Chase Iron Eyes (born March 6, 1978) is a Native American activist, attorney, politician, and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He is a member of the Lakota People's Law Project and a co-founder of the Native American news website ''Last Real Indians''. In April 2016 he announced his candidacy for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

for

North Dakota's at-large congressional district North Dakota's at-large congressional district is the sole congressional district for the state of North Dakota. Based on size, it is the eighth largest congressional district in the nation. The district was represented by Kelly Armstrong who se ...

. He lost to incumbent

Kevin Cramer Kevin John Cramer (born January 21, 1961) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator for North Dakota since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he represented North Dakota's at-large congressional district ...

Career

Iron Eyes graduated from the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (UND) is a Public university, public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. It was established by the Dakota Territory, Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishm ...

with a bachelor's degree in political science and Native American studies. In 2007, he graduated from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, with a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in law (with an emphasis in Federal Indian law). Iron Eyes was also the president of the Native American Law Student Association during his academic career in law school. Iron Eyes is licensed to practice law within the state of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

as well as in the federal courts of both

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

and South Dakota in addition to several tribal court systems. In July 2012, Iron Eyes filed a

civil suit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

in federal court on behalf of Vern Traversie, a blind 69-year-old

Lakota Lakota may refer to: *Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...

man, against a South Dakota hospital. The lawsuit alleged a violation of Traversie's

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

, citing scars that Traversie said were from doctors carving the initials of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

into his abdomen during heart surgery. The hospital stated the marks were a reaction to surgical tape, and in 2015, a jury ruled against Traversie.

Activism

Iron Eyes has used his career as an attorney to advocate for

Native American civil rights Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States. Native Americans are citizens of their respective Native nations as well as of the United States, and those nations are characterized under United Sta ...

. He has served as a staff attorney for the Lakota People's Law Project (LPLP), an initiative founded in 2005 with the purpose of ending the unlawful practice of removing Lakota children from their families and placing them in foster care outside their communities. In the summer of 2016, Iron Eyes and other representatives of LPLP joined with other anti-pipeline protestors near Standing Rock to resist the Dakota Access pipeline. Iron Eyes has actively engaged in the protection of sacred sites. He was instrumental in raising awareness of Pe' Sla, a high mountain prairie situated within the heart of the Black Hills, a sacred site related to Lakota creation beliefs where annual ceremonies, village gatherings, and other traditional activities took place, located north of Deerfield Lake and west of

Black Elk Peak Black Elk Peak, formerly known as Harney Peak, is the highest natural point in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the Midwestern United States. It lies in the Black Elk Wilderness area, in southern Pennington County, in the Black Hills. The pe ...

. This is the area where renowned

visionary

Black Elk Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war lea ...

sought his vision. Another of the sacred sites Iron Eyes has drawn attention to is

Bear Butte Bear Butte is a geological laccolith feature located near Sturgis, South Dakota, United States, that was established as a State Park in 1961. An important landmark and religious site for the Plains Indians tribes long before Europeans reached S ...

. He is also a member of the Bush Foundation's Native Nation Rebuilders program, a leadership development program designed to foster innovative tribal governance practices to effect positive change. He has continued to voice opposition against the drilling of

oil wells An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsatur ...

within the area. In 2016, Iron Eyes announced his candidacy as a member of the Democratic Party for the election to represent

in the

. Speaking to ''

Prairie Public Radio Prairie Public's radio service is a network of ten radio frequencies in North Dakota. It is a service of Prairie Public Broadcasting based in Fargo. Prairie Public maintains active studios in Fargo and Bismarck. It is a member station of Nati ...

'' in April, he said, "I'm running for Congress out of necessity ..I see that our government is broken, and I feel responsible to do my part to try and fix this on behalf of North Dakota", as reported by ''

Indian Country Today Media Network ''ICT'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a nonprofit, multimedia news platform that covers the Indigenous world, with a particular focus on American Indian, Alaska Native and First Nations communities across North America. Fo ...

''.

Personal life

Iron Eyes was raised on the

Standing Rock Indian Reservation The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota controls the Standing Rock Reservation (), which straddles the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lako ...

, and since then has lived in a multitude of places. Chase is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. On June 8, 2022, Iron Eyes and his wife, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, filed legal documents asking a judge to issue court protection against

Ezra Miller Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in '' Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the dramas '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' The Perks of Being a Wall ...

on behalf of their 18-year-old daughter,

Tokata Iron Eyes Tokata Iron Eyes (born August 13, 2003) is a Native American activist and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Iron Eyes was a youth leader of " ReZpect our Water", a campaign against the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and se ...

, due to Miller allegedly using "violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and Lysergic acid diethylamide">LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

Career

Activism

Personal life

Filmography

Electoral history

References

External links