Political Quotes

“thank you for the recognition. I want to share a few words this afternoon to honor an incredible leader, somebody who is well known to the State of Montana and certainly well known to Indian Country, throughout this country, a personal friend of mine who passed away last week. The person's name is Chief Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet Nation. He served 56 years as a Tribal councilman. He passed away last Wednesday, October 13, at the age of 92. He was the longest serving elected Tribal official in the United States when he passed. He was a keeper of Tribal history, a tireless advocate, and, for many, he was a national voice for the challenges in Indian Country. Chief Old Person was born in 1929. He grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation, where he embraced Tribal culture and, at a young age, performed traditional Blackfeet song and dance across the State and the Nation as an ambassador for the Blackfeet. He even traveled to Paris to represent Indian Country as the only Indian Boy Scout at the World Boy Scout Jamboree in 1947. It was clear that leadership was in his bones, and in 1954 he was elected to his first term as a Tribal council member, and he became the Tribal council chairman only 10 years later. Chief Old Person went on to serve as President of the National Congress of American Indians.…”