When Susan Masten was growing up in Northern California, her familial traditions were lost in a confusion of cultures. 

Native American communities pass down traditions through the matrilineal line, and Masten’s grandmother was a basket-maker, spoke Yurok — the language of her tribe of the same name — and organized tribal ceremonies with her family. But when she was sent to boarding school along with more than 60,000 other children between 1869 and the 1960s through the federal Indian boarding school policy, that culture was punished out of her, replaced by the dominant language, religion and traditions. 

When she came home, Masten’s grandmother barely taught her children Yurok. Dances, coming-of-age traditions, beliefs around how to handle grief — those ceremonies got lost, Masten said, because it was so ingrained in those women to “not be the dirty little Indian.” 

Years later, the cultural silence eroded into something bigger. Masten noticed that women weren’t encouraging one another or creating strong networks of support systems to help one another. Men, on the other hand, were well-connected and supported. 

She decided to create a change that had the potential to transform her community.

In 2004, she brought together nine of her friends, all of whom were also community leaders, and talked to them about forming a national organization that would offer support, encouragement and preparation for Native American women interested in leadership roles. At the time, there weren’t many elected women leaders on tribal councils, the governing bodies for many tribes.

That gathering turned into the Women Empowering Women for Indigenous Nations, or WeWin, a national conference that each summer draws more than 400 Native American women, spanning tribes and generations. Over the course of three days, participants join prayer circles, listen to keynote speakers and celebrate tenured leaders and changemakers, focusing on the universal Native American values of love, kindness, bravery and courage.

Most of the women arrive at the conference reserved and timid but leave transformed and excited to step into new leadership roles, Masten said.

“We’ve been able to see that [the conference] is what every woman needs to find at that moment in time,” Masten said. “When they come, whether they need to be in a positive environment, fine-tune their skills, or feel encouragement, they find it.

“It’s wonderful to see because it’s almost magical, in a sense, because we don’t have that kind of network at home.”

​​Those networks were largely broken by U.S. policy, making it harder for matriarchs to pass down customs, traditions and languages. At the boarding schools, students were abused if they spoke in their native language. They were forced to give up their Native name and replaced it with an English one. Schools made students practice Christianity instead of their culture’s religion, which taught them they should be ashamed to be Native American.

“They couldn’t hold onto that way of life because if they were going to make it, they had to go become this other [thing],” Masten said.

President Joe Biden recently apologized on behalf of the federal government for its role in running these boarding schools and this week designated one such school as a national monument. 

Their impact continues to reverberate.

Born in Wisconsin and a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Melanie Benjamin, WeWin co-founder and treasurer, grew up on the St. Croix River. Her family lived on opposite sides of the river, with roots in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

Her father was an Army veteran and a woodsman. From her mother, Benjamin inherited strong traditions and values. 

“She taught us the values of our culture, who we are as Anishinaabe people [a group of tribes located in the Great Lakes and Canada composed of Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing, and Algonquin],” Benjamin said. “She incorporated that in the way she raised us.”

In the 1950s, the federal government’s Urban Relocation Program took Native American families from reservations and placed them into metropolitan areas to help them assimilate to mainstream culture. The moves led many of those families to feel displaced as they faced work and social discrimination as well as a lack of cultural support.

Benjamin’s family relocated to St. Louis, and they had to search for other Native American families because the community was spread apart. Eventually, she and her family returned to Minnesota because her parents struggled to be away from their culture.

As they grew older, Masten and Benjamin sought out leadership positions within their respective tribes, and their paths crossed during a leadership workshop. It didn’t take long for the two to become close friends and support systems for each other.

When Masten approached Benjamin about forming WeWin, Benjamin said she couldn’t refuse.

In its 20th year, WeWin has grown to the point where attendees are creating local chapters to organize events dedicated to specific tribes and locations. As the organization continues to evolve, Masten and the other nine co-founders hope to introduce fellowships and establish more chapters across the country.

Inspired by the knowledge she learned during her first national WeWin conference, Valerie Harrington-Wind rallied a group of women together in her own community and formed a local chapter within the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Since 2016, the chapter has motivated members to give back to their community and pour into their neighbors.

Harrington-Wind’s newfound skills encouraged her to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and now she serves as the legislative chief communications officer for her tribe.

“I just want to be surrounded by women that care about the community,” she said. “[WeWin] opened a lot of doors, and I continue to volunteer because I love it so much.”

Within the chapter, more than 30 women organize luncheons, workshops and conferences for their neighbors, wearing their cultural values — such as Gwayakwaadiziwin, honesty, and Zaagi’idiwin, love — on their sleeve. Benjamin, also a member of the Mille Lacs chapter, said centering their culture is something the women do every day, most often without even knowing — “they live their culture.”

“It’s really about who we are as people,” Benjamin said.

With the help of LeAnn Benjamin, whom Melanie calls one of the strongest cultural leaders in their community, the chapter’s board members wrote portions of their bylaws in Ojibwe, their tribe’s endangered language. Harrington-Wind said the chapter also smudges — a cultural ceremony that involves burning sacred plants like sage, sweetgrass and tobacco to cleanse and heal — before committee meetings to remain “respectful of their culture and the process,” and organizes youth conferences to instill these teachings in the younger generation.

The WeWin conferences are labors of love to ensure the network of leadership and support can continue for generations. Organizers also prioritize multigenerational interactions, encouraging attendees to bring their mothers and children. Girls as young as 8 and women as old as 80 sit attentively as they share stories and forge connections, eager to learn something new, organizers said.

“The talent we have in Indian Country is unbelievable,” Benjamin said. “We have leaders, warriors, teachers, ceremonial people, singers, actors. To be able to bring those people under one roof — it means that [WeWin] will have an impact everywhere we go.”

Masten said her venture into leadership was a calling she couldn’t ignore. 

Remembering the values her grandmother and mother taught her, such as a strong work ethic, spirituality, and the responsibility to protect and preserve for tomorrow, Masten became a trailblazer for her community.

She finds it rewarding to share her knowledge with other women and watch them blossom into strong leaders who are reclaiming their cultures — not only within their tribe, but also their families, jobs and communities.

“That’s what rejuvenates me and makes me feel balanced again and whole,” Masten said. “It’s being able to see women coming together, supporting each other, sharing, learning, healing.

“It’s a wonderful thing for our women to be who they want to be.”

As the world around them changes, WeWin leaders said that no matter what, there will always be challenges for Indigenous people, especially women. But the knowledge, cultural values and interconnected support of their communities they establish now will help protect what they stand for in the future.

“We’re always going to have to fight for our rights, for our sovereignty, for our culture,” Harrington-Wind said. “We’re always going to have work to do in Indian country. … As long as we all come together as a community and protect each other, I think that we don’t have anything to worry about.”