Kevin Killer | |
---|---|
44th President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe | |
In office December 4, 2020 –December 9, 2022 | |
Vice President | Alicia Mousseau |
Preceded by | Julian Bear Runner |
Succeeded by | Frank Star Comes Out |
Member of the South Dakota Senate from the 27th district | |
In office 2017–2019 | |
Preceded by | Jim Bradford |
Succeeded by | Red Dawn Foster |
Member of the South DakotaHouseofRepresentatives from the 27th district | |
In office 2009–2017 | |
Preceded by | Jim Bradford |
Succeeded by | Steve Livermont |
Personal details | |
Born | May 4,1979 |
Political party | Democratic |
Residence(s) | Pine Ridge,South Dakota,U.S. |
Alma mater | Oglala Lakota College |
Kevin Killer (Oglala Sioux) (born May 4,1979) is a Native American activist and politician. He served as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (2020-2022). He served as a Democratic member of the South Dakota House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017 and the South Dakota Senate from 2017 to 2019,representing the 27th district. [1] He lives in Pine Ridge,South Dakota.
In November 2020,he was elected president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. [2] [3] He was defeated in his 2022 re-election bid by Frank Star Comes Out. [4] [5]
Killer grew up in Denver,Colorado,where his father Francis (Oglala Sioux) was a CPA. [6] His mother Janice (Kiowa tribe) is from Oklahoma. When young,Killer returned to his father's Oglala people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation every summer,in order to know them and the land. After his father died when Killer was 20,he was helped by mentors.
Killer graduated from Oglala Lakota College,a tribal college.
In 2004,as an aide to then United States Senator Tom Daschle,he had his first experience in politics. [7] The first Tribal College Fellow for Young People For,a youth leadership development organization,Killer expanded the group's tribal college network in 2009 into a Native American-led group called the Native Youth Leadership Alliance. [8]
Killer was first elected to the South Dakota state legislature as a Representative in 2008. He served on the House State Affairs Committee,which has an important role in moving legislation forward,and its Judicial Affairs Committee. In 2016 he was elected to the State Senate from District 27. [7] In 2015,he was a Bush Fellow. [8]
Since 2010 he has been director of the Native American Youth Leadership Alliance,which seeks to build youth leaders among the people of the reservations. [9] Killer has noted that a high percentage of residents on the reservations are under age 18. [7]
In 2019,Killer became a senior fellow at Prism. [10] He is noted as being the co-founder of Advance Native Political Leadership,a non-profit that aims to expand indigenous representation in elected and appointed offices across the United States. [11]
Concurrent to his political work,Killer has been involved as an actor and executive producer on two short films,Running Shadow and Istinma. [12]
He is in a relationship with Sarah Eagle Heart (Oglala Sioux),a non-profit leader,film producer and activist also from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux,they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people,with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language,the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions:the Dakota and Lakota peoples. Collectively,they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ,or "Seven Council Fires". The term "Sioux",an exonym from a French transcription ("Nadouessioux") of the Ojibwe term "Nadowessi",can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.
Bennett County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census,the population was 3,381. Its county seat is Martin. The county lies completely within the exterior boundary of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. To the east is the Rosebud Indian Reservation,occupied by Sicangu Oyate,also known the Upper BruléSioux Nation and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST),a branch of the Lakota people.
Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1865 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War,which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the 1866 Fetterman Fight,with 81 US soldiers killed;it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,also called Pine Ridge Agency,is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota,with a small portion of it extending into Nebraska. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation,Pine Ridge was created by the Act of March 2,1889,25 Stat. 888. in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border. It consists of 3,468.85 sq mi (8,984 km2) of land area and is one of the largest reservations in the United States.
Whiteclay is a census-designated place in Sheridan County,Nebraska,United States. The population was 10 at the 2010 census.
The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Sioux,who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. It included all of present-day western South Dakota and modern Boyd County,Nebraska. This area was established by the United States as a reservation for the Teton Sioux,also known as the Lakota:the seven western bands of the "Seven Council Fires".
The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota,United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe,who are Sicangu,a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name Sicangu Oyate translates as the "Burnt Thigh Nation",also known by the French term,the BruléSioux.
Cecilia Fire Thunder is a nurse,community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2,2004,she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeached on June 29,2006,several months short of the two-year term. The major controversy was over her effort to build a Planned Parenthood clinic on the reservation after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state. The tribal council impeached her for proceeding without gaining their consensus.
Alex White Plume is the former vice president and president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation,located on South Dakota of the United States. He served as president from June 30,2006 to November 2006 after Cecilia Fire Thunder was impeached.
Richard A. Wilson was elected chairman of the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota,where he served from 1972–1976,following re-election in 1974.
The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who,along with the Dakota,make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota,the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States.
Theresa B. "Huck" Two Bulls was an attorney,prosecutor and politician in the United States and the Oglala Sioux Tribe. In 2004 she was elected as Democratic member of the South Dakota Senate,representing the 27th district,the first American Indian woman to be elected to the state legislature. She served until 2008. That year Two Bulls was elected as president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation,the second woman to serve in this position. She served one term,which was two years.
The Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) was an American paramilitary group established in 1972 by Oglala tribal chairman Dick Wilson under authority of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. It operated on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the early 1970's,and was disbanded after a new chairman was elected in 1976.
Oglala Lakota College (OLC) is a public tribal land-grant community college in Kyle,South Dakota. It enrolls 1,456 students enrolled part- and full-time. OLC serves the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,which has a population of about 26,000 and covers 3,468 square miles in southwestern South Dakota.
John Yellow Bird Steele is an American politician. He was the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe for 14 years. Akim Reinhardt described him as "arguably the most successful Pine Ridge politician of the IRA era".
Bryan V. Brewer was president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe from 2012 to 2014.
Julian R. Bear Runner is a former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe from 2018 to 2020. When elected,Bear Runner was the second-youngest person ever elected as president of the tribe.
Sarah Eagle Heart is a Native American producer,writer,and activist. She serves as CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation,a grantmaking group founded in 2020 first to get out the vote.
Alicia Mousseau is the Vice President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe,whose lands include the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This is her second term in this position. She is reportedly the first lesbian to hold a position on her tribe's executive council.