THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

“I Felt Like I Had a Solid Standing Because of Women’s Liberation.”

Historian, author and professor. Lifelong commitment to indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and to international human rights. Helped develop the Department of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies at California State University in 1974. Active in the American Indian Movement and the International Indian Treaty Council. Her first book, The Great Sioux Nation: An Oral History of the Sioux Nation and its Struggle for Sovereignty, published in 1977, was presented as the fundamental document at the first international conference on Indians of the Americas.  Winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. Author or editor of many books, including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, a recipient of the 2015 American Book Award. Graduated from San Francisco State,, 1963. Doctorate from UCLA, 1974. Diplôme of the International Law of Human Rights, International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France, 1983. MFA in creative writing, Mills College, 1993.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, May 2022

Photo 1. Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Photo 2. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz 1969, Time Magazine photo as referenced in interview.