Matilda "Tillie" Black Bear (Lakota: Wa Wokiye Win, meaning Woman Who Helps Everyone; December 10, 1946-July 19, 2014) was a Lakota anti-domestic violence activist known as the Grandmother (Unci) of the Grassroots Movement of Safety for Native Women. She worked as an activist, therapist, school counselor, nonprofit administrator, and college instructor.
Early life
Black Bear was born on December 10 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation as the third child of eleven children. She was baptized the day after her birth as Matilda Laura Black Bear, and raised Catholic. Her Lakota name, Wa Wokiye Win, means "woman who helps everyone." She was a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Sicangu Lakota Nation. The Black Bears family fought policies that forbade their spiritual practices, traveling to Washington, D.C., in the 1950s to press Congress to allow Rosebud's citizens to openly hold religious ceremonies. They were among the first families to bring the Sun Dance to Rosebud. One of the teachings that she was taught that was influential throughout her life was that of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, who taught that women were to be respected.
In first grade, Black Bear was torn from her family and forced to attend the St. Francis Indian School, a Catholic mission at the time. During this time, she only returned to her family during winter and summer breaks. While she learned English at the boarding school, she continued to speak Lakota at home.
After graduating from high school, Black Bear attended Northern State University and earned a master's degree from the University of South Dakota.
In 1974, Black Bear began being beaten by her partner. When he started to hit her young daughters, she ejected him from her home.
Advocacy
After kicking out her abusive partner in the early 1970s, Black Bear began opening her home to friends as a safe house. Seeing the need for her work, she began a doctorate in counseling at the University of South Dakota, though her advocacy prevented her from completing it.
Black Bear founded the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society to end domestic and sexual violence in 1977. She continued to serve as the organization's executive director.
In January 1978, Faith Spotted Eagle contacted Black Bear to take her place to discuss domestic violence in the Indian community at the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights symposium on domestic violence. Black Bear spoke about the basic resources that help women confront domestic violence that were absent on Rosebud, like housing assistance, education, and child care.
Later that year, Black Bear became a founding member of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She also founded the more local South Dakota Coalition Ending Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She also organized the South Dakota Commission on the Status of Women's first coalition meeting.
In 1980, the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society opened a shelter for abused and raped Native women, the oldest shelter on an Indian reservation and the first American shelter for women of color.
Black Bear continued to advocate for federal legislation, notably advocating in relation to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Family Violence Protection and Services Act, and the Tribal Law and Order Act. In 1988, Black Bear was the first woman of color to chair the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence board.
In 1995, after VAWA passed, Black Bear met with the Department of Justice to advocate fot its inclusion of Indian tribes. She saw tribal sovereignty as a vital part of preventing gender-based violence in the American Indian community. In 2000, she helped create the VAWA tribal coalition program. In 2003, she led a Wiping of the Tears ceremony at the Senate Building, launching the struggle for the VAWA 2005 Safety for Indian Women Act. This advocacy was pivotal in regard to the 2013 tribal provision in the Violence Against Women Act, which restored tribes' ability to prosecute non-native defendants in Indian Country for domestic violence.
Death and legacy
Black Bear died on July 19, 2014, at 67. In 2017, nearly five hundred organizations supported the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center's call to establish October 1st as Tillie Black Bear Women Are Sacred Day, which has since been held annually.