Akers, Dolly Smith (1902—)
Akers, Dolly Smith (1902—)
Assiniboine tribal leader and first Native woman elected to Montana state legislature. Born in 1902 in Wolf Point, Montana; educated in southern California at Sherman Institute.
Dolly Smith Akers was the first woman in the history of the Assiniboines to be elected chair of the tribal council, an extraordinary accomplishment considering the Assiniboines—a Siouan tribe of the northern Montana plains—are not by tradition a matriarchal society. Akers was already an active organizer on behalf of her tribe by the early 1930s. In 1934, at the behest of the governor of Montana, she lobbied the Roosevelt Administration in Washington, D.C., to request that all Native tribes in Montana be involved in the new public-welfare act. Later, Akers became the first Native woman to be elected to the Montana state legislature, and served with distinction as chair of the Federal Relations Committee. In 1960, she was the Montana governor's delegate to the White House Congress on Children and Youth. After the death of her husband, Akers retired from public life in order to manage the family's 1,400-acre Montana ranch.
Deborah Jones , freelance writer, Studio City, California