Mildred Imoch Cleghorn (December 11, 1910 – April 15, 1997) was first chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe. Her Apache names were ''Eh-Ohn'' and ''Lay-a-Bet'', and she was one of the last Chiricahua Apaches born under "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural leader.Everett, Dianna
"Cleghorn, Mildred Imoch (1910-1997)"
''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture.'' (retrieved 1 February 09) She worked as a home extension agent and as a

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

teacher. She served as tribal chairperson from 1976 until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture. Mildred Cleghorn and her dolls were participants at the 1967

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the F ...

On June 10, 1996, Indian plaintiffs including Elouise P. Cobell, Mildred Cleghorn, Thomas Maulson and James Louis Larose, filed a
class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to properly manage Indian trust assets on behalf of all present and past individual Indian trust beneficiaries.

Mildred Cleghorn did not live to see the results of the lawsuit, which became known as

Cobell v. Salazar ''Cobell v. Salazar'' (previously ''Cobell v. Kempthorne'' and ''Cobell v. Norton'' and ''Cobell v. Babbitt'') is a class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) and other Native American representatives in 1996 against two departm ...

. It was settled for $3.4 billion in 2009, in the Indians' favor, a week after what would have been Mildred Cleghorn's 99th birthday.

References

External links

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Cleghorn, MildredPhoto of Mildred Cleghorn
poem by Pax Riddle

at the

Carl Albert Center The Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center is a nonpartisan institution devoted to teaching and research related to the United States Congress and, more broadly, to strengthening representative democracy through engaged and infor ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleghorn, Mildred 1910 births 1997 deaths Dollmakers Artists from Oklahoma Apache people Chiricahua Female Native American leaders 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans