Native American Heritage Month

Deb Haaland became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican. She attended and graduated from Highland High School in Albuquerque, NM, and grew up in a military family moving to 13 public schools. Halaand volunteered at her child's preschool to afford early childhood education and she is a single mother. She enrolled at the University of New Mexico at the age of 28 and achieved a Bachelor’s degree in English. Later in her educational career, Haaland attended Law school at the University of New Mexico and completed her Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.). She ran a small business in producing and canning Pueblo Salsa and served as a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo. As a tribal administrator, she became the first woman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors which meant she oversaw business operations of the second largest tribal gaming enterprise in New Mexico. Within the Laguna Development Corporation, she successfully advocated for the corporation to create policies and commitments in operating in environmentally friendly business practices. Secretary Haaland became the first Native American woman to be elected to lead a state party, when running for New Mexico Lieutenant Governor in 2014. As one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress, her primary objective is on environmental justice, climate change, missing and murdered indigenous women, and family friendly policies.

Louis Tewanima was born in Shungopavi Second Mesa, Arizona, United States in 1888. Tewanima was a Native American belonging to the Hopi tribe and is a two time Olympic distance runner as well as a silver medalist in the 10,000 meter run in 1912. At the Carlisle Indian School, he has participated in running with his teammate Jim Thorpe. After participating in the 1912 Olympic, Tewanima returned to the Hopi reservation to herding sheep and growing crops for the rest of his life. Tewanima was selected for the all time U.S. Olympic track and field team in 1954. Then, was inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 1957.

Mary Peltola was born on August 31, 1972 in Anchorage, Alaska. She made history by being the first Alaska Native sworn into the United States Congress. During college, she worked at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as a herring and salmon technician. Peltola was an Alaska Legislature intern in 1996 and later, ran for a Bethel region seat. She lost to incumbent Ivan Ivan by 56 votes for the Bethel region seat. Peltola is a former tribal court judge and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Alaska’s at Large Congressional district since September 2022. From 2020 to 2021, Peltola served as a judge on the Orutsararmiut Native Council’s tribal court as well as the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She previously served as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1999 to 2022 representing the 39th district; Then, from 1999 to 2003, she represented the 38th district. Pelta passed her first bill which would create an Office of Food Security in the Department of Veterans Affairs through the House on September 29, 2022.

Wesley Studi was born on December 17, in 1947 and originated from Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma. Studi is an American Cherokee actor and film producer who has earned notoriety for his portrayals of Native Americans in film. He acted professionally in his thirties and attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School which is a government boarding school in northeastern Oklahoma. Studi served in the U.S. Army and spent eighteen months with the Ninth Division in the Delta area of South Vietnam. As an American Indian activist in the 1970s, he joined the National Indian Youth Council and attended the Trail of Broken Treaties demonstration in 1972. Later, he was arrested at the Wounded Knee demonstration in 1973. At Rogers State College in Claremore, he taught his first language Cherokee. He began seeking out local theater opportunities in Tulsa in the 1980s and parlayed those into his first film role in “Pow Wow Highway.” That led to further film roles, including The Toughest Pawnee in “Dances with Wolves (1990),” an Indian in the Desert in “The Doors (1991),” Magua, in “Last of the Mohicans (1992),” and Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo in “Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).” Other film roles included “Street Fighter (1994),” “Lone Justice 2 (1995),” the part of Red Cloud in the made-for-television movie “Crazy Horse (1996),” “Wind River (1998),” and “Ice Planet (2001).” He is an accomplished stone carving artist, a musician with the band Firecat of Discord, and an author of two children’s books. Studi received the Governor’s Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for lifetime achievement in 2019. This is the first Academy Award ever given to an American Indian. He now resides in Santa Fe with his wife, Rebecca Graves.