Stella Leach

Stella Leach
A photograph of a woman standing behind a fence, opposite of Alcatraz island. She is wearing a dark tassled shawl, which is blowing in the wind and her long hair is braided with beads, leather straps, and animal fur.
Leach by Ilka Hartmann, circa 1970-1971
Born
Stella Nellie Runnels

(1918-06-12)June 12, 1918
Ferry County, Washington, US
DiedJanuary 29, 2010(2010-01-29) (aged 91)
Grant, Washington, US
Other namesStella Bray
Occupation(s)nurse, activist
Years active1959–2000

Stella Leach (June 12, 1918 – January 29, 2010) was a Colville-Oglala Lakota nurse and activist who was known for her work in establishing the first American Indian children's wellness center in the San Francisco Bay Area, setting up the health clinic during the Occupation of Alcatraz, and her activism for native American self-determination.

Early life and education

Stella Nellie Runnels was born on June 12, 1918, in Ferry County, Washington to Maud/Maude Stella (née Sears) and Hiram Bagley Runnels.[1][2] Her mother was enrolled as a Pine Ridge Sioux, along with her half-sister Pearl Stirk and oldest brother Raymond Runnels.[3][4] Maude had previously been married to James Stirk, but he and their son James, Jr. died before 1907.[3][5][6] Runnels and her siblings — Mary E (1908), John A. (1909), George W. (1912), Louis (1914), Juanita Elsie (1915), William Riley (1920), Josephine Myrtle (1921), Clara (1923), Hiram Jr. (1924), and Thaddeus (1927) — were enrolled with their father in the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.[4][7] The children began their schooling in Keller, Washington, but when Runnels was 10, they taken from their father's farm and sent by Indian Agency officials to American Indian boarding schools.[8][9]

On July 9, 1936, at Davenport, Washington, Runnels married Johnnie Bray.[10] The couple had two sons, Kenneth Patrick and Garry Thomas Bray, before they separated in 1940.[11][12] She later had four other children and married Harry Leland Leach, Sr.[13][14] During the 1950s, Leach was critical of the Colville tribes' involvement with the National Congress of American Indians and the NCAI's backing of investigations on Un-American activities and McCarthyism.[15] By 1959, the couple had divorced, and Leach moved to Oakland, California as part of the Indian Relocation Program.[16]

Career and activism

When Leach arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area with her 6 children, she intended to go to school, but the Relocation Act required her to get a job. She joined the staff of the Peralta Hospital as a nurse's aide. She eventually was able to transfer to the night shift and enrolled at Laney College, earning her certificate as a licensed practical nurse (LPN).[16] She began working as a nurse for Dr. David Tepper[17] and actively worked to improve medical care for the urban Indian population in the Bay Area. Because health care for Native Americans had been removed from federal programs in 1955 and given to states to administer, lack of funding resulted in an inability for urban Indians to obtain treatment anywhere.[18] Leach served as the chair of the Bay Area Indian Council's health and welfare section. In 1964, the Council formed a successful partnership with Pacific Hospital to initiate the first children's and "well-baby" clinic directed to American Indians in the area, known as the All-Indian Well Baby Clinic.[19][18]

In January 1968, as chair of the health and welfare division, Leach met with Senators Paul Fannin (Republican) and Robert F. Kennedy (Democrat) at the American Indian Center to discuss a series of issues including insufficient relocation allowances, insufficient medical funding, inadequate educational opportunities, and difficulties with draft registration.[20] She was concerned about veterans' issues, as five of her six children had served in the Vietnam War.[21] Shortly after the meeting, in May, Leach and her children began receiving racist and threatening calls at their residence near Mills College. Their home was broken into and vandalized, and their rent was quadrupled, when their neighbors and landlord realized they were American Indians.[16][17] Senator Kennedy sent aides to stay in the house overnight, as the property doors had been removed.[16] Initially, the Leach family intended to remain in their home, but as tension continued, they moved to the East Bay area.[22]

Leach joined her son David, who was in the November 20 landing party for the Occupation of Alcatraz, on November 22, 1969.[23] Her sons David and Gary Leach, both veterans, were participants in the standoff.[21] She set up and directed the health clinic on Alcatraz Island and was assisted by Jennie R. Joe (Navajo) and Dorothy Lonewolf Miller (Blackfoot), as nurses, and Robert Brennan and Richard Fine, as doctors. Leach's employer, Dr. Tepper allowed her to stay on the island for three months and volunteered his services once a week.[24] After Richard Oakes (Mohawk) left the island, Leach was one of the seven representatives selected as members of the board of directors for the Indians of All Tribes and was a spokesperson for the board.[25][26] The goals of the council were to establish a Native American center on Alcatraz to promote cultural study, as well as training in spiritual and ecological matters from an indigenous perspective.[27][28] Leach stressed the importance of American Indians being able to determine their own future.[29]

