Outstanding Native Women

• WARN Co-Founder

• Civil Rights Activist

• Nurse

When officials in the Catholic grade school where Lorelei DeCora was enrolled tried unsuccessfully to sever her ties to her American Indian traditions, their actions no doubt fueled DeCora's early attraction to the 1970s Red Power Movement. She would become one of the youngest to serve as board member for the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Born on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska, Lorelei DeCora is a descendant of the Minneconjou Lakota Sioux through her mother. Her grandmother survived the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890).

In high school, Lorelei would further learn the strength of resistance when her family complained that the history book Hawkeye Tales portrayed Native Americans in an "explicitly racist" light. The school district was obliged to remove the textbook from the Iowa state curriculum.

She participated in the second siege of Wounded Knee (1973) in protest of lesser standards of justice for Native American Indians. Along with Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, Janet McCloud and others, DeCora co-founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN) the following year.

While WARN's main focus was to fill the vacuum in AIM after most of the male members were arrested for their dissentions (women protesters were overlooked), WARN also alerted their communities about health issues that affected them.

In 1980 the group published a study in the Akwesasne News which exposed radiation contamination in their drinking water. Conducted by biochemist J. Haworth Jonte, tests revealed that radiation levels in the Pine Ridge Reservation far exceeded those of federal guidelines.

Titled "Radiation: Dangerous to Pine Ridge Women," the study further revealed that the elevated radiation levels affected human reproductive health, causing high rates of birth defects, miscarriages and even deaths due to nuclear contamination.

Through the WARN-sponsored study and her experience as an untrained nurse while tending wounded protesters, DeCora realized the great need for healthcare providers. Her Native community of Porcupine is one of nine districts of the Pine Ridge (South Dakota) Reservation; as part of Shannon County, it is the third poorest county in the nation according to U.S. Census Bureau Statistics.

Desiring to be part of solutions, Lorelei DeCora returned to school. She earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from South Dakota State University in 1986 and spearheaded the construction of a badly needed Indian health clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Noticing the pandemic of diabetes and related illnesses, in 1993 DeCora instituted Diabetes Wellness: American Indian Talking Circles. The program teaches self-education and prevention at Pine Ridge and three other reservations. She also co-founded the AIDS Resource Team, which was then the only community AIDS education initiative in the state of South Dakota.

Also in 1986 she received a $100,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader stipend. It brought her national recognition, funded the Porcupine Clinic and expanded her vision to attract other trained American Indian healthcare providers. She was also awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award (1993) and a William Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice Award (1997).

Since 1996, Lorelei DeCora has worked full time in the Indian Health Services Talking Circles project and has formed what she calls "a wellness coalition" with the Porcupine Clinic. Her vision for community-centered healthcare and self-education to prevent disease reflects her lifetime commitment to provide for the health care needs of Pine Ridge communities.

A form of this article by KB Schaller appears in 100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, winner of an International Book Award, Women's Issues Category. Other KB Schaller books are available through amazon.com and other booksellers. Website: http://www.kbschaller.com. Email: soaring-eagles@msn.com