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My name is Wahya Wolfpaw and I am a Gramma on Fire! I am starting this fundraiser so that I can afford to continue fighting towards housing and uniting my family - especially working towards the unification of my fourteen year old grandson and my eleven year old granddaughter.
My family is Cherokee and Muskogee, and I grew up with 7 brothers and sisters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma - and many other places, as we were military brats. From Germany, to Seattle, to Texas, to Framingham, to Worcester, and now Boston, surviving the legacy of colonialism and fighting against new forms has taken me all over the world.
I have a daughter and two grandchildren, whom I love with everything I’ve got. My daughter and I have been fighting for our babies back for the last seven years. As i’m sure many people can understand and are struggling with themselves, the state’s childcare system is a beast unlike any other. I miss my grandcubs deeply, and will continue to fight for them by Any Means Necessary. Our most important goal is accessing sustainable and affordable housing for my daughter and her children, and myself. Affording competent legal help is another. My daughter is now on her fifth state lawyer - each of them have failed miserably at their job, from ignoring her calls for four months at a time to mistaking her for a different client.
Because of our struggles to survive, and the state's kidnapping of my grandchildren, they have spoken to one another inconsistently and rarely see each other in person. My most important priority is re-uniting brother and sister. Fighting the specific legacy of colonialist violence that rips apart families and siblings, I pray every day and every night that my grandchildren will be brought back together, that my family will begin to be whole again.
The non-Native "caretakers" of my grandchildren understand little to nothing about our culture, history, or it's significance. I want my grandchildren to be able to know their history and practice their culture which is required by the Indian Child Welfare Act Tribal Law. Due to jurisdictional issues and manifestations of colonial violence, I have not been able to find any support from my tribes. I want them to have their right to know each other. This fundraiser will help me fight to see my grandchildren and their mother back in each other's lives. As an elder, I am scared to see the impact of COVID-19 and live in fear for my life while my grandchildren and their mother live apart. We are taught to plan seven generations ahead. This is not for me, it for my grandchildren and our family. Ask any grandparent and they would do the same.
Because of anti-queer abuse in the places I grew up, a continuous battle against breast cancer with damaging chemotherapy and multiple surgeries, domestic violence and interpersonal abuse, slumlords, and systems built to fail our family and tear us apart - I have been struggling with homelessness and finding stable housing of my own for the last seven years. (This struggle began immediately after suing my previous slumlord in 2013).
Most recently, I had been working alongside E.P.O.C.A./Jobs Not Jails "Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement", in Worcester, MA, until the organization was evicted from our office in the middle of COVID-19. Although my daughter still lives in Worcester, I was forced to move to Boston. I have been lucky enough to build a family with many young organizers in Boston, and have been living in a small extra room for the last few months. While I have been here, my daughter has also been struggling with accessing healthcare, getting to and from her job, and paying for the extremely expensive month-to-month sober living that are available to her. She was finally able to see my grandson in person after more than 5 months of video chats or cancelled meetings, but we have a huge battle in front of us as we fight towards reunification.
I am beginning this fundraiser because we want to be more prepared to survive, fight, and win, and we need sustained financial help in order to do that. I am beginning this fundraiser because I want my grandchildren to be together. All options are interesting to us - if you or an organization would like to host a fundraiser or would like to hire an indigenous elder to do a land acknowledgment, speaking engagement on anti-colonial history, or know of a grant that we should apply for, please reach out via gofundme. We also are relying on this crowdfunding, so please donate, share, and reach out! Our goal is to have enough funds to survive and to find sustainable housing for the rest of our lives. Please help us make this possible for my family! STIYU (stay strong in Cherokee).
We are the Stiyu Project - a coalition of many different members, mostly queer youth, indigenous elders, and community organizers, working to support the reunification of an indigenous family. 'Stiyu' is a Cherokee word that translates along the lines of 'stay strong'. We work to keep our community together and strong. We have worked to make funds, housing, transportation, healthcare, legal support, food, and safety more accessible to Wahya, her daughter, and her grandchildren. Our ultimate goal is revolutionary overturning of colonial systems of power that would see the unification of indigenous families, elders, ancestors, and land. This fundraiser will go directly to Wahya, her daughter, and her grandchildren.
