The Sterilization of Native American Women in the 1970's

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The Scythe and the Scalpel: Dissecting the Sterilizations of Native American Women in the 1970's

In the old days, genocide used to be so simple. Such things as biological warfare used to keep Indians warm with small pox infested blankets furnished by the United States government, and the only thing barren and infertile was the land set aside for reservations. In the 1970s, genocide became a little more complex. Biological warfare invaded the reproductive rights of Native American women, making their wombs as barren and infertile as reservation land. The sterilization policies during this time perpetuated the genocidal tendencies that have made the eugenics movement a viable legacy of terror in the biological history of Native Americans.

According to some accounts, the eugenics movement died out in the 1930s. However, the forty two percent of Native American women who were sterilized under questionable circumstances by 1982, stand as testament that eugenics was alive and kicking during the seventies (Define 1997). Sparked by concern about overpopulation in the 1960s, eugenics was legally sanctioned under the Nixon administration (Johansen 1998). This sanctioning was given life in a campaign to sterilize the impoverished. For instance, between 1969 and 1974, the budget for family planning increased from $51 million to more than $250 million (Johansen 1998). This money helped to sterilize between 192,000 and 548,000 women each year between 1970 and 1977 compared to an average of 63,000 a year between 1907 and 1964, a period that included the pinnacle of the eugenics movement (Johansen 1998).

This wave of sterilization came crashing down on Native American women the hardest. As Sally Torpy asserts in her thesis, Endangered...

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...tions: "They took our past with a sword and our land with a pen. Now they're trying to take our future with a scalpel" (Akwesasne Notes Spring 1977).

Bibliography

Akwesasne Notes. "Killing Our Future: Sterilization and Experiments." Spring 1977.

Akwesasne Notes. "Sterilization of Young Native Women Alleged at Indian Hospital." July, 1974.

Define, Sullivan Michael. (1997, May 1). "A History of Coerced Sterilization: The Plight of the Native American Woman." (33 paragraphs). (On-line). Available: http://www.geocities.com/CapitalHill/9118/mike2.html

Jarvis, Gayle Mark. "The Theft Of Life." Akwesasne Notes. Autumn 1977.

Johansen, Bruce. "No Date". "Reprise/Forced Sterilizations:Sterilization of Native American Women Reviewed by Omaha Master's Student." (46 paragraphs). (On-line). Available:http://www.ratical.org/ratville/sterilize.html (1999, October 4).

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