse. Social Justice, 31(4), 40-53.

Evans, Joan., Frank, B., Oliffe, J. L., & Gregory, David. 2011. Health, Illness, Men and Masculinities (HIMM): a Theoretical Framework for Understanding Men and Their Health. Journal of Men's Health, 8(1), 7-15.

Giurgescu, Carmen., Zenk, Shannon. N., Dancy, Barbara, Park, Chang., Dieber, William., & Block, Richard. 2012. Relationships Among Neighborhood Environment, Racial Discrimination, Psychological Distress, and Preterm Birth in African American Women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 41(6).

Kaiser, Karen. 2008. Details for Manuscript Number SSM-D-07-01122R1 “The Meaning of the Survivor Identity for Women with Breast Cancer.” Social Science & Medicine 67(1), 79–87.

Marieskind, Helen. 1975. The Women's Health Movement. International Journal of Health Services, 5(2), 217-223.

Mathews, T. J., & MacDorman, M. F. (2013). Infant mortality statistics from the 2010 period linked birth/infant death data set. Natl Vital Stat Rep, 62(8), 1-26.

Patel, Priti. 2017. Forced Sterilization of Women as Discrimination. Public Health Reviews, 38(1), 15.

Read, Ghazal. Gorman, Bridget. 2010. Gender and Health Inequality. Annual Review of Sociology 36:371-386

Torpy, Sally. 2000. Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s. American Indian Culture and Research Journal. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 1-22.

Wolitski, R. J., & Fenton, K. A. 2011. Sexual health, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in the United States. AIDS and Behavior, 15(1), 9-17.

[petergiokas-blog]

Eliminating the race

In the article, “Native Americans and Coerced Sterilization” by Sally J Torpy talks about reproductive rights are taken away from, Native American women by sterilizing them with no consent. For example, a 26 year old native American victim went to the hospital to get a womb implant. In the article, the author writes, “In result, her doctor has previously told her that she was previously sterilized” (2).Some Native Americans were illiterate and doctors took advantage of the language barrier. Doctors and government wanted to end their race so by sterilizing the patients without their consent and knowledge. This was how Native American Women were restricted to reproductive rights based on their race. This is very wrong, by restricting women from having kids and families, just because of their race. In the Madrial v Quilligans case, about 10-15 women came out to file a lawsuit against L.A. County doctors, the state and the federal government for sterilizing them without consent. They hoped that the case would prevent the same from happening to other women. This is an act of feminism because women are standing up for their reproductive rights.

[disruptiveempathy]

In 1978 Lorelei DeCora Means, a Minneconjou Lakota, met with several other women at the Black Hills to instigate WARN, a militant offshoot of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Loss of women’s reproductive rights, loss of Indian children through coercion, the destruction and erosion of the Native land base, and the ultimate loss of cultural continuity were some of their concerns. This organization reflected the abuse that occurred during the 1970s and made concerted efforts to stop unethical sterilizations. Three of the founders, DeCora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk, and Phyllis Young, the latter two both of Hunkpapa Lakota descent, had all been active members of AIM but felt that women needed to have their own voice.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[disruptiveempathy]

Thousands of Native American women in the 1970s were faced with either the solicitude of losing their children or the fear of losing their ability to have children. Even if they agreed to sterilization there was no guarantee that they could keep their already-born children. The majority of men and women who exposed sterilization abuse of minority women in the 1970s sought solutions through federal legislation such as monitored enforcement of informed consent forms and more explicit explanation of sterilization procedures. Feminist groups such as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC) and the National Women’s Health Network obtained results by appearing at congressional hearings; they also provided certain Native American groups with financial and political support. Native Americans, however, believed that they needed to address their own reproductive rights, retain their own identity, and to address the specific issues endemic to their cultures. They also saw a connection between protecting their population growth and guarding their land rights. Consequently, during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Native American women and men from different tribes throughout the nation initiated their own method of preventing further loss of reproductive rights. Influenced by other activist groups within society, they assumed the title Red Power following a 1967 meeting of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Denver. Their goals were to demonstrate a committed and patriotic fight for their own self-determination and freedom from oppressors. Red Power activists took on slogans such as 'We shall overcome' and 'Custer died for your sins.' Pan-Indian movements arose across the country uniting tribes in a common purpose. Although the Red Power movement and the NCAI did not specifically address sterilization abuse, they did influence and inspire Native American women to incorporate some of their policies, such as self-determination over their reproductive rights, into their own organizations.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[disruptiveempathy]

Various churches also threatened Native American families through organizations such as the Mormon Church’s Placement Program. Joan Rose, a Ute woman from Nevada, remembered the Mormons taking in children from poverty-stricken Indian families. There was great concern for the children’s religious education as it was common knowledge that Mormons believed Indians were sinners and Lamenites, one of the lost tribes of Israel, who could become white and immediately be saved if they accepted the Mormon faith. As many as two thousand children per year left their homes to live with a culture that held Native Americans as 'dark and loathsome,' 'cursed by God because of their moral turpitude and ancient wickedness.' In fact, they believed that as the children became indoctrinated into the Mormon faith, their skin would lighten.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[disruptiveempathy]

The phrase kid catching in the 1930s on the Navajo reservation will always reverberate through time among Indian families. The phrase referred to the stockmen, police, farmers, and mounted men who came on their reservation to literally round up school-age children to attend faraway government boarding schools. These children, often roped like cattle, were sent to white schools where they were given white names and clothing, forbidden to speak their Native tongue, and often prevented from returning home for three years, sometimes never. Dande Coolidge, a Navajo eyewitness to the yearly roundup of Indian children, recalled that many parents hid their children when they heard the sound of a truck approaching.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[disruptiveempathy]

[Native women] interviewed [about their sterilizations] verified that public and private welfare agencies threatened to cut off their benefits if they bore additional children or to remove the children they already had from their homes. One of the most typical situations in which welfare agents and surgeons would try to convince a mother to agree to sterilization was during labor when she was vulnerable and often medicated. Some women avoided having their babies at IHS facilities for this reason, but unfortunately the majority of women were unaware of the coercion they were often subjected to. The threat of losing one’s children to social welfare agencies if the mother did not agree to sterilization, however, proved the most persuasive and coercive technique. Native American women scattered throughout the nation on reservations had little if any access to the pro-choice movement, which might have raised their consciousness, leaving them especially vulnerable to manipulation. Their population—already devastated by disease, inadequate health care and education, wars, removal, cultural genocide through assimilation, broken treaties, and now sterilization—placed a high priority on children as their one hope of survival. Native Americans had and still have a deep sense of family and the importance of extended families

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal

[disruptiveempathy]

[A study by the General Accounting Office (GAO)] involving Albuquerque, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, found that between 1973 and 1976 IHS [Indian Health Service] facilities sterilized 3,406 Native American women. Of these, 3,001 involved women of childbearing age (between fifteen and forty-four). Of these, 1,024 were performed at IHS contract facilities. Since the records of only four of the twelve IHS hospitals were examined over a forty-six-month period, and only 100,000 Native American women of childbearing age remained, the ramifications of these operations were staggering. After studying the report, Senator [James] Abourezk commented that given the fact of the small population of Native Americans, 3,406 Indian sterilizations would be comparable to 452,000 non-Indian women.

—Sally J. Torpy, from "Native American Women and Coerced Sterilization: On the Trail of Tears in the 1970s," in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal