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Tribal & Native Lands Advisory Council

Eddie L. Tullis (Chair) is a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the only federally recognized tribe in the state of Alabama, and has served as Tribal Chairman from 1978 to 2006. He is Vice President of the United South and Eastern Tribes, an organization that represents 24 Southern and Eastern tribes on issues of local, regional and national importance. He has served on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Advisory Council since its formation, and has been appointed to this council by two successive Governors of Alabama. Mr. Tullis previously held leadership positions in the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the Native American Rights Fund and is currently an area Vice President of the NCAI.

Pearl Capoeman-Baller is past president of the Quinault Nation Business Committee and treasurer of the National Tribal Environmental Council, which promotes the development of tribal environmental management capacity and advocates the wise management of air, land and water for the benefit of current and future generations.

Joseph B. Day is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa and has served as the Executive Director of the Indian Affairs Council since November 1994. Prior service includes 3 years as the NE Regional Administrator for the Department of Natural Resources 1991-1994 and 9 years as liaison between the 11 tribal governments and the DNR to encourage collaborative resources management. He also served as Director of Administration for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe for 6 years. Joe graduated from DeAnza College in Cupertino, California in the discipline of Industrial Technology-Quality Control, for two laser manufacturing companies.

Elizabeth Furse is a lifelong community organizer and activist for human rights and environmental responsibility. Ms. Furse is the Director of Institute for Tribal Government at the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. This Institute provides tribal leaders with information and leadership skills dealing with tribal, state and federal governance and a wide range of policy issues. She is known for her work on behalf of low-income women, farm workers and Native Americans. Ms. Furse moved to Oregon in 1978, and from 1980 to 1986 she successfully lobbied Congress to pass legislation restoring legal status to three Oregon tribes. In 1996 she was named Special Contributor to Indian Education by the Oregon Indian Education Association. Having served three terms in Congress, Ms. Furse remains a vocal advocate for education, choice, civil rights, and sustainable development.

David H. Getches is the Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado School of Law. He teaches, writes and consults on matters related to water, public lands, the environment, and American Indian law. Mr. Getches was the Founding Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund. He worked on several significant cases involving water rights, fishing and hunting rights, environmental issues, land claims, education, and civil rights on behalf of Native American clients throughout the West. Currently, Mr. Getches chairs the Board of Trustees of the Grand Canyon Trust and the Board of Directors of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies.

Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg. She lives and works on the White Earth Reservation, and is the mother of three children. As Program Director of the Honor the Earth Fund, she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline native environmental groups. She also works as Founding Director for White Earth Land Recovery Project. Winona has received numerous awards and recognition for her work. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, Winona has written extensively on Native American and Environmental issues. She is a former board member of Greenpeace USA and serves, as co-chair, of the Indigenous Women's Network, a North American and Pacific indigenous women's organization. In 1998, Ms. Magazine named her Woman of the Year for her work with Honor the Earth. In 1997, her first novel, Last Standing Woman, was published by Voyager Press. In 1999, South End Press published All Our Relations, a non-fiction book on Native environmental struggles. Winona's editorials and essays have also been published numerous times in national and international journals and newspapers.

Andrew Lee (Seneca) is a vice president at Aetna Inc., one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving nearly 35 million people. Based in Hartford, Connecticut, Mr. Lee heads the Office of Public Policy, which works at the intersection of public policy and business opportunity and seeks to advance the company's thought leadership on health policy issues of national importance. Prior to joining Aetna in 2005, Mr. Lee was the executive director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (1998-2005). From 1996-1998, he worked in the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation. Mr. Lee is a trustee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the vice chairman of the Smithsonian's Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, a member of the board of Indian Dispute Resolution Services, Inc., and a member of the board of governors for the Harvard Project's Honoring Nations tribal governance awards program. He also serves on boards and advisory councils for the National Indian Child Welfare Association, Portland State University, the Trust for Public Land, First Nations Development Institute, and the National Congress of American Indians.

Mr. Lee is co-author of The State of the Native Nations, published by Oxford University Press in 2008, and he also co-authored a chapter on effective social service delivery in Rebuilding Native Nations, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2007. He received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and a master degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Christian A. Johnson Native American fellow and a Woodrow Wilson fellow in public policy and international affairs.

Cheryl Andrews-Maltais is the Chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah located on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. Chairwoman Andrews-Maltais came to her position with over 30 years of involvement and experience in Indian Country and Indian issues. Cheryl has spent most of her life participating in Tribal affairs and traveling in Indian Country. As a young adult, she performed researched for and worked as a historical interpreter at Plimoth Plantation. She has extensive experience in several areas of business; from administration to sales and marketing. She spent over ten years in Boston in various managerial positions including supervisory positions in the mortgage banking industry and in a professional management, motivation and performance evaluation company. She was formerly the New England Regional Sales Manager for a national logistics company for ten years. She began working for the Tribe in 2001 as the Personnel Director then in 2004 moved onto the position of Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. As the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer she protected and preserved the Tribe's and Nation's cultural past, by asserting Tribal Nations' rights under all applicable Federal Laws, Statutes, Regulations and Executive Orders. She was elected as Chairwoman in 2007. In her current capacity she has begun working towards identifying opportunities for economic development and Tribal economic self-sufficiency. She currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Tribal Cultural and Historic Commission where she continues to advocate for Tribal Rights, Sovereignty and Cultural Preservation.

