Student wins US uni research scholarship
AWELSH student has won a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to research Native American feminism at one of the United States’ leading universities.
Morwenna Osmond, 22, of Penarth, will be spending two years studying for a Master’s degree at The New School in New York.
A former pupil at Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Morgannwg in Barry, she graduated in history last year from Bristol University.
She is currently working for the office of the Future Generations Commissioner.
Ms Osmond said: “As part of my degree I wrote a dissertation on the significance of women in the Red Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
“It was set up to oppose the US government’s policy at the time of taking land away from Native American people. Women were very influential in the movement. Some of the tribes had matriarchal origins and it was quite natural for women to be at the forefront of campaigns. The women worked with allies from other sections of the feminist movement, which tended to be dominated by middle-class white women.
“While the Native American women had different priorities and didn’t always agree with the mainstream of the movement at the time, they found it useful to work in parallel with them because it helped them get access to funding, as well as a wider understanding of their communities’ problems.”
When she goes to The New School in August, Ms Osmond will be pursuing further research with the Warrior Women History Project in South Dakota.
One of the most famous Red Power protests took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973.
More than 200 Native Americans in support of the Oglala Sioux people of Pine Ridge Reservation took over the town for more than two months.
The Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO), a group of mostly full-Indian women who lived on Pine Ridge Reservation, had been unsuccessful in a trial to impeach Dick Wilson, who was the chairman of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council.
Critics of Wilson claimed he was too close to white people, too cosy with the government, and was disrespecting his Oglala Sioux culture.
Enraged that Wilson had not been impeached, OSCRO occupied Wounded Knee.
The town was chosen as a tribute to the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, when hundreds of Lakota Indians were killed by the 7th US Cavalry Regiment.
Ms Osmond said: “I am really looking forward to the opportunity to do further research in this fascinating area.”
She said she had been inspired to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship by Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, who took a career break 10 years ago to study the economics of small nations as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard.
The Fulbright Programme was the brainchild of Senator J William Fulbright, whose vision was for a peaceful and prosperous world.
He believed that if people had the opportunity to immerse themselves in each other’s cultures, nations would never again find reason for war. His chosen vehicle was a global academic exchange programme that was implemented around the world, with each agreement drawn up on bilateral lines.
In 1948, a treaty between the US and UK governments was signed in the House of Commons by UK Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin and US Chargé d’Affaires Don Bliss, in the presence of Senator Fulbright.