My family is Cherokee and Muskogee, and I grew up with 7 brothers and sisters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma - and many other places, as we were military brats. From Germany, to Seattle, to Texas, to Framingham, to Worcester, and now Boston, surviving the legacy of colonialism and fighting against new forms has taken me all over the world.
I have a daughter and two grandchildren, whom I love with everything I’ve got. My daughter and I have been fighting for our babies back for the last seven years. As i’m sure many people can understand and are struggling with themselves, the state’s childcare system is a beast unlike any other. I miss my grandcubs deeply, and will continue to fight for them by Any Means Necessary. Our most important goal is accessing sustainable and affordable housing for my daughter and her children, and myself. Affording competent legal help is another. My daughter is now on her fifth state lawyer - each of them have failed miserably at their job, from ignoring her calls for four months at a time to mistaking her for a different client.
Because of our struggles to survive, and the state's kidnapping of my grandchildren, they have spoken to one another inconsistently and rarely see each other in person. My most important priority is re-uniting brother and sister. Fighting the specific legacy of colonialist violence that rips apart families and siblings, I pray every day and every night that my grandchildren will be brought back together, that my family will begin to be whole again.
The non-Native "caretakers" of my grandchildren understand little to nothing about our culture, history, or it's significance. I want my grandchildren to be able to know their history and practice their culture which is required by the Indian Child Welfare Act Tribal Law. Due to jurisdictional issues and manifestations of colonial violence, I have not been able to find any support from my tribes. I want them to have their right to know each other. This fundraiser will help me fight to see my grandchildren and their mother back in each other's lives. As an elder, I am scared to see the impact of COVID-19 and live in fear for my life while my grandchildren and their mother live apart. We are taught to plan seven generations ahead. This is not for me, it for my grandchildren and our family. Ask any grandparent and they would do the same.
Because of anti-queer abuse in the places I grew up, a continuous battle against breast cancer with damaging chemotherapy and multiple surgeries, domestic violence and interpersonal abuse, slumlords, and systems built to fail our family and tear us apart - I have been struggling with homelessness and finding stable housing of my own for the last seven years. (This struggle began immediately after suing my previous slumlord in 2013).
Most recently, I had been working alongside E.P.O.C.A./Jobs Not Jails "Ex-prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement", in Worcester, MA, until the organization was evicted from our office in the middle of COVID-19. Although my daughter still lives in Worcester, I was forced to move to Boston. I have been lucky enough to build a family with many young organizers in Boston, and have been living in a small extra room for the last few months. While I have been here, my daughter has also been struggling with accessing healthcare, getting to and from her job, and paying for the extremely expensive month-to-month sober living that are available to her. She was finally able to see my grandson in person after more than 5 months of video chats or cancelled meetings, but we have a huge battle in front of us as we fight towards reunification.
I am beginning this fundraiser because we want to be more prepared to survive, fight, and win, and we need sustained financial help in order to do that. I am beginning this fundraiser because I want my grandchildren to be together. All options are interesting to us - if you or an organization would like to host a fundraiser or would like to hire an indigenous elder to do a land acknowledgment, speaking engagement on anti-colonial history, or know of a grant that we should apply for, please reach out via gofundme. We also are relying on this crowdfunding, so please donate, share, and reach out! Our goal is to have enough funds to survive and to find sustainable housing for the rest of our lives. Please help us make this possible for my family! STIYU (stay strong in Cherokee).
We are the Stiyu Project - a coalition of many different members, mostly queer youth, indigenous elders, and community organizers, working to support the reunification of an indigenous family. 'Stiyu' is a Cherokee word that translates along the lines of 'stay strong'. We work to keep our community together and strong. We have worked to make funds, housing, transportation, healthcare, legal support, food, and safety more accessible to Wahya, her daughter, and her grandchildren. Our ultimate goal is revolutionary overturning of colonial systems of power that would see the unification of indigenous families, elders, ancestors, and land. This fundraiser will go directly to Wahya, her daughter, and her grandchildren.
