Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

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Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
San Antonio, Texas
, U.S.
Education
Occupations
  • Historian
  • Activist
Spouse
Native American rights
Notable works
Websitereddirtsite.com

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (born September 10, 1938) is an American historian, writer, professor, and activist based in San Francisco. Born in Texas, she grew up in Oklahoma and is a social justice and feminist activist.[1] She has written numerous books including Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra Years (2005), Red Dirt: Growing up Okie (1992),[1] and An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (2014). She is professor emeritus in Ethnic Studies at California State University.[2]

Early life and education

Born in

Scots-Irish ancestry. Dunbar claims her mother was of Cherokee descent.[1] Dunbar-Ortiz initially self-identified as having Cheyenne ancestry, but she subsequently acknowledged that she is white.[4] She has since claimed to be of Cherokee descent,[4] and that her mother denied her Native ancestry after marrying into a white family.[5] Because of her various claims of having Indigenous ancestry, Dunbar acknowledged that she has been "denounced as a fraud for pretending to be Native American."[6]

Dunbar's paternal grandfather was a settler, landed farmer, veterinarian, labor activist, and member

"Big" Bill Haywood. Her father's stories of her grandfather inspired her to lifelong social justice activism.[7]
Her account of life up to leaving Oklahoma is recorded in the book Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie.

Married at 18, Dunbar-Ortiz and her husband moved to San Francisco three years later, where she has lived most of the years since. This marriage later ended. She has a daughter, Michelle. She later married writer Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo).[8]

Dunbar-Ortiz graduated from

Mills College
in 1993.

Activism

From 1967 to 1974, she was a full-time activist living in various parts of the United States, traveling to Europe, Mexico, and Cuba. She was also involved in the women's liberation movement. Outlaw Woman: Memoir of the War Years outlines this time of her life, chronicling the years 1960–1975.

In 1968 she founded Cell 16, which was a feminist organization in the United States known for its program of celibacy, separation from men and self-defense training (specifically karate); it has been cited as the first organization to advance the concept of separatist feminism.[9][10][11]

She contributed the piece "Female liberation as the basis for social revolution" to the 1970 anthology

Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan.[12]

In 1974, she accepted a position as assistant professor in the newly established

international human rights
.

She edited the book The Great Sioux Nation, which was published in 1977 and presented as the fundamental document at the first international conference on Indians of the Americas, held at United Nations' headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The book was issued in a new edition by University of Nebraska Press in 2013. The Great Sioux Nation was followed by two other books: Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico (1980) and Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-Determination (1984). She also edited two anthologies on Native American economic development while heading the Institute for Native American Development at the University of New Mexico.

In 1981, Dunbar-Ortiz was asked to visit

Contra War. She tells of these years in Caught in the Crossfire: The Miskitu Indians of Nicaragua (1985) and Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War (2005).[13][14]

In her work An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz condemns the Discovery Doctrine and the settler colonialism that devastated Native American populations in the United States. She compares this form of religious bigotry to the modern-day conquests of al-Qaeda.[15] She states that, since much of the current land within the United States was taken by aggression and oppression, "Native peoples have vast claims to reparations and restitution," yet "[n]o monetary amount can compensate for lands illegally seized, particularly those sacred lands necessary for Indigenous peoples to regain social coherence."[15]

She is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.[16][17]

She is Professor

California State University, Hayward. Since retiring from university teaching,[18]
she has been lecturing widely and continues to write.

Awards

The Lannan Foundation awarded Dunbar-Ortiz the 2017 Cultural Freedom Award "for the achievements of her lifetime of tireless work."[19]

Selected works

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.14452/MR-060-01-2008-05_6
    . Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  2. ^ "Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz." Boston Review. https://www.bostonreview.net/authors/roxanne-dunbar-ortiz/
  3. ^ Fahs, Breanne (2018). Firebrand Feminism: The Radical Lives of Ti-Grace Atkinson, Kathie Sarachild, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and Dana Densmore. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 22.
  4. ^ a b Meredith, America (August 15, 2017). "Issues & Commentary: Ethnic Fraud and Art". ARTnews. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
  5. ^ "'The Land is the Body of the Native People': Talking with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz". The Progressive. July 4, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  6. ISBN 9780806156439
    .
  7. ^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2006). Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie. University of Oklahoma Press.
  8. ^ Hylton, Forrest (May 2008). "A Revolutionary Identity". Monthly Review. Vol. 60, no. 1. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
  9. ISBN 1-56024-945-5
    .
  10. ISBN 1-55553-446-5
    .
  11. ISBN 0-8166-1787-2
    .
  12. OCLC 96157
    .
  13. ISSN 2164-0041
    . Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  14. ^ Salper, Roberta L. (April 16, 2011). "Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War". Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy Online. 20 (2). Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2014). An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 197–205.
  16. ^ "The Women".
  17. ^ "The Film — She's Beautiful When She's Angry". Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  18. ^ "Analyzing the Occupy Wall Street Movements With Roberto Lovato and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz". CSU East Bay. November 29, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2018. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a long-time activist and author ... professor emeritus in the Department of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay in Hayward, California
  19. ^ "2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz". Lannan Foundation. Retrieved January 8, 2018.

External links

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