Dr. Annie Dodge Wauneka
Dr. Annie Dodge Wauneka was a politician and public health activist who worked tirelessly to reconcile differences between Western and Navajo traditions in healthcare, especially in the fight against tuberculosis. The daughter of prominent Navajo leader Henry Chee...
Doña Dolores “Lola” Chávez de Armijo
In 1912, New Mexico State Librarian, Lola Chávez de Armijo, filed a gender discrimination lawsuit after the Governor sought to replace her by court order—claiming that she, being a woman, was unqualified to hold office under the constitution and laws of New Mexico....
Lea County Cowgirls
Dessie Sawyer and her daughter Fern Sawyer are two women whose accomplishments and lasting benefits are hard to separate. Both came from ranch life in southern New Mexico in the counties of De Baca, Lea, and Lincoln. They could equal men in ranching skills, sought an...
Curanderas – Women Who Heal
While curanderas have existed in many societies throughout history, Curanderas (female healers) and curanderos (male healers) spread with Spanish society as it expanded globally from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Because many curanderas also became...
Cora Durand
Three Picuris women, Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez, Cora Durand, and Virginia Duran, helped to preserve the micaceous pottery tradition that remains important in Picuris and other nearby pueblos today. Picuris is a Tiwa speaking Pueblo located fifty-seven miles north...
Cathay Williams
Cathay Williams was born into slavery in Missouri some time around 1844. Once the Civil War started, the teenage Williams was “liberated” only to be considered “contraband” and forced to work for Union Army officers until the end of the war. She worked as a cook and...
Carrie Wooster Tingley
Carrie Wooster was born in Bowling Green, Ohio, on May 20, 1877, to a wealthy family. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, which had stricken her father, she traveled to the southwest in 1911 with her mother. Intending to reach Arizona, mother and daughter left the train in...
Carlotta Thompkins Thurmond “Lottie Deno”
Carlotta Thompkins “Lottie Deno” Thurmond lived a life of legend, and in so doing, likely became the inspiration for the Miss Kitty character in the popular TV series Gunsmoke. Born in Warsaw, Kentucky, on April 21, 1844, her early life, particularly her...