In 1970, Leach also participated in the founding of the National Indian Women's Action Corps, an empowerment organization for Native American women. The organizing officers included Dorothy Lonewolf Miller, president; Grace Thorpe (Sac & Fox), vice president; Leach, 2nd vice president; Woesha Cloud North (Ho-Chunk), secretary; Henrietta Whiteman (Cheyenne), treasurer; and Jennie Joe, sergeant-at-arms.[30] When the occupation ended, Leach and other activists from Alcatraz, like John Trudell (Santee Dakota) moved on to occupy the abandoned Nike Missile site at Richmond, California, but were removed in June 1971.[31]

In the 1980s, Leach returned to using her maiden name of Runnels. She worked to help her son Harry Leach, Jr., a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, "triggered by his military service".[32] Harry was accused of threatening to poison water supplies in San Jose, as well as Caesars Tahoe and Sahara Tahoe, both in Stateline, Nevada. His case brought the mental health of Vietnam veterans and the inadequate care they were receiving into the spotlight of the national media. After his acquittal,[14][32] Runnels remarried and moved to Sonoma, California where the couple operated a chicken ranch.[9] She returned to Washington, locating in Nespelem around 2000 and remained active in issues effecting the Colville Indian Reservation.[33]

Death and legacy

Runnels died on January 29, 2010, in Grant, Mason County, Washington.[34] She was buried near her family members in the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Nespelem.[35] She was interviewed as part of the American Indian Historical Research Project in 1970 by Anna Boyd. Her interview is in the holdings of the Doris Duke Oral History Collection at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.[36]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Register of Births 1918.
  2. ^ Certificate of Death 1949.
  3. ^ a b Indian census 1907, p. 101.
  4. ^ a b Indian census 1925, p. 76.
  5. ^ Indian census 1904, p. 91.
  6. ^ Indian census 1905, p. 89.
  7. ^ Indian census 1928, p. 75.
  8. ^ The San Poil Eagle 1926, p. 8.
  9. ^ a b Remington 2000, p. 75.
  10. ^ The Chehalis Bee-Nugget 1936, p. 12.
  11. ^ U.S. census 1940a, p. 1B.
  12. ^ U.S. census 1940b, p. 2B.
  13. ^ Wood 1968, pp. 1, 5.
  14. ^ a b The Spokane Chronicle 1980, p. 2.
  15. ^ Rosier 2010, pp. 178–180.
  16. ^ a b c d Wood 1968, p. 5.
  17. ^ a b Holmes 1970, p. 29.
  18. ^ a b The Lompoc Record 1969, p. 4.
  19. ^ The Oakland Tribune 1964, p. 25F.
  20. ^ The Navajo Times 1968, p. 21.
  21. ^ a b Voigt 2018, p. 90.
  22. ^ The Oakland Tribune 1968, p. 24E.
  23. ^ Link 1970, p. 6.
  24. ^ Johnson 1996, p. 89.
  25. ^ Johnson 1999, pp. 154, 198.
  26. ^ Link 1970, p. 1.
  27. ^ The Dispatcher 1970, p. 5.
  28. ^ Waugh 1970, p. 3.
  29. ^ The Sacramento Bee 1970, p. E6.
  30. ^ Hamilton 1970, p. 30.
  31. ^ The Californian 1971, p. 3.
  32. ^ a b Gardner 1981, p. 4.
  33. ^ Craig 2000, p. B1, B8.
  34. ^ Death Index 2010.
  35. ^ Rail 2000.
  36. ^ Johnson 1996, p. 252.

