“Wellness and Healing; Family and Community” is the theme of the 7th annual California Native American Day Celebration at the University of California, San Diego. The celebration, running from Sept. 28 through May, 2013, will feature events that pay homage to the past, present and future identities of San Diego’s Native American tribes.

November 1st, will feature a talk by Cecelia Fire Thunder Talk, from noon to 4 p.m.

Cecilia Fire Thunder is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004. Fire Thunder was the first woman to be elected president of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She served until June 29, 2006 Her effort to provide for women on the reservation needing family planning services after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state was a major conterversry

A founder of community-based health clinics while living and working in California for two decades, Fire Thunder was among founders of the Oglala Lakota Women’s Society after her return to the reservation in 1986. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) and has worked at a shelter for domestic abuse. She is the coordinator of the Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains. “Balancing Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit for Family and Community Healing” is the title of her speech. Price Center East Forum.