Jodi Rave: White House hire also a champion dancer

Politics

Monday, February 9, 2009

"After an eight-year void in the White House, President Barack Obama has appointed an American Indian to a high-profile intergovernmental job to be the “eyes and ears” of Indian Country.

The Obama administration named three people to posts in its intergovernmental affairs office on Friday, including Jodi Archambault Gillette, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Lakota woman will serve as a deputy associate director in an office that functions as a mediator between the administration and state, tribal and local governments.

“This is the first time we've had an American Indian that close to the White House, dealing with intergovernmental affairs,” said David Gipp, president of the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D., where Gillette previously served as director of the Native American Training Institute, a tribally operated nonprofit organization.

Gillette, a North Dakota native, began working for the Obama administration last week. Leading up to the Nov. 2 general election, she served as the North Dakota First American Vote director for the Obama Campaign for Change.

She received her undergraduate degree in government and Native American Studies from Dartmouth College in 1991. In 2002, she was awarded a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship and earned a master's degree in public administration from the University of Minnesota.

Many people also know her as a champion women's traditional dancer, one of many qualities that suit her for the job, said Gipp, who is also from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He expects education, housing, transportation and law enforcement issues to rank among the priority concerns for tribes that seek policy changes through the intergovernmental office."

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Jodi Rave: Obama appoints Native woman to mediator's post (The Missoulian 2/8)