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| Jean Whitehorse, Dine', testified before the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in April of 2025. |
The Sterilization of Native American Women: Indigenous Women Await Justice Around the World
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 29, 2025
Jean Whitehorse, Dine'/Navajo, provided testimony on the sterilization of Native American women by Indian Health Service doctors twice before the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, yet little has been done to hold the U.S. government responsible or bring justice for the victims.
"Between 1907 and 1987, at least 70,000 Native women were sterilized without consent -- an act of genocide that stripped us of our right to give life," Whitehorse, a delegate of AIM-West, told the U.N. Permanent Forum in April of 2025.
"After a medical emergency, I was coerced into signing a form at an Indian Health Services (IHS) facility in Gallup, New Mexico. I later learned it ended my ability to bear children. My Navajo name is Ba’ a chíní łani which means 'Many Children,' but I have only one daughter."
of Indigenous women and acknowledge this practice as an act of genocide against
our lost generations," Whitehorse said, in the list of demands for reparations and justice in 2025.
Whitehorse urged the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Organization of American States to recommend reparations for survivors and their families.
The secret sterilization of Indigenous women was carried out around the world
"In 2024, the UN ruled Peru’s sterilization campaign of 300,000 Indigenous women was a Crime Against Humanity," Whitehorse testified. (Read Whitehorse and AIM West's full statement below.)
The U.N. Permanent Forum said in its final report in April, "Forced sterilizations and coerced contraception campaigns are serious violations of reproductive health rights, disproportionately targeting Indigenous women and adolescents worldwide."
"These practices often stem from systemic racism, colonial ideologies and attempts to control population growth. States must adopt a human rights-based approach to investigate and address these practices."
The Permanent Forum urged the U.N. Human Rights Council, at its fifty-ninth session, to establish a commission of inquiry – "grounded in free, prior and informed consent and Indigenous-run health systems – to document the global impact of such practices."
AIM Discovered the Files during BIA Takeover in 1972
The American Indian Movement discovered the involuntary sterilization of American Indian women in records during the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1972.
However, it would take nearly two years for information on the sterilization of American Indian women to be made public in 1974 by the Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation.
The mainstream media, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, would take another two years to publish an article on the matter in 1976. Their articles appeared after the General Accounting Office released a report investigating allegations against the IHS.
It took years for the truth to be revealed.
During the six-day occupation of the BIA takeover in Washington, the documents were uncovered that revealed a high percentage of American Indian women had been involuntarily sterilized.
"It would take two years for this information to be published, when Akwesasne Notes published Sterilization of Young Native Women Alleged at Indian Hospital -- 48 Operations in July, 1974 Alone in 1974."
The article focused on the high rates of sterilization at an IHS facility in Claremore, Oklahoma.
The United States Continued Sterilizations after 1974
The General Accounting Office report shows that even after legislation designed to protect women from forced sterilization was passed in 1974, the abusive sterilizations continued. During six years time, 1970 through 1976, between 25 and 50 percent of Native women were sterilized.
In 1976, the U.S. General Accounting Office said Indian Health Service performed 3,406 sterilizations of Native women in three years, 1973 -- 1976, and continued to be out of compliance with laws prohibiting sterilization.
The victims were in the IHS regions of Aberdeen, South Dakota; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Full-blooded Native Women were Targeted
In some cases, Native American women went to IHS for other surgeries, and doctors performed hysterectomies without their consent. In other cases, women were told they would lose their benefits if they didn't consent. Girls as young as 11 were victims of sterilization in the U.S., and Native school girls were often targeted at the age of 15 for sterilization. Some never knew they were the victims of sterilization until years later when they were ready to have children.
The study by the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that 4 of the 12 Indian Health Service regions sterilized 3,406 American Indian women without their permission between 1973 and 1976. The GAO found that 36 women under age 21 were sterilized during this period despite a court-ordered moratorium on sterilizations of women younger than 21.
Two years earlier, an independent study by Dr. Connie Pinkerton-Uri, Choctaw/Cherokee, found that one in four American Indian women had been sterilized without her consent. PInkerton-Uri’s research indicated that the Indian Health Service had singled out full-blooded Indian women for sterilization procedures, Native Voice reports.
Native American women was not satisfied by the U.S. government's response in the 1970s and formed, Women of All Red Nations, a group of Indigenous women active in the American Indian Movement led by Lorelei DeCora Means (Minneconjou Lakota), Madonna Thunderhawk (Hunkpapa Lakota), Janet McCloud (Tulalip), and Phyllis Young (Hunkpapa Lakota) formed Women of All Red Nations, WARN.
"The group focused on resistance against violence specific to Indigenous women, including the loss of women’s reproductive rights, loss of Indian children through coercion, and the destruction of Native lands," writes Allison McKibban.
U.N. Testimony 2025: Inuit women targeted in Greenland
Indigenous women told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York in April in 2024 and 2025 that Inuit women were fitted with contraceptive devices without their consent or knowledge.
Inuit women in Greenland sued Denmark for forcing them to be fitted with intrauterine contraceptive devices in the 1960s and 1970s.
