Lorelei DeCora
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Lorelei DeCora
Lorelei DeCora (1954 – ) grew up in the HoChunk community of Nebraska and is a descendant of the Minnecojou Lakota through her mother. Her great-grandmother was a survivor of the massacre at Wounded Knee 1890. DeCora was in high school when she began organizing against racist literature used in schools, and became part of the American Indian Movement through local organizing in Sioux City, Iowa. After the liberation of Wounded Knee, she helped establish KILI radio (the first Indian-owned radio station in the United States), the We Will Remember Survival School/Group,and the Black Hills Alliance. In 1978, DeCora co-founded Women of All Red Nations, a modern women’s society that fought to protect land, water, and the reproductive health of Indigenous women. Having trained as a nurse and established the Porcupine Health Clinic, DeCora went on to found several health-related education programs which she has taken to many reservations. DeCora now lives in Winnebago, Nebraska and serves on the Tribal Council of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
Only 19 years old at the time of the occupation, Lorelei took a lead in establishing a health clinic inside Wounded Knee and trained people in the basics of providing medical assistance, helping coordinate teams of doctors and nurses who traveled to Wounded Knee from across the U.S. to provide assistance. Lorelei also coordinated all the medical supplies sent into Wounded Knee. Many of the boxes were inscribed with messages of support, like “Power to the People!”
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