The White Buffalo Calf Woman Society celebrates 31 years on the Rosebud Reservation
The non-profit Turtle Island Project in Munising, Michigan salutes the White Buffalo Calf Women’s Society on its 31st Anniversary and its service to all women and children on and around the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
Tillie Black Bear. Executive Director
White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc.
Tillie Black Bear is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation/Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
She is presently the Executive Director of the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc., which operates the oldest shelter for women who have been battered or raped on Indian reservations; and is the first shelter for women of color in the U.S. (1977).
Rosebud Tribal Judge Sherman Marshall presents Tillie Black Bear a plaque that honors the White Buffalo Calf Womans Society – the oldest domestic violence shelter for women of color in the world. (Photo by Javier Alegree)
She is recognized throughout the state, nationally, and in Indian Country as one of the leading experts on violence against women and children.
She is a founding mother of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and a founder of the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (SDCADV&SA) both in 1978.
She was the first woman of color to chair NCADV and continues to sit on the Board of Director for the SDCADV&SA.
Black Bear presently serves on the advisory board of National Sexual Assault Resource Center, Pennsylvania and is past member of the professional advisory board of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Austin, TX.
She is currently a council member for Clan Star a technical resources for tribal grantees through Department of Justice.
Tillie Black Bear was the recipient of an award from the U.S. Department of Justice for her work with victims of crime in April,1988; and in 1989 was one of President Bush’s “Point of Light”.
In 1999 at the Millennium Conference on Domestic Violence in Chicago, IL, Black Bear was one of 10 individuals recognized as one of the founders of the domestic violence movement in the United States.
She was awarded an Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in December, 2000 by President Clinton.
In May, 2003 Black Bear was a recipient of the first annual LifeTime Achievement Award from LifeTime Television.
Black Bear was selected as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century award by Women’s eNews in 2004.
In 2005, she received an award from NOW.
She is retired from Sinte Gleska University as a part-time instructor in Human Services; Casey Foundation as a licensed foster parent.
Currently, Black Bear works as a teacher of 13 years teaching students taking a course on cross-cultural ministry at Catholic Theological Union through Shalom Ministries out of Chicago, IL.
Black Bear and colleague Sally Roesch Wagner, Ph.D. have completed a poster series on D/Lakota women elders on each of the nine Dakota/Lakota Nations in South Dakota entitled: “D/Lakota Women – Keepers of the Nation”.
Another collaborative work is workshops on issues of Racism and Cultural Diversity, which has taken them to South Dakota, Vermont, New York, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.
Black Bear has worked as a therapist, certified school counselor, administrator, college instructor and comptroller.
She holds a Master of Art (1974) from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD; Bachelor of Science (1971), Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD.
She has served on the St. Francis Indian School Board of Directors, St. Francis, SD; and Sinte Gleska University Board of Regents, Mission, SD.
Black Bear is single mother of 3 girls, grandmother of thirteen and survivor of domestic violence.
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Related Links:
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White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. (WBCWS)
PO Box 227
Mission, S.D.
57555
For more info on the WBCWS:
Javier H. Alegree
Public Relations Specialist
Media and Education
(605) 856-2317
(605) 856-2494 (fax)
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Official website of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe – Sicangu Lakota
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Turtle Island Project
137 East Onota Street
Munising, MI.
49862
Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard, TIP Co-founder, Director
Rev. Dr. George Cairns, TIP Co-Founder, Board President
Turtle Island Project Director Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard of Munising, MI was a guest speaker at the 2007 and 2008 UNITED Conference at NMU. Rev. Hubbard is pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, MI.
Please see the videos on his talks on TIP TV.
For more information on the TIP call 906-202-0590 or 906-401-0109.
email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net
In recent years, the Turtle Island Project has held several free concerts and other events to raise money for the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society. This concert was held in Munising Michigan in Dec. 2007
