Story 02
Red Road Home
During the 1980s and the 1990s, Minnie Two Shoes worked as a reporter and columnist for the Wotanin Wowapi, an all-women's newspaper based in the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, covering everything from powwows and sports to politics, crimes, and social news.
Two Shoes had a regular column in the newspaper, “Red Road Home," where she wrote about her observations on and off the reservation, discussed environmental issues, including water rights, air quality, and fossil fuel development. She often injected humor and insight into her writings.
Two Shoes set aside her typical humor for certain topics, such as the failure of the US government to provide adequate services to Native Americans as guaranteed by treaty. After a “temporary" doctor sent from the Indian Health Service (IHS) failed to properly diagnose or treat her son, Two Shoes wrote about the mistreatment of patients on the reservation, and urged her community to file written complaints about subpar doctors to put pressure on the IHS.
