PINE RIDGE, S.D. — This year marks 53 years since members of AIM (American Indian Movement) occupied Wounded Knee, AND 136 years since the U.S. Army massacred 146 Lakota men, women and children at the site.
Feb. 27, 2026, the anniversary of the occupation, will be commemorated with drumming, singing and talks from numerous speakers including Master of Ceremonies Earl Tali (Oyuhpe Takala) and Dick Marshall. The ceremonies will began with a Four-Directions March and end with singing and drumming of the AIM Victory Song
As they have in previous years, members of AIM have used the anniversary of the occupation to honor its warriors. This year, they are honoring three women — Olowan Martinez, Vina White Hawk and Madonna Thunder Hawk.
Olowan was born on Feb. 14,1974 to Angelo “Angel” Martinez and Victoria “Vicky” Thunder Hawk. Olowan made her journey to the Spirit World on Aug. 5, 2022. Her Lakota name is Oyate Ikiya Najin Win. Olowan is Oglala Lakota of the Tituwan band of the Ocheti Sakowin and O’otham, the original people of the Valley of the Sun. Olowan’s father Angelo “Angel” Martinez came to Lakota country with the (West Coast) American Indian Movement for the 1973 AIM Liberation of Wounded Knee.
Olowan is remembered for leading a fierce battle that closed down the city of white Clay, Nebraska alcohol sales. Her persona “Lili Red” was born as she became a lead organizer for Red Warrior Society, playing a critical role in the defense for sacred water at Standing Rock 2016 and 2017.
Vina White Hawk was just a teenager when she traveled to Calico with her father, Eugene White Hawk, and her mother, Bernice White Hawk. It was there that they joined the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (O.S.C.R.O.), a grassroots movement formed to address longstanding grievances with the tribal government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Together, they stood for treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, accountability, and the protection of Lakota governance.
When the Liberation of Wounded Knee began in 1973, the roads were blockaded and access to the community was restricted. Tension filled the air, and danger was real. Yet those barriers did not stop Vina. With quiet determination and courage beyond her years, she made her way in and out of the encampment, carrying support and supplies to those standing on the front lines.
Madonna’s ‘activism’ began in the late 1960s when she moved to San Francisco on ‘Relocation.’ She was blown away by hippy counter culture in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, the Farmworker’s Movement, the Black Panther Party, and the anti-poverty programs where she learned the basics of community organizing.
Madonna worked at the donations depot and helped with the Island school during the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 -1971 by Indians of All Tribes; she was a key organizer behind both Mt. Rushmore occupations in 1970 and 1971; she was part of the Trail of Broken Treaties in 1972; she is a Wounded Knee 1973 Veteran along with her then 10-yr-old son Phillip Gilbert; she was part of the first group of defendants to face trial following Wounded Knee facing over 100 years in prison; while on trial, she also worked as the tribal liaison for the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee in Rapid City.
In 1978, she co-founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN) a women’s society that worked against the exploitation and extraction of resources from the land and its direct impact on the environment and women’s health — which included calling out the illegal sterilization of Native women by the Indian Health Service. Madonna and WARN conducted water testing on Pine Ridge against the wishes of the tribal government, revealing the uranium contamination and took it all the way to testify on the global stage at the 1980 United Nations Russell Tribunal on the Rights of Indians in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
While we need to name Madonna’s leadership and direction in countless actions and efforts that resulted in the very term “Indigenous” and the rebirth of being unapologetically Indian – she is the first to remind us that Red Power/AIM/WARN – “the Movement” – itself was all about families and she never ever did this work alone. She advised, “You only need a handful of doers — what I learned was simple, ‘Lead, follow . . . or get the hell out of the way.’”
Resources to learn more about Madonna’s life and the Red Power Movement:
• Watch the Peabody nominated, PBS film Warrior Women
Explore an archive of short films and interviews by and about Madonna at Warrior Women Project Archive (https://www.warriorwomenarchive.org/)
• Read “‘Original Gangster Granny’ The Life and Times of Red Power Activist Madonna Thunder Hawk” about her history here 70s Article by Castle.pdf
• Share your oral history/photos/ documents – info@warriorwomen.org
Descriptions of the women warriors honored this year were excerpted from the printed program for the event edited by Red Dog.
