Lilakai (Lily) Julian Neil (1900 – 1961) was the first woman elected to the Navajo Tribal Council. After a serious automobile accident, she withdrew from public service. In September 1947, Neil wrote a letter to Mr. Beatty, the General Director of Indian Education for the Education Division of the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

. In her letter she was critical of the double bind placed upon the Navajo residents in the chapter that she represented (Delegate to the Navajo Nation Tribal Council, district 19). On the one hand the government encouraged the Navajos to get education so that they could get better employment and become self-sufficient. On the other hand, the government neglected agreements to supply adequate education and schools placed roadblocks to Navajos getting the necessary education. She pointed out that in the period after World War “when the (US) government is making all these big loans to foreign countries… Who tried to ruin us…, it seems as if they would try to do something for their poor little neglected children or wards at home who they made treaties with but most of them were never kept…”. This portion of the letter was cited by other authors to emphasize the mood of the Native Americans about post-war race relations and proposals to improve economic status of the Navajo Nation by dividing into four parts corresponding to the separate boundaries in the four states of the Four Corners. Neil testified in hearings about the immunity of Indian territories from state jurisdiction and the tribal self-determination policy of the twentieth century. Neil is associated with the founding of La Vida Mission, a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

mission center for the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...

Farmington, New Mexico Farmington (Navajo language, Navajo: Tóta') is a city in San Juan County, New Mexico, San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 46,624 people. Farmington (and ...

. A church at the mission, “Lily Neil Memorial Chapel”, is named in her honor.La Vida Mission History

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neil, Lilakai Julian Native American women in politics Navajo Nation politicians Women Native American leaders 1900 births 1961 deaths People from Crownpoint, New Mexico 20th-century American women 20th-century American people 20th-century Native American people 20th-century Native American women

See also

References