26 Facts About Katsi Cook

Katsi Cook is best known for her environmental justice and reproductive health research in her home community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in upstate New York.

Katsi Cook is the director of Running Strong for American Indian Youth and founder of the organization's Woman is the First Environment Collaborative which supports community-based health projects seeks that seek to empower Native women of all ages and increase knowledge concerning reproductive health.

Katsi Cook has founded a number of organizations serving the Akwesasne community, including the Women's Dance Health Program, the Mother's Milk Monitoring Project, and the Konon:kwe Council.

The youngest of four children, Katsi Cook was born on 4 January 1952, to Kawennaien Evelyn Mountour Cook and William John Cook on the St Regis Mohawk Reservation, or the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne.

Katsi Cook's father, a graduate of Dartmouth College, was a pilot who fought in World War II and the Korean War.

Katsi Cook died in a plane accident when Cook was nine months old.

Katsi Cook's mother was raised in Quebec and educated by Catholic nuns, but died when Cook was 11 years old.

Katsi Cook was educated at Catholic boarding school, though she began practicing the traditional Longhouse Religion as a teenager.

Katsi Cook attended Skidmore College from 1970 to 1972, and then transferred to Dartmouth College as a part of the school's first class of women.

Katsi Cook decided to pursue midwifery in 1977 after attending the Loon Lake Conference of the Six Nations.

Katsi Cook completed a spiritual midwifery apprenticeship at The Farm in Tennessee in 1978, followed by clinical training at the University of New Mexico Women's Health Training Program.

Katsi Cook attended the founding meeting of Women of all Red Nations in 1978 and later did a clinical placement at the Red Schoolhouse Clinic, a WARN project in St Paul, Minnesota.

Katsi Cook moved back to Akwesasne in 1980 after finding a group of women to continue the project.

At Akwesasne, Katsi Cook continued to practice midwifery which included providing prenatal care, delivery, post-partum care, family planning, family counseling, and other services.

Around the same time, Katsi Cook established the Women's Dance Health Program at Akwesasne.

Katsi Cook has stated that challenges facing indigenous communities, like environmental pollution and reproductive health, must be understood and addressed in a way that acknowledges their intersecting nature, as opposed to viewing them as independent problems.

Katsi Cook has spoken extensively about the ways in which these types of environmental degradation have harmed indigenous communities' way of life.

In subsequent environmental research on the reservation, Katsi Cook would be a bridge between the Akwesasne community, scientists, and government workers.

Katsi Cook was the founding aboriginal midwife of the Six Nations Birthing Centre in Ontario, Canada which is home to an Aboriginal Midwifery Training Program and participates in community education initiatives.

Katsi Cook serves on the board of the National Women's Health Network and the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives of Canada which oversees the drafting of midwifery legislation to assure that indigenous rights are respected.

Katsi Cook has served as a program director for the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program and the Indigenous Communities Leadership Program for Indigenous Girls and Women of the NoVo Foundation, a non-profit organization working to support women and girls in minority communities.

Between 1994 and 1998, Katsi Cook was a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Health and Toxicology at the State University New York at Albany School of Public Health as well as a visiting fellow at Cornell University's American Indian Program.

In 2004 and 2005, Katsi Cook was the recipient of the Indigenous Knowledge Cultural Research Award from the Indigenous Health Research Development Program at the University of Toronto.

In 2008, Katsi Cook's papers were integrated into the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College.

Katsi Cook has written multiple news articles for Indian Country Today.

Katsi Cook married Jose Eugenio Barreiro, a Cuban-born academic and indigenous activist in the early 1970s.