LAKOTA-CHIPPEWA EDUCATOR TAWACIN WASTEWIN (PATRICIA LOCKE) BORN
Locke, whose Lakota name meant “She of good consciousness‚ a compassionate woman,” was born on the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, of Hunkpapa Lakota & White Earth Chippewa heritage. Graduating from UCLA (1951), she helped preserve indigenous languages, cultures, and spiritual traditions, and organized 17 tribally-run colleges. A writer and college lecturer, she received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1991), co-chaired the U.S. Interior Department’s Indian Education Policy Task Force, and advocated for the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. Locke was involved in: World Assembly of First Nations (Canada, 1982); 4th World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1991); Indigenous Women’s Caucus (Beijing, 1995); and Parliament of World Religions (South Africa, 1999). She was the Bahai faith’s 1st Native American woman on the National Spiritual Assembly (1993) and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (2006). She died in Phoenix, Arizona, October 20, 2001.
Source: “Patricia A. Locke,” National Women’s Hall of Fame. Retrieved 5/15/2020, https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/patricia-a-locke/ Photo: Courtesy of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States.
Indigenous America Calendar 