Getting the big picture
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

Activist says families are the foundation of her work, which ranges from local to international issues

It is the same view her parents saw, and she still lives on the same ground as her mother and father.

"It's always there," she said. "It reminds you of who you are, where you come from, why you have to get up and go to work every morning."

When Small gets up for work, she steps into the offices of Native Action, a nonprofit activist group where she serves as director. Her focus is on sustainable development, economics, maintaining tribal culture, and her work ranges from local issues to international concerns.

"It's a great job," she said. "It's given me a way to see the big picture."

Her first glimpse of the big picture came as a teen-ager, back when Lame Deer had no high school and Indian students were shuttled off to Colstrip for classes. It was the height of the coal boom, she said, and Colstrip was awash in newcomers who knew nothing of Indians except the stereotypes that have dogged her people for generations.

"We were really treated badly as Indian students," she said. "They called us 'prairie niggers,' everything you can imagine. We had to really fight just to hold our ground."

Meanwhile, back on the reservation, activism was on a roll, as the tribe fought the federal government over natural resources. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had sold about half of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation's coal reserves for 17 cents a ton, and the Cheyenne were not happy about it.

"I was involved in all that," Small said. "We grew up in a very politically engaged family."

Her activism and interest in learning took her all the way to Missoula, where she earned a degree in sociology and met strong Indian women mentors such as educator Henrietta Mann. She later returned home, worked as a sociologist during the coal wars, and finally claimed victory in the battle with the federal government.

"It was a huge victory," she said. "It set a major national precedent."

It also set her on a course to learn more about natural resource litigation and Indian law. Small moved to Oregon, enrolled in law school, and after graduation traveled to northern California where she engaged in the battle for Indian fishing rights on the Klamath.

Then back home to fight proposed oil and gas leases on her family's reservation before founding the nonprofit activist group in 1984.

Between all the battles, Small found time to get married and raise four children.

"I never set out to be a tribal leader or any other kind of leader," Small said. "I think that's the way it is for most Indian women. We don't want to lead, necessarily. We just want to help out, raise our kids. But women have had to pick up this leadership responsibility by necessity. Things have gotten so far out of control here in Indian Country that if Indian women don't step up and share in the tribe's leadership, then the reservations are going to collapse into a crisis they cannot recover from."

These days, much of Small's community work is overshadowed by that of her sister, Geri, who last year was elected as the first woman president of the Northern Cheyenne.

"Geri is trying to rebuild the entire reservation water system," Small said. "She's trying to rebuild the roads and the infrastructure. These aren't sexy issues. These aren't battles with the government over sovereignty or Indian rights. This is the grunt work, the work in the trenches. We're rebuilding a nation from the ground up."

But they are doing so with a decidedly woman's touch. The emphasis, aside from infrastructure, is on education, child welfare, health care, family support, and that is a marked change from business as usual over the past 100 years.

"We have to engage and empower families first," Small said. "Families are the backbone of our leadership strength. Without family, we have no power."

Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at (800) 366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com.