LaDonna Harris

LaDonna Vita Tabbytite Harris (born February 15, 1931 in Temple, Oklahoma) is a social activist and politician of the Comanche nation. She is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity. Quotes One cannot be "an Indian." One is a Comanche, an Oneida, a Hopi. One can be self-determining, not as "an Indian," but as a Comanche, an Oneida, etc. We progress as communities, not as individuals. We want to maintain ourselves as communities, according to our group identity, not just as mere individuals or as amorphous "Indians"...We want to maintain ourselves as we are so we can contribute our differences, our particular understanding, to both the national community and to global society. Statement (1988), anthologized in Native American Reader: Stories, Speeches and Poems, edited by Jerry D. Blanche tribal ideas of progress may be radically different from Euro-American ideas. For example, the Northern Cheyenne count as "progress" their ability to maintain environmental quality, rather than the development of their coal resources. Statement (1988), anthologized in Native American Reader: Stories, Speeches and Poems At the moment there is a veritable renaissance going on in tribal America as we come to terms with who we are as tribal people in contemporary society. We are bringing tradition along with us into the future rather than "going back to tradition" and maintaining ourselves like rigid museum pieces. Statement (1988), anthologized in Native American Reader: Stories, Speeches and Poems Indians have been the victims of fine rhetoric, followed by inaction or worse, for two centuries. Swift action is what is needed. in Contemporary American Indian Leaders by Marion E. Gridley (1972) Quotes about External links C-SPAN appearances Americans for Indian Opportunity, Official Website LaDonna Harris Native American Collection digital repository at the University of New Mexico Voices of Oklahoma interview. First person interview conducted on September 21, 2017, with LaDonna Harris. Interview with Ladonna Harris by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, March 8, 2011 Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:Native American activists