I'll go and do more: Annie Dodge Wauneka, Navajo leader and activist

Abstract

I'll Go and Do More is the story of Annie Dodge Wauneka (1918-97), one of the best-known Navajos of all time. A daughter of the popular Navajo leader Chee Dodge, Wauneka spent most of her early years herding sheep and raising nine children. After her father's death, she entered politics and was often the only woman on the Navajo Tribal Council during the quarter century that she served. Wauneka became a forceful and articulate advocate for Indian health care, education, and other issues, working both on the reservation and in the halls of Congress to improve the lives of the Navajos. Carolyn Niethammer draws on interviews with family and friends, speeches, and correspondence to offer an arresting and readable portrait of this complex Navajo woman. Wauneka's professional and personal triumphs and challenges - her temper was legendary - are rendered vividly, enabling readers to better appreciate the enduring accomplishments of the Navajos' Legendary Mother. Carolyn Niethammer is the author of Indian Cooking: Recipes from the Southwest (Nebraska 1999) and Daughters of the Earth: The Lives and Legends of American Indian Women.