Sinew

Betty Cooper grew up along Little Badger Creek on the Blackfeet Nation, in Northern Montana. Betty was nurtured by her family and elders, taught her culture and participated in Blackfeet religious ceremonies until she was taken from her loving family and forced into Cut Bank Boarding School at the age of six by the U.S. government. Betty was brutally denied her Blackfeet language, religion and cultural values like other American Indian children. Despite the cruelty of boarding school, domestic violence, her husband’s oppressive jealousy and alcoholism, Betty portrays the ordinary and sacred, moving from the challenges of colonial oppression, race, poverty and gender into strength, beauty and native spirituality, all the while giving back to her community and family. In 2004 Betty was elected to the Blackfeet Tribal Council, the fourth woman in Blackfeet history to do so.

Plays in

Exploring the Urban American Indian Experience in Yelamu

Thurs 2/18 5:30 pm PST