The right path: Beloved Woman Ella Bird reflects on life marked by family, tradition
For the past 79 years, Ella Wachacha Bird has lived a life defined by seasons and relationships rather than months and days.
Bird, the daughter of Rily Wachacha and Ancy Walkingstick, was born in a log cabin in the remote West Buffalo area of Graham County’s Snowbird community in 1939. She was delivered by her grandmother Maggie Wachacha, a midwife at the time who would later become a clerk to Tribal Council and, like Ella, a Beloved Woman in the tribe.
