Barbara May Cameron (May 22, 1954 – February 12, 2002) was a
Native American photographer, poet, writer, and
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist in the fields of lesbian/gay rights, women's rights, and
Native American rights
Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States. Native Americans are citizens of their respective federally recognized tribes, Native nations as well as the Cit ...
.
Early life
Barbara May Cameron was born on May 22, 1954. She was a
Hunkpapa
The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...
Lakota from the Fort Yates band of the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic " Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaks ...
in
Fort Yates, North Dakota
Yates is a city in Sioux County, North Dakota, United States. It is the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and county seat of Sioux County. Since 1970 the population has declined markedly from more than 1,100 residents, as pe ...
.
She grew up on the
Standing Rock Indian Reservation
The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa ...
,
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
, raised by her grandparents.
Completing her early education and high schooling on the reservation, she went on to further her education in photography and film at the
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...
in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...
.
In 1973, Cameron moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
to attend the
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
.
Career
As a photographer and movie maker, Cameron won media and theater arts awards.
Her screenplay "Long Time, No See", remained unfinished at her death.
Cameron co-founded the
Gay American Indians (GAI), in 1975 with
Randy Burns
Randall R. Burns (born April 14, 1948) is an American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist who recorded several albums in the 1960s and early 1970s, when he performed with the Sky Dog Band. He has continued to perform and record occasionally.
...
, a
Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
. GAI was the first gay American Indian liberation organization.
The reason for founding GAI, according to Cameron, was that Native American gay people had different needs and struggles than the white gay community. Moreover, there was a general lack of support for people of color within the lesbian and gay community.
In 1978, Cameron contributed to the anthology ''Our Right to Love: a lesbian resource book''.
From 1980 to 1985, Cameron participated in organizing the
Lesbian Gay Freedom Day Parade and Celebration and in 1981, she contributed to ''
This Bridge Called My Back
''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color'' is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, first published in 1981 by Persephone Press. The second edition was published in 1983 by Kitchen Table: ...
: Writings by Radical Women of Color'', which was edited by
Cherríe Moraga
Cherríe Moraga (born September 25, 1952) is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English. Moraga is also a founding m ...
and
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (September 26, 1942 – May 15, 2004) was an American scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, '' Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza'', on her li ...
. Her article ''Gee, You Don't Seem Like an Indian from the Reservation'' analyzed topics like racism and homophobia from both inside and outside the Native American community.
In 1983, she contributed to the landmark collection ''
A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection of Writing and Art by North American Indian Women''. The anthology, edited by
Beth Brant
Beth E. Brant, Degonwadonti, or Kaieneke'hak was a Mohawk writer, essayist, and poet of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada. She was also a lecturer, editor, and speaker. She wrote ...
, included works by twelve Native lesbians.
In the late 1980s, Cameron was vice president of the
Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club (first known as The Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club) is a San Francisco-based association and political action committee for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Democrats.
The political ...
and co-chair for Lesbian Agenda for Action.
In 1986, Cameron, together with other women who called themselves ''Somos Hermanas'' (We are sisters), went to
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
to study and show solidarity with women there, and to help improve their lives.
In 1988, she served as a delegate for
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
's
Rainbow Coalition to the
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
. That same year, she was appointed by
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
, then
San Francisco Mayor
The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...
, to the Citizens Committee on Community Development and the
San Francisco Human Rights Commission
The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is a charter commission of the City and County of San Francisco that works to increase equality, eradicate discrimination, and to protect human rights for all people. The HRC enforces City Ordinanc ...
. She was appointed by
Frank Jordan
Francis Michael Jordan (born February 20, 1935) is an American politician and former police chief, who served as mayor of San Francisco from 1992 to 1996. He is a Democrat.
Early life and education
Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and ...
, the next mayor, to serve on the
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...
.
From 1989 to 1992, Cameron acted as executive director of
Community United Against Violence (CUAV), assisting victims of
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
and
hate crimes.
She received the
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in N ...
Award for Community Service in 1992 and the following year, she was the first recipient of the Bay Area Career Women Community Service Award.
That same year, she was a participant in the International Indigenous AIDS Network as part of the
International Conference on AIDS
The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the world's largest association of HIV/AIDS professionals, with 11,600 members from over 170 countries , including clinicians, people living with HIV, service providers, policy makers and others. It aims to r ...
held in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. She spent 1993 engaged in
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
education, traveling to various Indian reservations throughout the United States.
Cameron's essay ''No Apologies: A Lakota Lesbian Perspective'' was included in ''New Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book'' (1996).
She served on the board of directors for both the
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS, with a mission to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States. They were founded in 1982, at the beginning of the AIDS ...
and the American Indian AIDS Institute
and as a consultant to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
and
the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
She was the founder of Institute on Native American Health and Wellness, with her first project publishing the works of Native American women writers.
Barbara Cameron's papers are held by the James Hormel LGBTQIA center at the
San Francisco Public Library
The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Library Journals L ...
.
Cameron was honored in a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
on May 22, 2023.
Personal life
Cameron was in a 21-year relationship with Linda Boyd, with whom she raised a son, Rhys Boyd-Farrell.
In an effort to record key figures of the Lesbian and Gay community,
Robert Giard
Robert Giard (July 22, 1939 - July 16, 2002) was an American portrait, landscape, and figure photographer.
Life
A native of Hartford, Connecticut, Giard majored in English literature and received a B.A. from Yale University in 1961, then an M.A. i ...
created a portrait of Cameron which is now part of the
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...
.
Death
Cameron died of natural causes at her home on February 12, 2002, aged 47. Her memorial service was attended by
Tom Ammiano
Tom Ammiano (born December 15, 1941) is an American politician and LGBT rights activist from San Francisco, California. Ammiano, a member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, served as a member of the California State Assembly from 2008 to ...
, president of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco.
Government and politics
The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...
and
Carole Migden
Carole Migden (born August 14, 1948 in New York City) is an American politician from San Francisco who represented the California's 3rd State Senate district, third district of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008 and the California's 1 ...
, who at the time represented
District 13
''District 13'' ( French title ''Banlieue 13'' or ''B13''), is a 2004 French action film directed by Pierre Morel and written and produced by Luc Besson. It depicts parkour in several stunt sequences completed without wires or computer-generated ...
in the
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
The A ...
. Cameron was remembered for her advocacy of gay and lesbian Native Americans.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Barbara May
1954 births
2002 deaths
American human rights activists
American LGBT rights activists
American lesbian writers
Lesbian poets
People from Sioux County, North Dakota
Writers from North Dakota
Writers from San Francisco
Native American women in politics
Standing Rock Sioux people
Institute of American Indian Arts alumni
San Francisco Art Institute alumni
Activists from North Dakota
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American writers
Women civil rights activists
Native American photographers
LGBT Native Americans