GOOD TALK WITH MADONNA THUNDER HAWK
Oohenumpa Lakota matriarch Dr. Madonna Thunder Hawk is one of Indian Country’s most formidable movers and shakers. With over five decades of experience in activism, Madonna is a veteran of every contemporary Native occupation from Alcatraz, to Wounded Knee in 1973, and more recently the NoDAPL protest at Standing Rock in 2016. She is a self-described old “AIMster-gangster,” in reference to her leadership in the American Indian Movement (AIM), and co-founded key Native resistance groups Women of All Red Nations and the Black Hills Alliance. Most recently, she started the Wasagiya Najin "Grandmothers' Group" on her homeland of Cheyenne River Reservation to assist in rebuilding kinship networks and advocate for Indigenous child welfare. Thunder Hawk has spoken around the world, served as a delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, and in 2019, received an honorary doctorate from Simmons University in Boston for her lifelong work to promote cultural survival for Native Nations. As a Warrior Women Project matriarch, Madonna is a principle organizer and voice in the Project’s efforts to collect, archive, and advocate for transformative Indigenous history and its makers.