Bibliography

  • Craig, John (April 21, 2000). "Tribe Cancels Public Vote on Grazing (pt. 1)". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. B1. Retrieved August 23, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. and Craig, John (April 21, 2000). "Rancher Worries about Passing on Land (pt. 2)". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. B8. Retrieved August 23, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Gardner, Sheila (June 25, 1981). "The Private War of Harry Leach". The Reno Gazette-Journal. Reno, Nevada. p. 4. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Hamilton, Mildred (October 5, 1970). "Indians Decide It Is Time". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 30. Retrieved August 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Holmes, Fred R. (1970). Fraenkel, Jack R. (ed.). Prejudice and Discrimination: Can We Eliminate Them?. Inquiry into Crucial American Problems. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-695270-1.
  • Johnson, Troy R. (1999). "Indians of All Tribes". In Olson, James Stuart (ed.). Historical Dictionary of the 1970s. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 197–198. ISBN 978-0-313-30543-6.
  • Johnson, Troy R. (1996). The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self-determination and the Rise of Indian Activism. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06585-9.
  • Link, Terry (January 21, 1970). "U.S. Stalls as Indians Keep Grip on Alcatraz (pt. 1)". The National Catholic Reporter. Vol. 6, no. 12. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 1. Retrieved August 22, 2020. and Link, Terry (January 21, 1970). "Indians Stick to Rock (pt. 2)". The National Catholic Reporter. Vol. 6, no. 12. Kansas City, Missouri. p. 6. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  • Rail, Maggie (December 8, 2000). "Sacred Heart Cemetery, Nespelem, Okanogan County, Washington". MRail.net. Spokane, Washington: Ewanida Rail Records. Archived from the original on September 2, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  • Remington, Gwen (2000). The Sioux. San Diego, California: Lucent Books. ISBN 1-56006-615-6.
  • Rosier, Paul C. (2010). Serving Their Country: American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05452-3.
  • Voigt, Matthias (2018). "6. Fighting for Their Freedom at Home: Native American Vietnam Veterans in the Red Power Movement, 1969-1973". In Alcalde, Ángel; Núñez Seixas, Xosé M. (eds.). War Veterans and the World after 1945: Cold War Politics, Decolonization, Memory. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 83–99. ISBN 978-1-351-11996-2.
  • Waugh, Dexter (January 12, 1970). "Alcatraz Talks Make Little Headway". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 3. Retrieved August 23, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Wood, Jim (May 26, 1968). "Indian Viet Hero Battles Prejudice (pt 1)". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. p. 1. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. and Wood, Jim (May 26, 1968). "Indian Family Fights Prejudice (pt 2)". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. p. 5. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "1904 Indian Census, Porcupine District, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota". archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 30, 1904. NARA microfilm series 595, roll #369, lines 4298–4301. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "1905 Indian Census, Porcupine District, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota". archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 30, 1905. NARA microfilm series 595, roll #369, lines 4161–4163. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "1907 Indian Census, Porcupine District, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota". archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 30, 1907. NARA microfilm series 595, roll #369, lines 4033–4035. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "1925 Indian Census, Colville Indians of the Colville Agency, Washington State". archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 30, 1925. NARA microfilm series 595, roll #54, lines 2064–2073. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "1928 Indian Census, Colville Indians of the Colville Agency, Washington State". archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 30, 1928. NARA microfilm series 595, roll #54, lines 2200–2210. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "1940 U.S. Census, Nespelem, Okanogan County, Washington". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 6, 1940. p. 1B. NARA microfilm series T627, roll #4353, lines 68–71. Retrieved August 21, 2020. – via FamilySearch (subscription required)
  • "1940 U.S. Census, Chehalis, Lewis County, Washington". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 8, 1940. p. 2B. NARA microfilm series T627, roll #4350, lines 68–73. Retrieved August 21, 2020. – via FamilySearch (subscription required)
  • "Actress Jane Fonda Campaigns for Indians". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. March 6, 1970. p. E6. Retrieved August 23, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "'A Right to Walk Like Men'" (PDF). The Dispatcher. Vol. 28, no. 5. San Francisco, California. March 11, 1970. p. 5. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  • "Bray-Runnels". The Chehalis Bee-Nugget. Chehalis, Washington. July 17, 1936. p. 12. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Death Certificates, Washington State: Hiram Bagley Runnels, Jr". FamilySearch. Olympia, Washington: Washington State Bureau of Vital Statistics. August 17, 1949. Certificate #12495. Retrieved August 21, 2020. – via FamilySearch (subscription required)
  • "Death Index, 1965–2014, Washington State: Stella N Runnels". FamilySearch. Olympia, Washington: Washington State Department of Health. January 29, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2020. – via FamilySearch (subscription required)
  • "Hero Held in Casino Extortion". The Spokane Chronicle. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. October 28, 1980. p. 2. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Indian Children's Clinic Commences". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. November 19, 1964. p. 25F. Retrieved August 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Indians Move From Kingsland". The Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. May 28, 1968. p. 24E. Retrieved August 22, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "In San Francisco…Kennedy and Fannin Hear Bitter Story from Indians". The Navajo Times. Window Rock, Arizona. San Francisco Chronicle. January 18, 1968. p. 21. Retrieved August 22, 2020 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Keller School Notes" (PDF). The San Poil Eagle. Vol. 12, no. 1. Keller, Washington. December 2, 1926. p. 8. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  • "Officials Fail to Discuss Leaving Alcatraz Island with Indians". The Lompoc Record. Lompoc, California. United Press International. December 11, 1969. p. 4. Retrieved August 22, 2020 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Ousted Indians Pledge to Continue Land Quest". The Californian. Salinas, California. United Press International. June 19, 1971. p. 3. Retrieved August 23, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Register of Births, 1910–1919: Runnels, Stella Nellie". FamilySearch. Olympia, Washington: Washington State Bureau of Vital Statistics. August 17, 1949. FHL microfilm # 101140006, Roll B-4, Reidt thru Zermaritz, image 99, section 542. Retrieved August 21, 2020. – via FamilySearch (subscription required)
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