Charon Asetoyer

Charon Virginia Asetoyer (née Huber, born March 24, 1951) is a Comanche activist and women's health advocate. Asetoyer is one of the founders of the Native American Community Board (NACB) and the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC). She has been awarded the Woman of Vision award by the Ms. Foundation and the United Nations Distinguished Services Award.

Biography Charon Asetoyer was born on March 24, 1951, in San Jose, California to a Comanche mother and father of European descent. She moved to San Francisco where she married Dennis Duncan in 1972, and got a job as a WIC program leader and counselor at the Urban Indian Health Clinic in SF's financial district. In 1978, Asetoyer and others involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM) sought to reconstruct and modernize women's role in the Native community, giving them back some independence within the family unit and in regard to their own healthcare; over 300 women separated themselves from the AIM and formed the group known as Women of All Red Nations. In 2004, a polling place in Lake Andes, SD on the Yankton Sioux Tribe had an illegitimate sign that said in order to vote, a valid photo ID was required. Charon Asetoyer stood up against this injustice with the proof that it was not legal to require an ID and that there were government-accepted alternate documents, especially because Natives living in Yankton Sioux did not have IDs. Asetoyer claimed that poll workers were being force-fed incorrect information in order to cancel the Native vote, and at least twenty one Native Americans were turned away from the polls in just that location. Asetoyer and the community outcry gained the attention of South Dakota's Secretary of State, Chris Nelson. Nelson adamantly agreed with Asetoyer and set out on an initiative to educate poll workers and higher-ups authorities at the polls.

Writings NAWHERC

Journal articles and book chapters