5 Plain Questions

Tanya RedRoad (Little Shell Band of Chippewa Decedent of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa)owns a small catering business Tee's Taco's. She also currently works as the director of Toxic Taters Coalition. She has done advocacy and activism in many sectors that face systemic challenges for Indigenous communities.

Those areas include, Domestic and Sexual Violence, Substance Use Challenges, Mental Health Concerns, Public Health initiatives around wellness for women including Native Women Speaking an HIV initiative, Youth programming in community efforts including Founder of FM Healthy Native Kids, ICWA(Indian Child Welfare Act), Land defending and water protection.

Tanya does a variety of community work with the Indigenous population to identify gaps and to be a voice to ensure the Indigenous perspective is heard.  Tanya enjoys going to powwows, cultural ceremonies and cooking for the community. Tanya appreciates learning other cultures, while sharing hers. But most importantly is a mother of three and an auntie mom to her nephew and niece. Tanya also has two grandsons Ethan and Ezra.

FB: https://www.facebook.com/teesfrybreadtacos

Email for events: [email protected]

Peggy Flanagan is a mom, an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Wolf Clan. She is the 50th Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, the first Native American ever elected to serve in this role, and currently the highest ranking Native woman elected to executive office in the country.

She is a former State Representative, School Board Member, and non-profit executive, and through all these roles remained a strong advocate for those who have been historically underserved and underrepresented, including children, Indigenous people, communities of color, and working families. In partnership with Governor Walz, she established the Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, which is the first in the Nation. They also successfully passed into state law a mandate for all state agencies to honor a government-to-government relationship with the 11 sovereign tribal nations within the borders of Minnesota, including the requirement for consultation when making decisions which have an impact on the tribal nations.

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LtGovFlanagan


Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggyflanagan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyflanagan/

Websites: https://mn.gov/governor/

Ruth Buffalo is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. She is originally from Mandaree. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Si Tanka University and two master degrees from the University of Mary: one in management, another in 

business administration, and a master of public health from North Dakota State University. Fargo Native American Commission (2017) and is currently on the Board of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition. She was 

recognized by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise 

Development as a leader, "40 under 40" in 2017. Ruth has served in various capacities focused on building healthy and safe 

communities. She was elected into the North Dakota House of Representatives in 2018 and proudly serves the people of District 27 in south Fargo. Ruth is the first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature.

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RuthBuffalo4ND


Twitter: @ruth4Nd

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rep_ruth_buffalo_/

Websites: https://www.ndlegis.gov/biography/ruth-buffalo

NDWN: https://www.ndwomen.org/

North Dakota Farmers Union: https://ndfu.org/

North Dakota United: https://www.ndunited.org/

North Dakota AFL-CIO: https://ndaflcio.org/

New Leadership Northern Lights:

https://cawp.rutgers.edu/node/2448

Tamara St. John is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of the Lake Traverse Reservation of South Dakota.  She is the Tribal Archivist/Curator of Collections and works with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office on Cultural Preservation issues. She has been working on Native American Graves and Repatriation Act issues for the tribe with a long term goal of building a tribal visitor center and museum. Tamara is a Native American genealogist has done extensive research in the history of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota or Oceti Sakowin. She has worked with the Minnesota Historical Society and along with other Dakota Tribes collaborated on the Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota–U.S. War of 1862 exhibition. She worked with North Dakota State University and The Center for Heritage Renewal participating in panel discussions on the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862 and The Massacre at Whitestone Hill. Tamara is a former board member of the South Dakota Humanities Council and works with both South Dakota and North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance organizations.  

Tamara was elected to the South Dakota State Legislature in 2018, completed her second term with the 2022 Legislative Session and will be running for re-election November 2022.  Tamara is currently leading the work to repatriate two Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota children who attended the Carlisle Pennsylvania Industrial School for Indians in 1879. Both Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright are buried at the cemetery in Carlisle, Pa. which is now an active military base. 

Since 2016 Tamara St. John has worked with other tribal nations to navigate the complex issues that surround the unique issues related to repatriations from Carlisle Indian School cemetery.  

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TamaraforSD


Twitter: @tamarajstjohn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamara_stjohn/

Heather is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe with Lineage to Eastern Shoshone, a mom of two amazing boys, queer and bold in her passion to make a positive impact on the next generations.

Heather has been involved in equity work her entire life; it’s not work that she chose to start at any one specific time. Rather, for Heather, the work of equity is a way of life.

Her formal educational training started with an associate degree in Marketing from Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls, SD. From there, she pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Project Management from MSUM. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Heather earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from MSUM.

Beyond her formal education, Heather has participated in numerous trainings and workshops; a sample of these efforts includes: The Blandin Foundation Community Leadership Training and The Bush Foundation’s BushCon.

Heather has also worked in many facets of equity work within the region. She led the Human Rights Task Force for Moorhead Area Public Schools, served as the Vice Chair of the Moorhead Native American Commission, and developed programming that laid a foundation for the Moorhead School District to hire a Director of Equity and Inclusion position.

In November 2020, Heather was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 4A representing Moorhead, Minnesota. This historic election cannot be underestimated, as she is the first Native LGBTQIA+ woman serving rural Minnesota in the legislature. This momentous accomplishment became a reality due to Heather’s unwavering commitment to foundational issues of education, equity, and healthcare for all.

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Heather4House


Twitter: @repkeeler

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather4house/

Kathleen Ash-Milby is Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum. She has organized numerous exhibitions of Native American art, including Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe). She was previously an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian and curator and co-director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Publications include essays in Art in America, Art Journal, and Joseph Yoakum: What I Saw (2021). A member of the Navajo Nation, she earned her master of arts from the University of New Mexico. She is a proud mom and loves her new life in the Pacific Northwest where she lives with her husband, Edward.

NMAI:

https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=985

Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe book:

https://americanindian.si.edu/shop/publications/books-and-products#6363

Portland Art Museum

https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/dakota-modern/

Find Kathleen's publications here:

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Kathleen-Ash-Milby/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AKathleen+Ash-Milby

Savannah Tallbear is from the Kaw Nation, Southern Cheyenne and is

Oglala Lakota, Savannah primarily works with acrylic and permanent inks. She is inspired by her childhood, heritage and daily life.

She has a presence online as Bears Will Kill You and Bear Hair is OK in various forms, a former college athlete, an advocate for those in need, and is a fantastic jewelry creator and painter. She is an advocate for Native voices and all around a great artist.

Links:


Twitter: @bearswillkillu

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearhairok/

Websites:

bearswillkillu.redbubble.com

Esty: https://www.etsy.com/people/svntllbr1

Okie Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/okie-podcast-with-savannah-tallbear/id1550490884?i=1000570554022

Art Supply Posse Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/138-savannah-tallbear/id1119393753?i=1000558026546