1/28/21
January 28, 2021
CSKT Chairwoman Shelly Fyant to join lecture group on February 3
From Char-Koosta News
MISSOULA — CSKT Chairwoman Shelly Fyant will join the Mansfield Dialogues lecture group to discuss "Disproportionate Impacts on Native Communities" at the University of Montana in the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center on February 3 at noon. Fyant will join Kaci Wallette, Councilwoman of the Fort Peck Tribes. The session will be moderated by Cora Neumann, founder of We Are Montana.
Tribal leaders across Montana have remained vigilant in their COVID response, at times going beyond state and federal restrictions to keep their communities safe. Despite these efforts, Native communities continue to experience devastating fatality rates: Native Americans comprise 6.7 percent of Montana's population but 30 percent of COVID deaths. This panel will explore the role systemic inequalities play in these outcomes and highlight the courageous leadership of Native leaders on the front lines.
The Mansfield Dialogues is a public lecture series designed to bring community together to discuss critical issues in international engagement and ethics in public affairs.
Chairwoman Fyant is the current chairwoman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenani Tribes and the councilmember for the Arlee district. She was raised in Arlee and graduated from Ronan High School in 1975. She obtained an AA degree in Liberal Arts from Haskell University in 1978 and later returned to the University of Montana for a degree in Business Administration in 1989. She is an avid UM Griz football fan, and a gardener and beader. Her spare time is spent in the mountains with family including her four sons, seven grandchildren and one great granddaughter. She’s a supporter of the food sovereignty initiative and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People efforts.
Councilwoman Wallette is an enrolled member of the Ft. Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. She was born and raised in Wolf Point. She obtained her degree in Nursing from Montana State University-Northern in Havre. Miss Wallette has worked in the public health sector including youth mental health, social services and case management. She is currently employed part time as a Nurse with Northeast Montana Health Services at the Poplar Community Hospital and is serving her second term as a Tribal Executive Board member for the Ft. Peck Tribes where she is Chairwoman of the Economic Development and Vice-Chairwoman of Health & Human Services Committees. Kaci also sits on the National Indian Health Board as the Billings Area representative, is a member of the Benefis Native American Board and was also appointed to Governor Gianforte’s COVID-19 Task Force team. She is passionate about improving the health disparities for those that she represents. She is a proud mother of two children, son Tade and daughter Kashlyn.
Dr. Cora Neumann is a public health expert, and recently founded We Are Montana to support public health leadership across rural and Native Montana. Over the past 20 years, she has collaborated with local and national leaders, including First Ladies in the US and worldwide, to bring quality, accessible health care to their communities – including during the current COVID outbreak. She most recently ran for U.S. Senate in her home state of Montana and serves on the boards of Columbia University School of Public Health and HAVEN and is a member of COVID Local and the Montana Public Health Association. Cora grew up and is based in Bozeman, surrounded by four generations of family, from her grandmother to her two teenage children.
To register for the event, click here.
Originally published in the Char-Koosta News.