Medicine, Beatrice, 1923-2005

Born Auguts 1, 1924, on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Taught anthropology at many colleges and universities. Writings challenged the past interpretations of non-Indian anthropologists.

"Beatrice Medicine of Wakpala, a noted educator, scholar, author and advocate for minorities, has died. Medicine, 82, died Dec. 19 during emergency surgery in Bismarck, N.D. Medicine was born at Wakpala on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and grew up there. She graduated from South Dakota State University in 1945 and studied anthropology at several universities, earning a master's degree at Michigan State University and a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in 1983. Medicine taught at Indian schools and colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, including Stanford University, Dartmouth College, San Francisco State University, the University of Washington, the University of Montana and the University of South Dakota."
"She served as head of the Women's Branch of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples for the Canadian government, helping draft legislation to protect the legal rights of native families. She served as an expert witness in several trials pertaining to the rights of American Indians, including the 1974 federal case brought against the individuals involved in the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973."
"After retiring from teaching, Medicine returned to the Wakpala area where she helped ensure construction of a new public school and served on the school board for the Wakpala-Smee School District."

"Bea Medicine was trained as a cultural anthropologist, but she was first and fore most a Lakota (Sihasapa) woman whose chosen career path was education. She was born in 1923 on the Standing Rock Reservation in Wakpala, South Dakota, and her Native name was Hinsha Waste Agli Win (Returns Victorious with a Red Horse Woman). She received degrees from South Dakota State University and Michigan State University, earning her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Bea began teach ing home economics at Haskell Indian Institute in 1945 and continued as a lecturer, visiting professor, and scholar-in-residence at over 20 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada."
"Throughout her professional life, Bea's research embraced the broadest context of Native peoples' lives as she sought to understand gender identities, families, physi cal and mental health, Native religious practices, alcohol and drug treatment, social justice, education, and public policy."

"Dr. Beatrice Medicine was born on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Wakpala, South Dakota on August 1, 1923. As a young adult, she studied at South Dakota State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology in 1945, and at Michigan State University, where she received her Master of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology in 1954. In time Medicine would also go on to earn her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1983"
"Medicine began her career as an educator working first as a home economics teacher at the Haskell Indian Institute in 1945 and would go on to teach Native American/Indian Studies university courses [...] In total, Medicine worked as faculty, visiting professor, and scholar-in-residence at thirty-one universities and colleges in the United States and in Canada, even after her official retirement in 1989."
"Medicine sought to use her insider’s knowledge as a member of the American Indian community to reduce the “othering” of her people and to improve their overall well-being and treatment by non-Natives."