[2] IWN focuses on Native women, their families and communities and attempts to help them have sovereignty over themselves and their environment.
[4] Winona LaDuke[5] and Janet McCloud were some of the co-founders of IWN.
[7] LaDuke and McCloud felt that sexism which was present in the Native activist movements of the 1980s.
[2][8] IWN also shared members with Women of All Red Nations.
[9] Over the past 21 years, IWN has evolved into an international coalition of Indigenous women from rural and urban communities who approach the resolution of contemporary challenges from a traditional Indigenous values base.