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