Maaodagabagi Oxhaadish, White Flower, Juanita Boyd-Helphrey
Occupation(s)
Community leader, churchworker
Juanita Jean Smith Boyd Helphrey (March 2, 1941 – January 5, 2018), also known as Maaodagabagi Oxhaadish or White Flower, was a Native American community leader, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, active in the work of the United Church of Christ denomination. She was executive director of the Indian Affairs Commission of North Dakota, and of the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM).
Helphrey was the first assistant director of the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM), from 1971 to 1975.[4][5] She was executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission from 1975 to 1990.[6][7][8] She spoke at community events,[5][9] made reports about legislation,[10] promoted educational programs,[2] wrote letters to government agencies,[6] and represented North Dakota at the International Women's Year event in Houston in 1977.[3] She was a member of the Peace Pipe Indian Center for Bismarck-Mandan.[5][11]
From 2004 to 2006, she was executive director of CAIM.[19] She wrote liturgical materials, including prayers and poems, based in her knowledge of Hidatsa traditions.[20] Beginning in 2007, Helphrey was a Congregational pastor at Fort Berthold, and she wrote a history of Congregational churches at Fort Berthold. She was an invited attendee at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration.[3]
Personal life
Boyd married David Helphrey in 1969.[21] She had five sons.[3] She competed in women's horseshoes contests in Bismarck.[22] She died in 2018, at the age of 76, at a rehabilitation facility in Minot, North Dakota.[3][19]