Warrior Princesses Strike Back

Interspersing personal memoir with radical notions of self-help and collective recovery, Warrior Princesses Strike Back focuses how Indigenous activist strategies can be a crucial roadmap for contemporary truth and healing.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is home to the original people of this land, yet it is also one of the poorest communities in America. Through intimate and vulnerable memoir, Lakota twin sisters Sarah Eagle Heart and Emma Eagle Heart–White recount growing up on the reservation and overcoming enormous odds, first as teenage girls in a majority-white high school, and then battling bias in their professional careers. Woven throughout are self-help strategies centering women of color, that combine marginalized histories, psychological research on trauma, and perspectives on decolonial therapy. Through the lens of Indigenous activism, the Eagle Hearts explore the possibility of healing intergenerational and personal trauma by focusing on traditional strategies of reciprocity, acknowledgment, and collectivism.

Sarah Eagle Heart (Waŋblí Šiná Wíŋyaŋ, Eagle Shawl Woman), Oglála Lakota, is an Emmy Award–winning social justice storyteller, entrepreneur, and philanthropic leader. Sarah cofounded Zuyá Entertainment to create multi-platform stories based on her unique worldview infused by her Lakota culture. Ms. Eagle Heart co-founded Return to the Heart Foundation to support innovative Indigenous women–led projects for climate justice, narrative change, civic engagement, healing, and restorative and regenerative development. Prior to this role she served as CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy. Ms. Eagle Heart holds an B.S. in Mass Communications and a B.S. in American Indian Studies from Black Hills State University, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. She is also an exclusive public speaker with the American Program Bureau. She is based in Los Angeles, California and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. 

Emma Eagle Heart–White (Waŋblí Wíyaka Wíŋyaŋ, Eagle Feather Woman), Oglála Lakota, is a psychotherapist, life coach, survivor, and advocate. She began her career on the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin in the healing field as a youth advocate for Native American students within the public school system and continued her advocacy on behalf of Native American survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Today she works as a psychotherapist and recently founded Owášte Healing and Wellness LLC, where she continues her passion for healing, advocacy, wellness, life coaching, energy work, and brainspotting therapy. She holds a BS in educational policy and community studies, as well as an interdisciplinary degree in American Indian studies from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She holds an MA in counseling with a community emphasis from Lakeland University in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and is currently working toward her PsyD doctorate degree in clinical psychology.