Elouise cobell biography template

An entrepreneur, advocate, and member of the Blackfoot Nation, Elouise Pepion Cobell (“Yellow Bird Woman”), fought tirelessly for government accountability and for Native Americans to have control over their own financial future. During her life, she won countless awards, founded the first Native American owned bank, and successfully won a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Government. 

Cobell was born on November 5, on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The middle of nine children, she was the great, great granddaughter of the respected Mountain Chief of the Blackfoot Nation who refused to compromise with the U.S. Government in the nineteenth century. Cobell grew up without running water or electricity and three of her siblings died during childhood. When she was 4, her father successfully got a one-room schoolhouse built on the reservation. She attended that school until high school. 

Cobell grew up hearing stories and complaints from family and friends about the Bureau of

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Women&#;s History Month: Elouise Pepion Cobell

By Great Falls Risingon

Elouise Pepion Cobell, also known as Yellow Bird Woman was a tribal elder and activist, banker, rancher, and lead plaintiff in the groundbreaking class-action suit Cobell v. Salazar (). This challenged the United States&#; mismanagement of trust funds belonging to more than , individual Native Americans. She pursued the kostym from , challenging the government to account for fees from resource leases.

Elouise Pépion was born in on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, the mittpunkt of nine children of Polite and Catherine Pépion. She was a great-granddaughter of Mountain ledare, one of the legendary leaders of the Blackfeet Nation. She grew up on her parents&#; boskap ranch on the reservation. Like many reservation families, they did not have electricity or running vatten. Pépion attended a one-room schoolhouse until high school. She graduated from Great Falls Business College and attended Montan

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Remembering Elouise

By: Katherine Dayton, Director

 

Elouise Cobell

I first met Elouise Cobell in at an event in Montana for The Nature Conservancy. My parents were Nature Conservancy trustees, as was Elouise. As the saying goes, she “had me at hello.” Elouise and I talked awhile by the Blackfoot River, a focal conservation project for the Conservancy. What struck me then, and in every subsequent encounter with Elouise, was her diplomacy and steadfast conviction. She was a listener, too. She was genuinely, reciprocally engaged, and a teacher.

VISIONS has worked on the Blackfeet Reservation since , and throughout the nineteen nineties our service projects often intersected with organizations that Elouise founded. Soon into the conversation with Elouise, we both recognized the potential for a partnership between VISIONS and a couple of the nonprofits under her leadership.

The following summer Elouise became part of our programs in meaningful ways. She joined us for dinn