Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin is taking the photo she wants
Last month, I went to the National Archives. So neat! But also NO PHOTOS ALLOWED. This was an especial bummer as they had a women’s suffrage exhibit with a lot of information. But in the Rosalind Russell His Girl Friday tradition, I took notes, and now I share some of those notes with you, the brilliant newsletter subscriber.
Today we’re talking about Mary Louise Bottineau Baldwin! If you haven’t heard of her, neither had I, and I’ve read appx. 53745678 books about women’s suffrage in America.
The Archives talked about Baldwin in the context of marching with other lawyers in the 1913 women’s suffrage parade in DC. Yes! Other lawyers! She was a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and in the 1890s, she and her father (also a lawyer) moved to DC to defend the treaty rights of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Nation. AMAZING, right? (yes)
Then President Theodore Roosevelt hired her as a clerk in the Office of Indian Affairs. That photo above? Is from her government personnel file. This was an in-her-official-file protest against their assimilation agenda. She joined the Society of American Indians (the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians) and began advocating hard for Native identity.
She began taking classes to become an attorney in 1912, which is why she was marching with other lawyers and lawyers-in-training in the DC parade. And to be clear? She was 49 when she entered law school. She had testified in front of Congress. She had been hired by the president. But nope, she kept going.
You might have seen an article recently about how 18% of Wikipedia biography entries are about women. Or, said more staggeringly, 82% are about men. Do you know who’s not on there? Mary Louise Bottineau Baldwin. If you know a Wikipedia wizard, let them know!