Janine Pease is an American educator and Native American advocate. She is the founding president of the

Little Big Horn College Little Big Horn College is a public tribal land-grant community college on the Crow Indian Reservation in Crow Agency, Montana. It has an open admissions policy and welcomes enrollment from any adult with a high school diploma or GED. The studen ...

as well as the past president of the

American Indian Higher Education Consortium These organizations for post-secondary education have a common purpose and mission for advocacy in numerous areas of both institutional management and the general public interest. The organizations have specific purpose for issues from faculty uni ...

and director of the

American Indian College Fund The American Indian College Fund is a nonprofit organization that helps Native American students, providing them with support through scholarships and funding toward higher education. The fund provides an average of 6,000 annual scholarships ...

. She was appointed by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education and the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities Advisory Council. She has also served as a trustee of the

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

. Pease (then Janine Windy Boy) was the lead plaintiff in a voting rights litigation against Big Horn County (''Windy Boy v. Big Horn County''), the result of which was a

Federal District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

ruling that invalidated at large elections in Big Horn County and the local school district. This was the first successful Voting Rights Act case on behalf of American Indians.Janine Pease: Life and Work
/ref> She also served on the Montana Human Rights Commission.

Early life and education

Pease is a member of the Crow Indian tribe. She was born on the

Colville Indian Reservation The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in Washington (state), Washington state, U.S. It is inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which are List of federally recognized tribes in ...

in Washington where both of her parents worked as educators. She was the first woman of Crow lineage to earn a doctorate degree, from

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It enrolls more students than any other college or university in the state. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's d ...

in 1994. One of her paternal great-grandfathers was White Man Runs Him, one of the Crow scouts who served with

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point ...

. Pease holds two bachelor's degrees from

Central Washington University Central Washington University (CWU) is a public university in Ellensburg, Washington, United States. Founded in 1891, the university consists of four divisions: the President's Division, Business and Financial Affairs, Operations, and Academi ...

. She received her master's from Montana State University in 1987 and her doctorate in adult and higher education in 1994.

Career

Pease has worked for the Governor's Commission on Youth Involvement and in 1975 she served as the Director of the Crow tribe's Adult and Continuing Education Program. She was part of the Crow Central Education Commission and helped to establish the first Crow Indian educational authority, which provided for the education of tribe members on and off the reservation. Pease taught

Native American Studies Native American studies (also known as American Indian, Indigenous American, Aboriginal, Native, or First Nations studies) is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues, spirituality, sociology and co ...

at Big Bend Community College. She was also a counselor at the Navajo Community College and Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University). Pease served as the president of the

from 1982 to 2000. From 2003 to 2008 she held the position of Vice President for American Indian Affairs at Rocky Mountain College. Currently she works as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Fort Peck Community College in

Poplar, Montana Poplar is a city in Roosevelt County, Montana, United States. The population was 758 at the 2020 census. It is the tribal headquarters for the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, though Wolf Point is the most populous. The reservation is home to ...

. Pease is interested in revitalization of the

Crow language Crow (endonym, native name: or ) is a Missouri River Valley, Missouri Valley Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken primarily by the Crow Tribe in present-day southeastern Montana. The word translates to "Children of the Large Beaked Bird" ...

Recognition

Pease is the recipient of several prestigious awards and honors including the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

and the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...

Jeannette Rankin Award, as well as being chosen as the National Indian Educator of the Year in 1990. She was also named "one of the 100 Most Influential Montanans of the Century" by the Missoulian Magazine. She is the recipient of several honorary doctorates and was appointed to the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education in 2006 by Governor Schweitzer. In 2006, Governor Schweitzer appointed her to the

Montana University System The Montana University System (MUS) was created on July 1, 1994, when the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education restructured the state's public colleges and universities, with the goal of streamlining the state's higher education in the wak ...

Board of Regents, where she served from May 2006 to February 2011.

Bibliography

*''The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)'' (

World Wisdom World Wisdom is an independent American publishing company established in 1980 in Bloomington, Indiana. World Wisdom publishes religious and philosophical texts, including the work of authors such as Frithjof Schuon, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Titus ...

, 2007) ntroduction*''Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way'' (

, 2007) ontributor*Native Spirit and The Sun Dance Way DVD (

, 2007) * ''The Spirit of Indian Women'' (

, 2005) oreword *''Light on the Indian World: The Essential Writings of Charles Eastman'' (

, 2002) ntroduction

References

External links

Author Page with slideshows and writing excerpts

at the Crow Fair {{DEFAULTSORT:Pease, Janine MacArthur Fellows Women Native American leaders Crow Tribe people Montana State University alumni People from Roosevelt County, Montana Central Washington University alumni Rocky Mountain College 20th-century American educators Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Native American studies Traditionalist School 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American people 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American people 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American educators