Owanah Anderson

A priority in Anderson's career has been helping to advance the status of American Indian/Alaska Native women. Pursuing this goal, she founded and directed the Ohoyo (Choctaw for "woman") Resource Center in 1979 and served as its director. Anderson's other leadership roles include serving as chairperson of the National Committee on Indian Work in 1979-80 and as the co-chairperson of the Texas delegation during the Houston Women's Conference in 1977. She also sat on President Carter's Advisory Committee on Women from 1978 to 1981. Anderson wrote Ohoyo One Thousand: A Resource Guide of American Indian/Alaska Native Women, a resource guide that identifies 1004 women with skills in sixty-two Indian programs. The work identifies women who have attained post-graduate degrees and serve in the professional fields of art, business, communication, education, health care, law, sciences, and social work. It also cites individuals who have made cultural contributions in traditional arts, mediums, ceremonials, and dance. Anderson sought to strengthen all Native women by offering resources and role models. Her work includes individuals from 231 tribes and bands. Anderson has also edited Words of Today's American Indian Women: Ohoyo Makachi, a volume of speeches and discussions from a 1981 conference in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Source: Biographies Plus, Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (1993)