Felicia Marcus is the Western Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. From 2001 to 2008, Felicia was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with The Trust for Public Land and was responsible for helping to manage the organization's 450 employees in over 40 offices across the United States. She was appointed by President Clinton and served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region IX from October 1993 until January 2001. The office addresses environmental issues in California, Arizona, Hawaii, former trust territories in the Pacific, and over 140 federally recognized Indian tribes. In addition to managing the region's nearly 1000 employees, Felicia played a leading role in large scale, historic multi-party negotiations such as the Bay-Delta Accords and subsequent Cal-Fed agreements; the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission and subsequent Western Regional Air Partnership; and U.S.-Mexico Border programs and agreements. In addition to bringing unlikely allies together to make environmental progress, her hallmarks included engaging the public meaningfully in the work of the Agency, building capacity and close working relationships with tribes, leadership on environmental justice issues, and diversity work within the agency. Prior to joining the EPA, Felicia served as the president of the Board of Public Works for the city of Los Angeles. Felicia also has extensive prior experience as a public interest lawyer and community organizer in Los Angeles, with experience in air, water, toxics, and land use matters representing and being a leader of nonprofit groups. Her current volunteer Board involvements include the California League of Conservation Voters, San Francisco Baykeeper, Urban Habitat, Natural Heritage Institute, and the Environmental Law Institute, among others. Felicia received an AB cum laude from Harvard College in East Asian Studies and a JD from New York University where she was a Root-Tilden Fellow. She also studied at Hong Kong University on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship.

Antone Minthorn is Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Chairman Minthorn has also served as chair of the Tribal Economic Development Commission, overseeing development of a resort complex and cultural institute, and as chair of a tribal Land Acquisition Committee. His leadership in restoring lands to the Umatilla Indian Reservation provided the impetus for establishment of the national Indian Land Working Group. Mr. Minthorn is First Vice-President and Regional Director-President of the Associated Tribes of Northwest Indians and serves on the boards of the Northwest Area Foundation, the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council, and the Oregon Historical Society.

Clyde Namu'o is the Administrator for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for the state of Hawaii. Mr. Namu'o began his career as a clerk in the Violation Burea of the State Judiciary and work in the district courts upon completion of college. In 1985, Mr. Namu'o became the Court Administrator of Legal Documents Branch of the First Circuit Court and in 1987 became the Chief Court Administrator. In 1989 and again in 1993 the Chief Justice appointed him as Deputy Administrative Director of the Courts. In 2001, Mr. Namu'o became the Administrator of OHA. Mr. Namu'o holds a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Douglas Nash is Director of the Institute for Indian Estate Planning and Probate at Seattle School of Law. Mr. Nash is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and was chief counsel to the tribe's Executive Committee. Mr. Nash has practiced law privately, with an emphasis on Indian law, and was a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund. He has taught Indian law in a variety of training programs and educational institutions. Mr. Nash received his B.A. from the University of Idaho and his J.D. from the University of New Mexico.

Kristine Olson former U.S. Attorney for Oregon from 1994 to 2001. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Olson served as an assistant United States Attorney, as a legal consultant for several tribal governments concerning cultural resource protection and the development of tribal courts, and as a member of the bi-state Columbia River Gorge Commission. From 1986 through 1994 Kris was the Associate Dean and Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark's Northwestern School of Law. Ms. Olson served as Senior Counsel to Congressman Earl Blumenauer (DEM - 3rd District Oregon).

Marie Ridder serves on the Executive Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Parks Conservation Association. She is on the board of the Sasha Bruce House (a home for troubled children), and she serves on the National Parks System Advisory Board. She also serves on the advisory council of ISAR, an organization that works with the environment in the former Soviet Union. She is Vice-Chairman of the Landmarks Commission for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She also is a board member and former chairman of the Piedmont Environmental Council, an activist land-use management organization. Ms. Ridder is an advisory board member of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, and a former chairman of the Virginia State Parks Commission and the Virginia Council on the Environment. A retired journalist, Ms. Ridder was editor for Conde Nast (Washington editor for Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Glamour magazines). She was a Washington correspondent for the Ridder and, later, Knight Ridder newspapers, and wrote for a wide variety of publications including The Washington Post and Boston Globe. She was also the architectural critic for Washingtonian magazine. Ms. Ridder was Deputy to the National Director of Project Head Start and Liaison to Mrs. Lyndon Johnson from 1964 to 1968. She is also a member of The Trust for Public Land's national board.

Artley Murray Skenandore, Jr., served from 1992 to 1998 as Economic Development manager, then General Manager, of the Oneida Nation. He holds a master's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin and is currently CEO of Swakweko L.L.C., an independent management consulting company that works with business organizations and tribal governments.

Updated 6/2009