UM Student, Eldena Bear Don’t Walk, Selected for National Leadership Program

Eldena Bear Don’t Walk of Missoula was selected to participate in the Americans for Indian Opportunity’s two-year American Indian Ambassadors Program.

Bear Don’t Walk will be one of sixteen Ambassadors from across the country who will participate in the program, which is designed to help early- to mid-career American Indian professionals strengthen their ability to improve the well-being and growth of their communities within a native cultural context.

Bear Don’t Walk is an independent legal researcher and press relations contractor in Missoula. She is also a December 2003 candidate for a joint law and master’s in public administration degrees at The University of Montana, where she is specializing in federal Indian law and tribal administration. She was a fall 2002 fellow and information officer at the National Indian Telecommunications Institute in Santa Fe, N.M. A former member of the Native American Law Student Association, Bear Don’t Walk currently is developing an American Indian law mentorship program in Montana to educate Indian students on law and advocacy.

As an ambassador Bear Don’t Walk will meet with leading Indian decision-makers and national policy-makers, explore family and tribal histories, develop and implement a community-based project, explore personal "medicine" or inner strength, and strengthen communication skills. She also will attend four weeklong gatherings in communities across the United States and abroad, including Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., Washington, D.C., and Aotearoa, New Zealand. In Aotearoa the ambassadors will visit indigenous Maori communities and interact with emerging Maori leaders.

"We are looking forward to working with this new group of talented and committed individuals," said Laura Harris, AIO executive director. "The most effective leaders in tribal America are those who know their own history and the history of their communities. They are grounded in community identity, yet have a broad world view."

AIO is a national nonprofit advocacy organization based on the Santa Ana Pueblo reservation in New Mexico that draws upon traditional indigenous values to foster enlightened and responsible leadership. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.aio.org.

Contact: Laura Harris, executive director, Americans for Indian Opportunity, (505) 867-0278.