Jean Whitehorse Testified at the U.N. Permanent Forum in 2025
Tony Gonzales, AIM West executive director, said in the TV video below, 24th session UN Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues, April 21-May 2, 2025, Jean Whitehorse (Dine/Navajo), half way through, a UN AIM-West delegate, speaks during its morning 8th meeting on Friday, April 25th. (You will also hear speakers from Sami Parliment, Tar Tar-Ukraine & Crimea-we have skin’ in the game! & Russians & Burundi references to Batwa peoples, etc)
"In Ms. Whitehorse statement before the UN Permanent Forum she mentions that the US government & the Indian Health Service has sterilized over 70,000 Native American many without their consent. She further recommended to members of the Permanent Forum a call for a global study on the sterilization of Indigenous women."
"Ultimately, the UN Permanent Forum’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples Dr. Albert K. Barume (appointed December 2024) took up Jean’s concern and recommended advance it to the UN Human Rights Council for further review!"
Tony said the TV program as "insightful, informative and educational about the advances Indigenous peoples have made in the international arena on behalf of the world’s 400 million indigenous peoples movement’ for self-determination."
"In Ms. Whitehorse statement before the UN Permanent Forum she mentions that the US government & the Indian Health Service has sterilized over 70,000 Native American many without their consent. She further recommended to members of the Permanent Forum a call for a global study on the sterilization of Indigenous women."
"Ultimately, the UN Permanent Forum’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples Dr. Albert K. Barume (appointed December 2024) took up Jean’s concern and recommended advance it to the UN Human Rights Council for further review!"
Tony said the TV program as "insightful, informative and educational about the advances Indigenous peoples have made in the international arena on behalf of the world’s 400 million indigenous peoples movement’ for self-determination."
Watch U.N. session: https://youtu.be/tAmydaLfauQ?s
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| Watch: Jean Whitehorse, Dine', speaking at AIM-West on the importance of Native children's book. Jean also speaks on the sterilization of Native women. Video by Brenda Norrell at AIM West, San Francisco, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-QlIGhXcE |
Delivered by Jean Whitehorse (Navajo) on Agenda Item 3
AIM-West Delegation
My name is Jean Whitehorse. I am Navajo—a daughter of a Navajo Code Talker, a government boarding school and a B.I.A relocation program survivor...and a victim of the U.S. government’s forced sterilization program.
Between 1907 and 1987, at least 70,000 Native women were sterilized without consent—an act of genocide that stripped us of our right to give life. After a medical emergency, I was coerced into signing a form at an Indian Health Services (IHS) facility in Gallup, New Mexico. I later learned it ended my ability to bear children. My Navajo name is Ba’ a chíní łani which means “Many Children,” but I have only one daughter.
Forced sterilization violates Articles 19–24 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms the right to informed consent and health autonomy. It also constitutes a violation of Articles 7 and 22, which protect our rights to physical integrity, health, and freedom from violence. It meets the definition of a Crime Against Humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It is recognized under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and as torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under the UN Convention Against Torture. These violations are not only historical; they remain unaddressed, with continuing consequences. The United States must be
held accountable for these crimes that have stolen our future, inflicted intergenerational trauma, and severed our connection to motherhood.
Six years ago in 2019, I stood before this forum and shared my story. In response, the UN Permanent Forum recommended a global study on forced sterilization, asking the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNFPA, World Health Organization, and the Human Reproduction Research Programme to take the lead in conducting an initial study on the global scope of past forced sterilization programmes. These recommendations were reflected in paragraphs 50 and 51 of the Forum’s 2019 report. To date, this study has not yet been initiated.
We call on the Permanent Forum to implement Recommendation 51 by initiating the study without further delay, and to ensure it is grounded in Indigenous Peoples’ rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, bodily autonomy, and self-determined health care systems.
We urge this forum to adopt the Indigenous Health Measurement Instrument (Agenda Item 4) to guide a UN Global Study on these crimes, ensuring Indigenous women’s voices and knowledge lead the way. This proposed study would advance the Forum’s 2025 Programme of Work, which prioritizes truth-telling and redress for ongoing human rights violations.
In 2024, the UN ruled Peru’s sterilization campaign of 300,000 Indigenous women was a Crime Against Humanity. That decision affirms a growing body of international law on this issue. The same recognition must now be extended to Native women in the United States.
We respectfully make the following recommendations:
1. We call on the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and the
Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to jointly investigate the
United States’ history and ongoing legacy of forced sterilization of Indigenous
women.
2. We urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Organization
of American States to take up this matter and recommend reparations for
survivors and their families.
We further encourage consideration of international legal remedies, including
referral to appropriate international or regional human rights bodies empowered to
recognize and address crimes against humanity.
3. We call on all States to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples in national law and policy, with explicit measures to prevent and prohibit
forced sterilization and all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
4. We call on the United States to issue a formal apology for the forced sterilization
of Indigenous women and acknowledge this practice as an act of genocide against
our lost generations.
We will not be silent. Justice must be served.
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| The Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation, features an article on Dr Connie Redbird Pinkerman-Uri’s investigation into involuntary sterilizations by the IHS. Image from Akwesasne Notes (1977: Vol. 9, No. 4), courtesy of The American Indian Digital History Archive. |
Read more:
Indigenous Women Sterilized Thwarted on the Slow Road to Justice
by Censored News
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News.
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