APRIL 16, 1940

MOHAWK KAHN-TINETA HORN BORN–MODEL, ARTIST, AND ACTIVIST

Born in New York City, her name means “She Makes the Grass Wave.”  A model and actress, in the early 1960s, Horn became a director of the National Indian Council (NIC).  However, a 1964 NIC leadership battle led to her firing and losing her pageant title as Indian Princess of Canada.  Horn drew attention to Aboriginal rights in Québec in a 1965 speech at the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.  In the ‘60s and ‘70s, she was active in Red Power and American Indian Movements and, in 1967, founded the Indian Legal Defence Committee.  Known for expressing controversial views, Horn opposed Aboriginal-white intermarriage and supports defining Aboriginal identity by blood quantum.  Supporting women’s independence, she argued that under her tribe’s constitution “women are the title holders of our land.”  Her participation in land disputes include those underlying the 1990 Oka Crisis and 1995 jailing of Shuswap elder Jones William Ignace.  She now serves as publisher of the Mohawk Nation News. 

Source:  Bennett McCardle, “Kahn-Tineta Horn,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2/4/2008.  Retrieved 2/2/2020, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/kahn-tineta-horn
Photo:  Rudy A. Regehr, 3/1969.  Kahn-Tineta Horn in discussion.  Courtesy of The Canadian Mennonite collection/Mennonite Archives of Ontario.  Reference Code: CA MAO XV-19.3-1994-14-411.  Source: Kahn-Tineta Horn in discussion - Mennonite Archival Image Database (mhsc.ca)