Cheyenne River Lakota elder honored and celebrated on 85th birthday

MANSFIELD OH – On June 18, 2025, the 85th birthday of Madonna Thunder Hawk/Wicahpi Luta Win/Red Star Woman (Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Lakota) was the occasion for her family to enjoy a celebratory cake and present her with a bouquet of fresh flowers along with other expressions of love and respect for their matriarch.

It is also the occasion for the Warrior Women’s Project (WWP) to announce the creation of a digital scrapbook of photos, stories and videos to document Thunder Hawk’s life and legacy.

The WWP (warriorwomen.org) is a collaborative of matriarchs, historians, community organizers, and multimedia storytellers working to bring to light the critical impact of Indigenous women through recent history. The organization invites all, “If Madonna has touched or impacted your life, your family, your community, let her know by visiting this form (https://tinyurl.com/yrxx3c8e) to submit your stories, photos, videos, or artwork. …

It is not possible to accurately measure the cumulative impact Thunder Hawk’s life has made in the lives of countless individuals, in the tiospaye, all across Turtle Island (North America), and across the world. She is recognized and honored internationally for her lifetime of devoted advocacy and activism.

Thunder Hawk was one of the original members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 and participated in the occupations at Alcatraz, which ended in 1971, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1972. She also participated in the protests at the Custer County Courthouse in South Dakota in early 1973 and the occupation of Wounded Knee (known as Wounded Knee ’73 or WK ‘73) a few weeks later.

She served as a medic and an organizer at WK’73, a violent standoff between AIM occupiers and the U.S. federal government. Fifty years later, she can remember the sounds of gunfire. “It was warfare,” she recalled.

During WK ‘73, Native activists would bring larger attention to the histories of broken treaties between the United States and tribal nations and contemporary economic, social, and health disparities affecting Indian Country. Also, WK ’73 solidified AIM’s position in the larger Civil Rights movement.

According to Thunder Hawk, the 2023 events commemorating the 50th. anniversary of WK ‘73 marked a significant shift in the telling and archiving of oral history. “The male-dominated news media has focused on male AIM members at WK ’73, while the women were integral in treaty negotiations for the occupation and in other key roles,” she said in a 2023 interview. Historians agree and say women were the driving force behind the occupation.

She also said that the male-dominated mainstream press focused on the “men with guns” in the movement. … At the press conferences you only saw men. … We women were invisible, so we organized and made everything happen because we were not in the spotlight. We had the say-so.”

In a first-person account of WK ’73, Thunder Hawk wrote, “… those weeks under siege were the first domino in a series of events that catapulted our movement into the international spotlight — and also eventually led to the formation of the Lakota People’s Law Project.

“…On the ground …it was a full military action…Firefights occurred almost every night, with flares and tracers raining down to light up the area.

“…no one was ever convicted after the standoff. All charges were eventually dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.

“Those weeks under siege were hard, but they were worth it. We took a stand that mattered, and we held the world’s attention on nightly newscasts. We inspired later land-back and occupy movements, and we formed connections that last until the present day. …… Wounded Knee ’73 was a spark that lighted a fire and we’re keeping the fire going.””

Read Thunder Hawk’s entire account of WK ’73 at https://tinyurl.com/33rmp5ur .

The world had largely forgotten about Native American people by the early 1970s, said Marcella Gilbert, Thunder Hawk’s daughter and perhaps Thunder Hawk’s most visible and notable legacy gift to the world.

“People across the world didn’t even know we (Native Americans) still existed,” Gilbert said. “They thought John Wayne killed us all. … (During WK ’73) the world became aware that we were still here. …History exploded in front of their faces.”

Wounded Knee ’73 spurred movements globally and nationwide to recognize Indigenous rights and the work continues today with the children and grandchildren of the ’73 activists, including Gilbert.

Dr. Elizabeth Castle, a former professor of Native American studies at the University of South Dakota and now the director of the Warrior Women Project. said the occupation led to the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, as well as the United Nations Conference on Indians in the Americas, which eventually led to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples signed in 2007.

Thunder Hawk has continued her work in grassroots activism, including serving as an elder organizer for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests of 2016. Castle said that current grassroots efforts in South Dakota, such as NDN Collective and Thunder Valley Community Development, are efforts inspired by Wounded Knee ’73.

In May, 2023, Thunder Hawk and Gilbert traveled to Kent State University (KSU) in Ohio as honored guests of students who planned a memorial observance for the Kent State killings of May 4, 1970, sometimes called the Kent State Massacre. A number of survivors and observers of the KSU Massacre attended the 2023 memorial.

Gilbert observed an “instant camaraderie” between Thunder Hawk and the KSU survivors based on their shared experience of being fired upon by the U.S. government. Thunder Hawk reminded her audience, “A strong core group is all you need (to create change).”

She noted, “When young people are on the move, change happens. …Everybody has a responsibility (to make positive change), no matter your age.”

In 1974, Thunder Hawk co-founded the We Will Remember Survival School (WWRSS) in Rapid City, SD, as a space for cultural revitalization and as an alternative to mainstream education. Designed to respond to the needs of Native American children and youth experiencing racism and intolerance within the local public school system, WWRSS was the first alternative educational setting in South Dakota.

Dr. Elizabeth Castle, said, “The survival school movement is an obvious powerful response to a boarding school initiative, to surviving an unrecognized genocide.”

Gilbert attended WWRSS as a teen and says she learned there that she was “part of something special and different (the movement for Native American justice). …

“We (WWRSS students) returned to our families and lived our lives knowing we could do and be more. … My survival school experience also trained me to be a life-long activist. You have no choice. Once you learn this stuff, you can’t unlearn it.”

Gilbert eventually earned a master’s degree in nutrition. She is now an advocate for food sovereignty for Indigenous people.

On February 26, 2024, the Warrior Women Project hosted a day-long reunion of former students of the WWRSS to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the school. The celebration honored co-founder Thunder Hawk with a uniquely-designed star quilt. She also received a bouquet of fresh flowers and an honor song by a WWRSS alumnus.

Gilbert said, “Many former students came to the 50th anniversary celebration and showed great respect and admiration for Madonna. She had an impact. She changed young people’s lives. One said, ‘She taught me WHO I AM and taught me to be proud of who I am.’”

A video filmed at the WWRSS 50th Anniversary gathering is available at https://tinyurl.com/mr4scx6y .

Gilbert and Thunder Hawk were recently honored when invited to be program speakers on January 29, 2025, at the Founders Week observance at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation. Denise One Star teaches Adult Basic Education at Sinte Gleska and has been acquainted with Thunder Hawk and Gilbert for thirty years. She says she has always been an admirer of both.

One Star said, “(Thunder Hawk) is a beautiful person, a strong, humble, woman leader. She does not seek recognition for herself. She is a gifted seamstress, she beads, and does many remarkable things. Her story is uplifting to all women. Madonna and Marcie (Gilbert) are both good role models and inspire others.

Thunder Hawk and One Star are both jingle dress dancers and have danced together many times. “Madonna … was born with a purpose and she’s living that purpose, helping the people.”

Thunder Hawk said that Sinte Gleska students voiced worry and concern about the state of the nation and asked her, “What do we do?” She told them, “Don’t be afraid to take action. You don’t need anyone’s permission.”

The Founders Week activities started with a showing of the award-winning documentary film “Warrior Women,” which features Thunder Hawk’s lifetime of activism.

Colette Keith, Executive Vice President of Sinte Gleska, remarked, “…Madonna and her daughter Marcie Gilbert …They are real flesh and blood gifts to the Oceti Sakowin because of their lifelong continued commitment to justice.”

Currently, Gilbert and Thunder Hawk focus their activism within the Waš’ágiya Náji. (Standing Strong Grandmothers Group), a group dedicated to child welfare. Thunder Hawk said, “We are still rattling cages, trying to help one another.”

(Contact Grace Terry at graceterrywilliams@gmail.com)

The post Cheyenne River Lakota elder honored and celebrated on 85th birthday first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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