Ingrid Washinawatok

Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa (also known as O'Peqtaw-Metamoh and Flying Eagle Woman) (July 31, 1957 – c. February 25, 1999) was a member of the Menominee Nation of upper Wisconsin.

At the time of her death she was forty-one years old, the wife of Ali El-Issa, a Palestinian, and the mother of her 14-year-old son, Maehkiwkasic (meaning "Red Sky").

[1] Her parents were James and Gwendolyn Washinawatok, who created a grassroots organization to restore Menominee Nation land and stop its sale.

[3] Ingrid Washinawatok, along with Hawaiian activist Lahe’ena’e Gay and environmental activist Terence Freitas, were asked by the U'wa People of Arauca Department, Colombia, to help set up a school to protect their culture and language, and to help them to defend their lands against oil exploration by Occidental Petroleum.

[6] The Menominee Nation honored her with a full warrior's funeral, and she received a memorial in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City.

The song "Nuevas Señoritas" by Indigo Girls is an elegy in honor of Ingrid Washinawatok and Marsha Gómez.

[8] As Ingrid Washinawatok herself concluded, "From offerings to the black ash trees and sweet grass so baskets can be made for family income, to scholarships to honor the memory of a loved one, to the distribution of meat and fish by the young men's first kill or catch, to community pow wows to send an athlete to national or international competition, the realization of the circle of life takes on an even stronger constitution in this day and age.