When LeeAnn Cooper Garrick was a young teen, her father picked her up after school one day and took her to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to apply for her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood card.
Descendant Spotlight: LeeAnn Cooper Garrick
When LeeAnn Cooper Garrick was a young teen, her father picked her up after school one day and took her to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to apply for her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood card.
CIRI shareholder Rhonda Shelford Jansen’s art may evoke images of the past, but it took coming into her own as an adult and evolving past a “fear of failure that begins to diminish when you reach middle age” to commit to the act of creating said art.
Though CIRI shareholder Clinton Ray Lageson spends much of his time collaborating with and advocating for Alaska Native and American Indian people across the U.S., his heart is at home with his Tribe and his family.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, CIRI shareholder Thomas Yates (Athabascan) wanted to fight.
With a background in political science, a heart to help and a passion for activism, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that CIRI descendant Piper Tolbert could one day hold the highest office in the land.
CIRI descendant Caleb King lives in the Midwest, but his heart belongs to Alaska.
CIRI shareholder Ben Baldwin (Inupiaq) can best be described as a Renaissance man.
CIRI descendant Rachel Crosley dedicates two hours per week to the Fairbanks, Alaska, chapter of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization that seeks to support and increase the number of women in computer science.
“When you draw on baleen, everything you see is white, as opposed to pencil and paper, where everything you draw is black. You have to trick your mind to draw white; I was so used to drawing everything that was black.”
A love of Alaska and a passion for helping others shaped the career path of CIRI shareholder Taylor Donovan.