This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #101 (August /September 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Annie Humphrey
The Power of a Woman
by Annette C. Eshleman

When asked what he feels is the most important thing people ought to know about Annie Humphrey, Native American performance artist and activist John Trudell responded with little fanfare. "They should listen to her," he said. A simple statement, but when spoken by one so highly respected, each word carries great weight. "What [Annie] does is true to her. And she remains true to it," Trudell declared. "I see that she has this power, this ability to communicate... She brings a clarity to chaos."

When Annie Humphrey was a little girl growing up on the Leech Lake Ojibwe Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota, her family spent a lot of time outdoors. She learned to gather berries, to make maple syrup, and to harvest wild rice (a practice she now teaches to reservation youth). Humphrey also learned to love and respect the land. She remains deeply committed to preserving it, supporting efforts to control logging in the Chippewa National Forest, where the reservation is located.

Although Humphrey has recently moved her young family to Wisconsin, the reservation will always be home to her. "It's not just the reservation or the towns in it. It's the land and the places that I remember," she said, with a laugh. "The only place I know where to find stuff is back home."

Many non-Native people often incorrectly think of an Indian reservation as a sort of "camp" or "encampment." In fact, most reservations in the United States comprise distinct communities and towns. They are governed by locally elected officials who oversee a multitude of issues ranging from law enforcement and education, to health care and casino gaming. The Leech Lake Reservation, established by treaty in 1855, is no exception. It encompasses 12 tribal communities; most of the reservation is located within the Chippewa National Forest, and it is home to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

Unemployment and alcoholism are two of the greatest obstacles facing residents of the reservation today. Feelings of isolation, neglect, and indifference from the world around them impact the lives of many Native people. Reservations are also havens of living tradition where tribal members are immersed in the foundations of an ancient cultural identity. They are a paradox of fierce cultural pride coupled with deep, often stifling despair.

"When I was growing up," remembered Humphrey, who described herself as a former heavy drinker, "I didn't know anybody who was happy. I just knew and saw women who were alone and unhappy, or with someone who would beat them," she recalled of her cousins, aunts, and those closest to her. "I just never knew any happy people. I think a lot of women feel like their power is taken away when they get stuck in a relationship that isn't good."

It was into this environment that Annie Humphrey was born and raised, and it was from this environment that she sought to escape when, at the age of 23, she joined the United States Marine Corps. Since that time, Humphrey has traveled to Okinawa, Japan, where she was stationed for a year. She satisfied her commitment to the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. Humphrey later attended the Police Academy in California, where she graduated with honors. Rather than pursue a career in law enforcement, she decided to study art at the University of North Dakota. While she was living in Grand Forks, and close to attaining her degree, the 1996 Red River Flood forced Humphrey to move once again.

The time had come for Humphrey to return to the reservation. "It is hard to get out of there," she asserted. "That is why I joined the Marines. I thought, 'This would take me far away, and it wouldn't cost me anything,' because I had no money anyway. And I left there." However, the place where she grew up no longer bound her with feelings of powerlessness, and she went back on her own terms.

Secure in her direction and purpose, Humphrey explained, "I went back... and I could live there without a problem, without feeling stuck," she said. Humphrey immersed herself in reservation life. She became involved in a religious-freedom council doing volunteer work in local prisons, and began playing her music in earnest. "Now I'm doing something else that is just as powerful as having an M-16 in your hands," Humphrey observed of her new vocation.