5 Indigenous Women You Need to Know About Who Are Ushering in Change

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For the second year in a row, the United States is celebrating National Indigenous Peoples' Day on October 10.

Last year on October 11, 2021, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation honoring the "invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples," a day that recognizes their "inherent sovereignty and commits to honoring the Federal Government's trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations."

Long before colonization of the Americas began, millions of Indigenous people already lived in what we know today as North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. In the U.S. alone, Alaska Natives, American Indians, and Native Hawaiians have safeguarded valuable traditions and knowledge throughout generations despite the violence inflicted upon them.

Today across the Americas, Native American women have continued the arduous work of preserving the environment, pushing for Indigenous rights, and representing their diverse communities in business, government and the arts.

The below five Chica Bosses are just a few of the women leading the charge.

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Deb Haaland

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland became the first Native American to serve as cabinet secretary in the U.S. She is a 35th-generation New Mexican and a member of the Pueblo of Laguna.

In addition to her historic position, she is one of the first two Native American women in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a single mother and the founder of "Pueblo Salsa," a company she ran while attending law school and caring for her daughter.

Through her work in politics, Haaland has highlighted the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women and the need for more equitable representation.

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Sara Omi

As a proud Embere leader from the Alto Bayano Congress in the Darien forests of Panama, Omi is a lawyer, human rights expert and the President of the Coordinator of Territorial Women Leaders of Mesoamerica.

The 36 year old is the first woman in her community to have studied at a university and has amplified the voices of the Embera women through her profession while defending Indigenous communities against climate change, deforestation and the impact on their lands.

Paulette Jordan

A fighter for natural resources and the environment, Jordan is a member of the Coeur d'Alene community in Idaho. In 2008, she became the youngest person elected to the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Council.

In 2014, she won the race to represent Idaho's 5th District in the Idaho House of Representatives, where she ran for a second term in 2016. In 2018, she became the first Native American woman in U.S. history to run for governor.

Alexandra Narvaez

Narvaez is the first female land patrol member to join Ai Cofán's Sinangoe territory Indigenous patrol in Ecuador.

"We risk our lives to protect our life and our land," Narvaez, told INSIDER. "The Ai Cofán fight is about defending 73,000 hectares that belong to us—our home, our territory."

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Sharice Davids

As the first LGBTQIA+ Native American in Congress, Davids has been fighting for representation and environmental activism throughout the U.S. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation born in Frankfurt, Germany, to a single mother who was a drill sergeant in the army.

She began her work in politics in 2016 when she earned a White House Fellowship and ran for a seat in Kansas at the House of Representatives in 2018.