Description
Faith Traversie joined her sister Theodora Means in the Bay Area during World War II and went to work as a "Winnie the Welder" at the Mare Island Shipyard. After receiving superior marks in her qualifying tests, Traversie attended welding classes and did most of her work on heavy cruisers. Traversie, a Lakota from the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota, fielded many curious questions about her identity as a Lakota woman during her two years at the shipyard. After returning to South Dakota where she and her husband Whitney "Jockey" Traversie become stalwart supporters of the American Indian Movement when it swept through the Dakotas in the 1970s. Her children and nephews were key organizers in the movement.