Pauline Small (November 30, 1924 – March 9, 2005) was the first woman to be elected to office in the
Crow Tribe of Indians. In 1966 she was elected to
Vice-Secretary of the Crow Tribal Council, holding office ''de facto'' to 1972, and served in various positions within the Crow Tribal Offices, many to do with supporting education.
Early life and education
Pauline White Man Runs Him was born on the
Crow Indian Reservation
The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn County, Montana, Big Horn, Yellowstone County, Montana, Yellowstone, and Treasure County, Montana, Treasure counties ...
in
Lodge Grass,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
. The youngest of three children, she was raised in the
Valley of the Chiefs district on the reservation. Small was a granddaughter of
White Man Runs Him
White Man Runs Him (''Mahr-Itah-Thee-Dah-Ka-Roosh''; – June 2, 1929) was a Crow scouts, Crow scout serving with George Armstrong Custer's 1876 expedition against the Lakota people, Sioux and Northern Cheyenne that culminated in the Battle o ...
.
Marriage and family
She married Ivan James Small, Sr., a member of the
Northern Cheyenne
The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation ( chy, Tsėhéstáno; formerly named the Tongue River) is the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe. Located in southeastern Montana, the reservation is approximately ...
Tribe of Indians. They made their home in
Busby, Montana
Busby is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States. It is on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The population was 745 at the 2010 census.
Description
The town is approximately northeast of the site of the B ...
. Eventually they moved to the family
allotment of Packs The Hat in the Rotten Grass area.
Tribal politics
Small was active in Crow tribal politics. In 1966 she was elected to the position of Vice-Secretary of the Tribal Council, the first woman to hold any office. She served in that position until 1972, and has been active on various committees of the Tribal council.
Deeply interested in education, she was a member of the
Lodge Grass Board of Trustees
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
, serving as Chair for eight years;
Crow Tribal Education Committee; and the 107th Committee of the
Crow Tribal Council. A member of the
Crow Nation
The Crow, whose Exonym and endonym, autonym is Apsáalooke (), also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, th ...
, she was very involved with tribal government.
Small was an active supporter of Indian
rodeo
Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...
for 30 years.
References
External links
* —Article about Pauline Small's support for Indian rodeo
The Minneapolist Institute of Arts€”Quote from Pauline Small
{{DEFAULTSORT:Small, Pauline
1924 births
2005 deaths
Crow tribe
Female Native American leaders
Haskell Indian Nations University alumni
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
People from Lodge Grass, Montana
20th-century Native American women
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native American women
21st-century Native Americans
Native American women in politics