Fire Thunder, Cecilia

Born hearing as Cecilia Apple on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Attended the Red Cloud reservation school and a Catholic school. Went to Los Angeles for a while, where she became a practical nurse before returning to Pine Ridge. In 2002, lost hearing in both ears from unspecified causes, then received cochlear implants. In November 2004, was elected as the first female president of the Ogala Sioux Tribe. Impeached by the tribal council in summer 2006 over a controversy in which she announced, without consulting the council, her intention to establish an abortion clinic on reservation land, outside the jurisdiction of the South Dakota government which had recently banned virtually all abortions.