Dear Editor: Thank you for printing "Hats Off to a Determined Woman"

Dear Editor,

Thank you to Betsy Marston for writing the article, “Hats Off to a Determined Woman” about Elouise Cobell, and to Editor Liz Pullman for printing it in the Whitehall Ledger.

Elouise was my cousin. Her mother and my grandmother were sisters. As young girls, we spent time together at my grandmother’s Christmas and Easter dinners in Browning, as I too grew up on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation where my sister and brother still live.

She seemed very shy, so it must have taken great courage to meet with elected and appointed politicians in Washington, D.C. One day I was in my kitchen and I glanced over to the television; there Elouise was on “Sixty Minutes.”

In 1997 she won the MacArthur Genius Award. Later President Obama awarded her posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.

A documentary was made of her struggle for justice for Native Americans against the U.S. Government. It is titled, “One Hundred Years, One Woman’s Fight for Justice;” it can be viewed on Netflix.

Many Native Americans and their descendants have benefited from the Cobell Scholarship. This includes my grandson, who is a Pre-Med student at Montana State University.

Thanks to her colossal efforts, many Native Americans are able to pursue their dreams. This will continue to happen for many years.

Best regards,

Bonnie Brown

Whitehall, Montana