Cecelia Fire Thunder likes to recount the legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who delivered the sacred pipe and its teachings to the Lakota nation.
Long ago, the legend goes, two men encountered a holy woman who first appeared to them as a white buffalo calf. One man, awe-struck, prayed. The other had lustful thoughts and tried to grab the woman. He was turned into a pile of bones.
“The first teaching of the pipe is sexual respect for women,” said Fire Thunder, the first female president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Fire Thunder told the story recently to the tribal council, which had convened to impeach her over her support for an abortion clinic on the reservation. It did no good: The formidable, outspoken president was found guilty of overstepping her authority and ousted less than five months before the end of her two-year term.
Fire Thunder is challenging her removal on procedural grounds.
In the meantime, the tribe is embroiled in the politics of abortion–an issue about which the Lakota almost never speak. The battle allows glimpses of how a proud people is struggling amid the influences of a dominant white society, legal trends in South Dakota and political forces buffeting America.
A foreign import
The “anti-abortion” versus “pro-abortion rights” conflict is a foreign import to Lakota country, the westernmost part of the Great Sioux Nation. Some experts say the Lakota language doesn’t even have a word for “abortion.” Others insist Lakota women have always had medicines to terminate a pregnancy.
Lenor Scheffler, a Native American attorney who practices in Minneapolis, said she was surprised when Fire Thunder offered to build a family-planning facility on the reservation.
“I wondered, how do we feel about abortion as a tribal people? We don’t talk about it. We don’t ask,” Scheffler said.
What people on both sides seem to agree on is that abortion is women’s business, not suitable for men to be discussing in the chambers of the tribal council or anywhere else.
Will Peters, the councilman who brought the impeachment charge and plans to run against Fire Thunder for president in November, said: “I didn’t like being dragged into the abortion issue. … In the Lakota culture, it’s not a man’s business to tell a woman what she can and cannot do.”
So why did he vote to remove her? Because “she used her position as president to further her personal views,” Peters said. “The president gets her orders from the tribal council, and she was never given the directive to pursue an abortion clinic.”
In March, South Dakota’s governor signed into law a near-total abortion ban that makes no exception for rape, incest or a pregnancy that threatens the woman’s health. Fire Thunder, a nurse who has worked with victims of domestic violence, was outraged.
She said: “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land, which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation and where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”
Rape and incest are common in Indian country, often linked to the high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse. According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, Indian women are sexually assaulted at a rate more than three times higher than white women. The alcoholism rate on the reservation is at least double the national average.
“Who gave those men in Pierre [the state capital] the right to decide about a pregnancy caused by an act of violence?” Fire Thunder, 59, asked in a recent interview.
The state ban is on hold and might be repealed in the November election. If it is upheld, Planned Parenthood, which runs the only abortion clinic in South Dakota, is expected to challenge it in court.
Magnet for controversy
Fire Thunder’s clinic likely is years away. But the Oglala tribal council has passed an ordinance outlawing abortion on the reservation–just in case.
There are no opinion polls on the reservation. However, numerous members of the tribe volunteered the view that abortion should not be available on demand but should be an option in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the woman’s health.
South Dakota’s new law says performing an abortion is a felony unless the pregnant woman’s life is in danger.
“I think that’s extreme,” said Sunny Clifford, 21, who returned to the reservation after attending college in Oklahoma.
Some of Fire Thunder’s opponents argue that a pregnant woman no longer has a choice, because abortion is murder.
“We’re killing babies in utero all the time with drugs and alcohol,” Fire Thunder retorts. “Who’s worrying about that?”
The motivation behind her removal goes beyond anti-abortion sentiment.
Council members have tried to remove her three times since her election in November 2004. (The first two times the charges were dropped.)
Opponents say that she is arrogant and spends too much time traveling the country.
“Change isn’t easy,” she said.
Both sides in the abortion debate claim to represent Lakota values. Those opposed to abortion–or to Fire Thunder–argue that life is sacred to the Lakota and all unborn children deserve protection.
Fire Thunder agrees that life is sacred, then adds, “I don’t think the White Buffalo Calf Woman would approve of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest.”
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Fire Thunder speaks
On her removal:
“This is the equivalent of the Salem witch hunt.”
On the status of women:
“America does not respect women, although we are life-givers.”
“Women are so colonized and oppressed, even if you drive a Mercedes and have a charge account at Neiman Marcus you’re a second-class citizen in the eyes of the government and the church.”
On violence:
“As long as alcohol and drugs are as prevalent as they are in my nation, somebody will be sexually traumatized.”
“The phrase `unintended pregnancy’ amazes me. I call it `pregnancy by violence.'”
On the status of Native Americans:
“Do you know what colonization means? We were considered less than. They [the white-led U.S. government] didn’t value our language, our beliefs, our way of life.”
What others say
Editorial in Indian Country Today, after her election in November 2004:
“Cecelia Fire Thunder will be an inspiration to young women to reach for leadership and pursue the path of self-esteem and self-dignity.”
Oglala Sioux councilman Will Peters, who brought the impeachment charges:
“I know she’s been victimized. She has reasons to be a man-hater. But slow down, sister. All of us men are not like that.”
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jperes@tribune.com
