Biography
Sioux and Ponca woman convicted in Oklahoma after a 1979 confrontation with Oklahoma City police in which an officer was killed while she was defending herself and her young son. Sentenced to 150 years and held at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Institution; her case became a major rallying point for Native and women's defense committees. Documented in PFOC Breakthrough magazine.
Rita Silk-Nauni became a cause célèbre of the Red Power and Native rights movements after a September 1979 confrontation with Oklahoma City airport security, during which an officer was killed in what supporters described as self-defense after harassment of her and her young son. Tried before an all-white jury, she was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 150 years. Her defense committee argued she was a political prisoner subjected to abusive conditions; after a sustained campaign her sentence was reduced and she was eventually released.
