I'll Go and Do More
I'll Go and Do More is the story of Annie Dodge Wauneka (1918-1997), one of the most well-known Navajos of all time, an indefatigable, passionate, and controversial woman who some have called "a one-woman Peace Corps for the Navajo." A daughter of the popular Navajo leader Chee Dodge, Wauneka spent most of her early years herding sheep and raising nine children. After her father's death, she entered politics and was often the only woman on the Navajo Tribal Council during the quarter century she served. When tuberculosis was ravaging the Navajos, she got the white doctors and the medicine men to cooperate to get the infected people into hospitals for treatment.
She conducted a weekly radio show in Navajo and drove thousands of miles across back roads to visit hospitals and remote hogans, then she flew to Washington to buttonhole members of Congress to make sure they understood the issues surrounding Indian health care.
The title comes from the fact that whenever Annie Wauneka was given an award - and she received many - she would end her thank you speech with something like, "Now don't think that because I received this honor I'm going to stop working. I'll say to myself tomorrow, I've got to get up and go and do more."
Peterson Zah, former Chairman and President of the Naajo Nation, has said, "I highly recommend reading I'll Go and Do More, especially for American Indian women who hve goals and aspirations of becoming a leader in their community. Dr. Annie Wauneka was a special and unique individual who lived ahead of her time."
University of Nebraska Press
272 pages; 12 photos; Bibliography, map and index
Softcover $16.95
Table of Contents
PART 1: FATHER AND DAUGHTER
1. An Illustrious Father
2. The Family Sheepherder
3. The Agonies of Stock Reduction
PART 2: ON THE NAVAJO TRIBAL COUNCIL
4. A Battle against Tuberculosis
5. The Tuberculosis Campaign Intensifies
6. Alcoholism and Peyote
7. Awards and Acrimony
8. Overseeing Baby Contests and Student Protests
9. Cultural Clashes and Cultural Bridges
10. The Navajo-Hopi Conflict
11. More Washington Lobbying
12. The Final Term
PART 3: THE POST-COUNCIL YEARS
13. Traveling Near and Far
14. A Life Assessed
Notes
Bibliography
Index