Sterilization of American Indian Women
* This is one of the least known acts of genocide in American history. In the 1960s and 70’s, the Indian Health Services, the federal agency responsible for healthcare on reservations, forcibly sterilized from between one out of four Native women to as many as two out of five, often without even their knowledge.
* Native women on public assistance were the most likely to be targeted. Often they were given a choice between continuing to receive public assistance for their children, or being sterilized. In many cases they were never told, coming in for routine procedures like getting their tonsils out and then having their tubes tied without consent.
* The federal government denied these acts were happening until exposed by a series of protests from Native women, followed by lawsuits. The highest estimates are as many as 60,000 female sterilizations. Senator James Abourzek called for an investigation. The GAO, looking at only four IHS offices, found over 3,000 cases. Still, the GAO denied this was genocide. The Straight Dope newspaper column did as well, even when I presented them with links and articles, including by a late colleague of mine in graduate school, Jane Lawrence.
* Though all the sterilizations happened when Nixon was president, there is no evidence Nixon knew of or approved the sterilization program. Nixon, recall, found it politically useful to grant a few Native demands while in office to make it appear he was not racist. (See Section Eight.) By the time sterilizations were exposed, Nixon was already on his way out of office because of the Watergate Scandal.