Brewer, Suzette. Dr. Constance Redbird Pinkerman Uri, a Cherokee physician. For Centuries, Native Women Have Been Told to ‘Trust the Doctor.’ The Results Have Been Disastrous., Native News Online.
Albuquerque Indian Health Center, Indian Health Services.
Jean Whitehorse testifies about the forced and coerced sterilization of Native American women at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous. New Mexico Launches Investigation of Forced Sterilization of Native American Women, The Associated Press.
Brewer, Suzette. Dr. Constance Redbird Pinkerman Uri, a Cherokee physician. For Centuries, Native Women Have Been Told to ‘Trust the Doctor.’ The Results Have Been Disastrous., Native News Online.
Bodies Taken, Futures Denied: The Forced Sterilization of Native American Women in IHS Hospitals (1960–1976)
Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, thousands of Native American women were sterilized by the Indian Health Service (IHS), often without their full knowledge or consent. These treatments, which were performed in hospitals that received federal support, constituted egregious violations of reproductive rights.
Choctaw, Lakota, and Navajo women made up a large portion of the affected population. It was frequently only after receiving standard medical care, including childbirth, that they realized they had been permanently sterilized. Later, a Native woman described how shocked and betrayed she felt: "They took away my ability to have children without telling me." It wasn't until I attempted to conceive again years later that I realized. Many people's perplexity and despair are reflected in this testimony.
Some of the most often referenced accounts come from women interviewed by Connie Pinkerton-Uri, who started recording incidents in the early 1970s. As a Cherokee doctor, she claimed to have heard many accounts of women who were sterilized but were unaware of it until they tried to conceive again. She argued that these were not isolated events but rather part of a larger pattern of abuse, stressing in her advocacy that many had signed consent forms under duress or without fully understanding them. Similar occurrences, such as women sterilized in their early twenties or even as teenagers, are documented by historian Jane Lawrence. While some claimed to have received no explanation at all, others were informed that the operations were reversible. These stories show how agreement was frequently acquired by deceit, coercion, or false information.
Proper consent processes were often not followed in IHS institutions, according to a 1976 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Patients frequently lacked the time and knowledge necessary to make well-informed decisions on long-term surgeries. The effects were not limited to specific people. Reproductive capacity is closely linked to cultural survival and continuity for many Native cultures. Future generations' deaths caused long-term distrust in federal healthcare institutions and upended families and communities.
These practices are situated within the larger history of eugenics in the United States, where underprivileged populations were disproportionately targeted for reproductive control, according to academics like Alexandra Minna Stern. Native women's advocacy brought about significant progress in spite of these injustices. Their stories turned human anguish into systemic change intended to safeguard future generations by strengthening federal consent laws and enhancing accountability in medical procedures.
References
Brewer, Suzette. “For Centuries, Native Women Have Been Told to ‘Trust the Doctor.’ The Results Have Been Disastrous.” Native News Online, https://nativenewsonline.net/health/for-centuries-native-women-have-been-told-to-trust-the-doctor-the-results-have-been-disastrous/.
Government Accountability Office. Investigation of Alleged Sterilization of Native American Women. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/543.html.
Lawrence, Jane. “The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women.” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 3, 2000, pp. 400–419. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1185911.
McKibban, Allison. “Involuntary Sterilization.” History Workshop, SHaME (Unsilenced: Institutional Sexual Violence), https://shra.bbk.ac.uk/blog/involuntary-sterilization-by-allison-mckibban-unsilenced-institutional-sexual-violence/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
Pinkerton-Uri, Constance. Testimonies on Sterilization Abuse among Native American Women. 1974. https://www.kcbd.com/2026/02/22/new-mexico-launches-investigation-forced-sterilization-native-american-women.
Stern, Alexandra Minna. Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. University of California Press, 2005. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pn5jp.