Grace Thorpe (1921-2008) was a pioneering advocate for environmental and Native rights.
Grace Thorpe (1921-2008) was a pioneering advocate for environmental and Native rights.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m environmental activist Erin Brockovich. This is Womanica.
This month we’re highlighting Eco Warriors: women fighting for conservation and ecological justice.
Today, we’re talking about a pioneering advocate for environmental and Native rights. Please welcome Grace Thorpe.
Grace Thorpe was born in Yale, Oklahoma on December 10, 1921. Her father, Jim Thorpe, was a world-famous Olympic athlete and a member of the Sac (SACK) and Fox tribe. Her mother, Iva Miller, was Cherokee.
When Grace was born, they also gave her a Native name inspired by her great grandmother: No Teno Quah. It means, “the power of the wind before a storm.”
Two years after Grace’s birth, her parents divorced. Jim moved to California to pursue film, while Iva worked multiple jobs to support Grace and her three siblings.
When the U.S. entered World War II, Grace joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp, where she rose through the ranks and became a corporal. She was sent to Japan, the Philippines, and New Guinea as a recruiter.
While she was stationed in New Guinea, she met Lieutenant Fred W. Seely. In 1945, Grace was honorably discharged. A year later, she and Fred were married. They soon welcomed two children, Dagmar and Paul.
But by 1950, Grace and Fred had separated. Grace returned to the United States with her two children and settled in Pearl River, New York. She worked multiple jobs to support them, just like her own mother had for her and her siblings.
In the mid 1960s, tragedy struck. Her teenage son died in a car crash. Grieving and seeking change, Grace relocated once again to Arizona, where she was able to connect more with her Native roots.
In 1969 and 1970, Grace joined the 19-month long occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The group, known as the Indians of All Tribes, was leading what Grace later called “the most important event in the Indian movement to date.”
Under the Treaty of Fort Laramie between the U.S. and the Lakota Tribe, all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal land was to be returned to the Native Americans who once lived there. Since Alcatraz penitentiary closed in 1963, the activists claimed it should be returned to Native Americans.
Grace sold all of her furniture and spent all her savings in order to help occupy the island for three months. She wrote press releases for the public and acted as negotiator between activists and the federal government.
The occupation garnered national media attention, and celebrities like Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando spoke up in support of the Native activists. In the end, the protestors were forcibly removed from Alcatraz Island, and sovereignty of the island was not restored to Native tribes. However, the occupation represented a watershed moment for Indigenous activism.
Grace’s advocacy for Native Americans didn’t stop there. Grace served as the Economic Development Conference Coordinator for the National Congress of American Indians in 1968 and 1969. In this role, she pushed for factories to relocate to native land to create more economic opportunities for Native workers.
In 1971, she co-founded the National Indian Women’s Action Corps. Explaining the mission of the group, Grace said, “We Indian women decided to start beating the drum for ourselves … we want all Indian women who want to be active to join us in finding solutions to our problems.”
In 1992, Grace’s activism turned to an issue close to home. The Sac and Fox tribe had accepted a $100,000 federal grant to study the temporary storage of radioactive waste on tribal land. The tribe, and 16 others, accepted the grant, believing the money would alleviate high unemployment rates.
Grace worried about how the nuclear waste would affect the tribes. She researched the hazards and set out to convince her tribe to withdraw from the study.
In 1993, Grace helped found and served as president of the national Environmental Coalition of Native Americans. She traveled around the country to educate tribes about the dangers of nuclear waste.
Grace successfully convinced the Sac and Fox Tribe to withdraw from the nuclear waste program. 11 other tribes soon followed.
Grace continued her activism until she passed away from heart disease in 2008. She was 86 years old.
All month, we’re highlighting eco-warriors. For more information find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Thank you to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me host this week.
Talk to you tomorrow!