Born March 30, 1934
Tulalip Reservation, Washington

Native American rights activist, women’s rights activist, and spiritual leader

Janet McCloud, a Tulalip/Nisqually Indian and mother of eight, has fought for Native American rights throughout her adult life. In the 1960s and 1970s McCloud was a leader in the movement for Native American fishing rights. She and her husband were arrested many times during fish-ins (protest in which participants fished in violation of state laws to assert their treaty rights).

McCloud joined the American Indian Movement (AIM; see entry), a militant Indian-rights organization, in the early 1970s. Later that decade McCloud founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN)—a women’s group within AIM that worked to end domestic violence in Indian communities. McCloud, who has served as spokesperson for the Nisqually nation, operates a Native American spiritual center called Sapa Dawn on her property...