Agnes Louise Cowen (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Stacy; May 1, 1927 – August 29, 1999) was a Cherokee educator and politician who worked on

bilingual education In bilingual education, students are taught in two (or more) languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The t ...

and

language preservation Language preservation is the preservation of endangered or dead languages. With language death, studies in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology lose diversity. As history is remembered with the help of historic preservation, languag ...

initiatives. She served as the first elected female Cherokee Nation tribal councilor, representing the at-large district.

Early life and education

Agnes Louise Cowen was born on May 1, 1927, in Welling, Oklahoma, to John Stacy and Jenny Spade. She attended schools in Welling and later studied at

Northeastern State University Northeastern State University (NSU) is a public university with its main campus in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The university also has two other campuses in Muskogee and Broken Arrow as well as online. Northeastern is the oldest institution of hig ...

where she earned a master’s degree in education.

Career

Education

Cowen worked in education with a focus on bilingual and Native American educational initiatives. She was a language advocate who led the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

language revitalization Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...

efforts in the early 1960s by implementing the Cherokee Bilingual Education Program and developing the first written

Cherokee language file:Cherokee Speakers by County, 2000.png, 350px, Number of speakers file:Lang Status 20-CR.svg, Cherokee is classified as Critically Endangered by UNESCO's ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' Cherokee or Tsalagi (, ) is an endangere ...

lessons through a federal grant. Cowen was the first president of the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education and served as the first elected representative for the Central States on the

National Association for Bilingual Education The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 in the United States. NABE advocates for the development and implementation of bilingual education programs, aiming to address the educational nee ...

Board. She was recognized by the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education as an outstanding educator. She was inducted into the Chilocco Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education Hall of Fame. Cowen's professional affiliations included membership in the Technical Advisory Committee for the First National Indian Bilingual Center, the International Women’s Year Committee, and the ''Directory of American Indian-Alaska Native Women''. She was also associated with the

National Indian Education Association The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) is the only national nonprofit exclusive to education issues for Native Americans in the United States, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people of the United States. History In Ma ...

and the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Politics

Cowen was involved in civic and social organizations, including the Democratic Women Organization. She was a member of the Phi Kappa Delta sorority. Cowen was the first elected female Cherokee Nation tribal councilor. She represented the at-large district. In 1983, Cowen lost by absentee votes in a run-off election for the deputy chief of

post against

Wilma Mankiller Wilma Pearl Mankiller (; November 18, 1945April 6, 2010) was a Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Tribal chief, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah, Oklaho ...

. Cowen demanded a recount and filed a suit with the Cherokee Judicial Appeals Tribunal and U. S. District Court alleging voting irregularities. Both tribal and federal courts ruled against Cowen.

Personal life

On August 6, 1969, Cowen married David Cowen. They lived in

Gore, Oklahoma Gore is a town in western Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 977 at the 2010 census, an increase of 15 percent over the figure of 850 record ...

. She had three children. Her personal interests included gardening, sewing, quilting, and writing. Cowen died on August 29, 1999, in Gore, Oklahoma, at the age of 72. Her funeral was held at Reed-Culver Chapel in

Tahlequah, Oklahoma Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as p ...

, and she was interred at Manus Cemetery.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowen, Agnes 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American politicians Women in Oklahoma politics Members of the Council of the Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation women Native American women in politics 20th-century American women politicians Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Oklahoma Democrats 20th-century American women educators Educators from Oklahoma Native American women educators Northeastern State University alumni People from Cherokee County, Oklahoma People from Gore, Oklahoma