The Matriarchs of Wounded Knee: Fourteen Minutes of Power

Fourteen Minutes of Power: The Matriarchs of Wounded Knee describe the birth of the occupation of Wounded Knee in a special film release of oral history at the 50th Anniversary of Wounded Knee

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Feb. 27, 2023

PORCUPINE, Oglala Lakota Nation -- In a powerful 14-minutes, the Matriarchs of Wounded Knee describe how the Occupation of Wounded Knee began during a time of terror for Oglala Lakota on Pine Ridge in South Dakota. The special presentation of oral history by the Warrior Women's Project on Saturday is part of four days of events celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Wounded Knee. It continues today, Monday, with the Liberation Day March.

"When I think about my people, Indian people, I think of Wounded Knee. That was the awakening, the rise of our people," says Madonna Thunder Hawk, as the film begins. She is speaking at Oceti Sakowin Camp on Standing Rock in 2016.

Thunder Hawk describes how, and why they were asked to come to Wounded Knee in 1973.

"There was always a committee or group of people that would request our presence."

"We would do a protest in the tribal office, and the Goons would just push the women aside and laugh at us," said Geraldine Janis, describing the oppression and violence by Oglala Lakota Chairman Dickie Wilson and the BIA, who opposed traditional Lakota.

Geraldine Janis remembers how she and Pedro Bissonette -- who was later shot and killed by a BIA police officer serving a warrant in October of 1973 -- decided to take action and formed the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization.

"Two people couldn't even talk on the street, they'd throw you in jail," Janis remembers.

Read the full article at Censored News.https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/02/honoring-1973-matriarchs-of-wounded.html