Lakota Grandmas

For a couple of reasons, I have always had an interest in the Lakota Sioux Native American tribe. The first is that I love visiting the Black Hills of South Dakota which is closely tied to the Lakota Sioux tribe. The other reason the Lakota have interested me is that my great uncle, John Spare was actually adopted by a Lakota Sioux chief named Walking Cloud, who had lost his son, and been impressed with Uncle John. So, he decided to adopt him, even though Uncle John was a grown man. I guess that if people can have dual citizenship, they can also have dual parentship…or whatever it might be called.

Now, I found another reason to be interested in the Lakota Sioux…the “Lakota Grandmas.” The term “Lakota Grandmas” refers to four Lakota women who, in 1953, founded the Lakota TB and Health Association to combat a tuberculosis outbreak among the Cheyenne River Sioux. These weren’t your typical grandmas, but rather were four Lakota grandmothers who took management of the outbreak into their own hands. These women…Phoebe Downing (Standing Rock), Eunice Larrabee (Cheyenne River), Alfreda Janis Bergin (Pine Ridge), and Irene Groneau (Sisseton-Wahpeton)…banded together to serve their tribal health communities by tackling a variety of health issues, including tuberculosis, mental health, and alcoholism. These women saw a serious need and took it upon themselves to work together for the common good of their people and their reservations. Their work contributed greatly to the development of the Community Health Representative programs under the Indian Health Service (IHS). These women were instrumental in shaping health programs within the Indian Health Service (IHS), including starting the Community Health Representative (CHR) program.

Apparently, Lakota grandmothers have long been valued as keepers of knowledge. To this day, they remain vital to their communities, playing important roles in healthcare, intergenerational care, and tackling social factors that impact health. Their role intensified in 1953, amid a tuberculosis outbreak. That was when the four Lakota grandmothers banded together for the common good. One of the diseases most commonly dealt with by the Lakota grandmas was diabetes. Intergenerational caregiving is on the rise as challenges like unemployment and violence put more pressure on families. That brought a need for grandmothers to step up in vital ways. Among the Lakota, grandmothers are deeply engaged in community advocacy, from boosting health literacy to guiding advance care planning, making sure their voices shape important healthcare decisions. The Native Americans have always placed great value on the elderly, and maybe that is a lesson we should all learn. Whether all of our elderly are in a position to make such astounding changes or not, these four women certainly were, and together, they made a difference.