Оглала Сиу тайыншасы, Сесилия Фаер Тандер өмірі мен қызметі

Native American activist, former leader of the Oglala Sioux

Cecilia Fire Thunder (born Cecilia Apple; October 24, 1946) is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004, she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeached on June 29, 2006, several months short of the two year term. The major controversy was over her effort to build a Planned Parenthood clinic on the reservation after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state. The tribal council impeached her for proceeding without gaining their consensus. A founder of community based health clinics while living and working in California for two decades, Fire Thunder was among founders of the Oglala Lakota Women's Society after her return to the reservation in 1986. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) and has worked at a shelter for domestic abuse. She is the coordinator of the Native Women's Society of the Great Plains.

Born Cecilia Apple on October 24, 1946, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, she is the third of seven daughters of Stephen and Lollie (Featherman) Apple. Her father was a farmer who worked in agriculture and her mother a culture keeper; the family spoke Lakota at home. Her grandparents are Frank and Theresa (Garcia) Apple and John and Mary (Ice) Featherman. Her sisters are Shirley Murphy, Mary Hawk, Dinah Apple, Carmine Red Eagle, Joanne Apple, and Wanda Apple (Wanda is deceased). When Cecilia went to the Catholic Red Cloud Indian School, she had to speak English in class. The school forbid her from speaking Lakota. In 1963 her family moved from the reservation to Los Angeles, California, in a Bureau of Indian Affairs sponsored urban relocation program. The BIA encouraged Native American migration to cities to take advantage of educational and job opportunities. In 1986, Cecilia returned to the Pine Ridge Reservation, where she was given the Lakota name of Good Hearted Woman for her services and advocacy for Native American healthcare.

Apple married John Fire Thunder while living in Los Angeles, and they had two sons, In her work for Cangleska, Inc., a domestic violence shelter, she also dealt with women who suffered from abuse related to poverty and alcoholism on the reservation. A Lakota native speaker, Fire Thunder has also been active in tribal efforts to recover and revive use of the Lakota language among its young people and adults. She sees use of the language as integral to their culture. Cecilia joined a political conference called the National Congress of American Indians. She joined to talk about the issues they faced as natives and ways to change the current policies.