Draft:Pat Bellanger

Pat Bellanger (February 13, 1943-April 2, 2015) was an Ojibwe activist for Native American rights, reform, education, and family. Bellanger founded the American Indian Movement (AIM), assisted in the formation of the Heart of the Earth Survival School, The Red School House and participated in countless other organizations. Pat Bellanger spent over 50 years fighting for her Indigenous people.

Early life
Pat Bellanger was born February 13, 1943, the daughter of Veronica Rice and William Ballenger. She was raised on the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation in North Central Minnesota. In 1961, Bellanger moved to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) to attend University of Minnesota.

Activism
While attending university, she organized the American Indian Movement (AIM) as a founding member. She was not in the public eye as much as the men of AIM were, and much of her efforts were behind the scenes.

Early 1970s
The US Government was taking children away from their tribal families and placing them in foster care. They tried to say that Native American families were not fit to raise families and did not have adequate resources. In 1972, she founded the Heart of the Earth Survival School. The School was founded to give Native Americans a safe, welcoming educational environment as well as employment for many of the community’s Indigenous members. Pat Bellanger worked as a Math and English teacher at the Red School House, which she founded with other AIM members, as an alternative education system designed to provide Native American children with tools for survival while learning about both cultures. Bellanger's activism also focused on women. In 1974, she founded the Women of All Red Nations, which was an advocacy organization for Indigenous women. One of the topics of her advocacy was a uranium mining company in the Dakotas that was causing infertility in Native women. Because the reservations were federal land, they did not have to follow state regulations. She called it genocide.

Late 1970s
In 1977, Bellanger spoke at the United Nations Conference in Geneva, openly accusing the US Government of experimenting on Indigenous children without parental consent, allowing hospitals to administer placebos instead of actual treatment to Indigenous people and snatching children. She said the US Government was “snatching” children and paying white families to adopt them. This topic she knew too well from her own experience. The US Government tried to take her daughter, but she refused. In return, they forced her to sign a form that said she would never try to apply to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs for any benefits or assistance for her daughter. They forced her to sign away all her tribal rights. She continued speaking out about the abuse of power toward Indigenous people and in 1978, The US Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Pat Bellanger died on April 2, 2015, and was laid to rest in her hometown, Odigum, Minnesota.