Here’s an editorial from the Great Falls Tribune on Elouise Cobell and the recent announcement of her battle with cancer:
Blackfeet Tribal member and crusader of the rights of Indian-landowners, past and present, we imagine Elouise Cobell wasn’t real thrilled when the news of her recent cancer surgery splashed across newspapers —national and local — and news wires.
The 65-year-old told the Associated Press that she underwent surgery April 22 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
“It was a serious cancer and it was discovered quickly, and fortunately the Mayo Clinic did a good job,” she said in a phone interview. “The doctor said it (the surgery) was 99 percent successful.”
She is recovering at her son’s house in Las Vegas and said she is planning to return to Montana after she gets back her strength, possibly next week. She said she will have to undergo chemotherapy.
Who wants the world to know when you’ve just embarked on what sounds like a pretty serious health battle? Not many of us.
But please know this spotlight on your personal matter is shining because of the well-earned respect we collectively hold for you, Ms. Cobell.
We’ve poked fun at the activist for her inability to sit on the sidelines as an observer when it comes to causes she believes in — thank goodness. Generally, the accountant by trade is fighting for causes involve finances of Indian people.
In the mid-1980s after several failed attempts to get a bank to locate a branch in Browning, Cobell — then treasurer of the Blackfeet Tribe — lead the successful effort to open on, the Blackfeet National Bank.
From that vantage point, Cobell identified the need for and then implemented programs to enhance financial literacy among all ages on the Blackfeet Reservation.
This is a woman who knows how to get things done … and also to have fun.
She spearheaded and chaired a fundraising extravaganza in East Glacier Park, with the goal of creating an endowment to provide capital for projects in Blackfeet Nation.
For journalists, Cobell is a dream source.
If you want to find out something about a new business initiative or fiscal policy or reserve account or fee, she knows the details or she knows whom to put you in touch with.
On the national stage, she is known as the woman who successfully sued the federal government over mismanagement of Indian tribal-trust resources.
In 2009, she and her fellow plaintiffs reached a landmark $3.4 billion settlement with the Obama administration, a deal Congress approved last year.
And in 1997, Cobell was recognized for her efforts with a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
For her battle with the federal government, Cobell was honored in 2000 as a warrior of the Blackfeet Nation, a distinction usually reserved for war veterans.
Dartmouth College will award Blackfeet Indian leader Elouise Cobell an honorary degree next month.
Cobell and eight others are to receive honorary degrees from Dartmouth at the college’s June 12 commencement.
Other recipients will include former President George H.W. Bush, comedian Conan O’Brien, actress Ruby Dee and New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.
We send her positive wishes, prayers and hopes for a speedy victory in this health battle.
Forgive us for the invasion of your privacy, Ms. Cobell, but please know, the interest is rooted in the respect and admiration we hold for you.
