Wonder Woman of the Week: Suzan Shown Harjo
Our Wonder Woman this week is a writer, poet, activist, and so much more whose work helped address institutional racism towards Native Americans, recover one million acres of stolen land, and establish national policies for Native American civil rights. Suzan Shown Harjo was born in 1945 in Oklahoma, but spent much of her childhood with her father as an army brat- including spending several years in Italy among US military forces. Upon return to the US, Harjo moved to New York City to work in radio and theatre. It was during this time when Harjo began her activism as a radio broadcaster, co-producing a program called Seeing Red.
After spending much of the 1960's as a radio broadcast activist, Suzan Shown Harjo caught the attention of national activists and politicians. Harjo took a job working to repatriate historical regalia from museums to the indigenous communities to which they rightfully belonged. In 1974, Harjo moved to Washington DC to lobby for Native American civil rights and became the director of the Native American Press Association. With a new headquarters and a new title, Harjo was able to work closely with legislators and the White House to pass the American Indian Religious Freedom Act- protecting Native Americans' rights to practice indigenous religious practices.
Suzan Shown Harjo's national lobbying continued well past the 1970's. Harjo would later work with the National Congress of American Indians to further repatriate sacred items to their rightful indigenous owners, helped lay the foundations for the National Museum of the American Indian, and helped pass the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to help repatriate indigenous human remains to their peoples. Harjo served as the president of the Morning Star Institute which promotes sacred land claims and helps indigenous cultural landmarks, has served as a trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian, and has the distinction of being one of twenty women to have spoken at the first ever International Women's Day in New York City.
Most recently, Suzan Shown Harjo has led the way towards addressing the overlooked racism of the United States' many Native American sports team mascots. The trend began decades ago, but several sports teams as of the 2010's continued to use racist terms for Native Americans as team names or racist depictions of Native Americans as team mascots. Harjo and fell activists helped take many of these teams to court to face legal battles for their continued disgrace. In response, several sports teams quickly changed their policies over Native American mascots and team names. Harjo's life work has established her as a major role model for indigenous Americans and for civil rights activists. Her dedication to her people, her cause, and her work has made her a superhero to many, a national treasure to her country, and a Wonder Woman to future women around the globe.
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