Rosebud woman joins small list of female tribal leaders

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Rosebud Tribal voters elected their first female tribal president on Thursday. Kathleen Wooden Knife was elected president. Lisa White Pipe was elected vice president.

Wooden Knife had served on the tribal council, according to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe website.

KELOLAND News is working on scheduling an interview with Wooden Knife.

In a recent post on her Facebook account, Wooden Knife said if elected she would start “by building a strong team with integrity, knowledge, experience and values…” She said the team would focus on what is most important from actual visible needs, not “unrealistic or unreachable goals.”

Wooden Knife cited basic life needs of health, jobs, homes and protection of all lands in the Facebook post. She also said preservation of culture and protecting sovereignty were important.

Wooden Knife has been involved in the tribal community for at least several years. Wooden Knife’s Facebook account includes numerous posts about pet care clinics on the Rosebud reservation.

In a 2021 story about the first vet clinic arriving on Rosebud in the American Veterinary Medical Association publication , Wooden Knife provided this statement, “I have dreamed of a clinic for many years—for a place where the tribal communities can access affordable pet health care. Today my dream is becoming a reality.”

Wooden Knife was also involved in the establishment of a homeless shelter on the reservation, according to a U.S. House biography in 2018 and a media reports.

Wooden Knife would be the third female president of one of the nine tribes in South Dakota, according to North Dakota history data and media reports.

Janet Alkire of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was elected its leader in 2021.

Earlier this year, Alkire criticized Gov. Kristi Noem for comments Noem made about tribal lands and Mexican cartels. “Governor Kristi Noem’s wild and irresponsible attempt to connect tribal leaders and parents with Mexican drug cartels is a sad reflection of her fear-based politics that do nothing to bring people together to solve problems,” Alkire said in a news release.

Alkire has been active in the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline project .

In 1946, Josephine Gates Kelly became the first woman in the United States to be elected tribal chair, or president, according to the North Dakota Historical Society.

The historical society and other sources cite the elected, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a historical account from Kelly’s great niece shared by the National Native Children’s Trauma Center do not cite election. BIA uses appointed and Kelly’s great-niece says “became.”

Gates Kelly served three terms as the tribal chairwoman. She remained active in government and politics

Gates Kelly graduated from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. The school’s goal was to force its students to give up their native culture. When Kelly returned to Standing Rock, she embraced her culture and community.

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