2023 – ADVOCACY

LaNada War Jack, Shoshone-Bannock, is a Native American writer, and activist, she was the first Native American student admitted to the University of California at Berkeley in 1968. War Jack was an Alcatraz Occupation Co-Leader who, with other Native Americans, took over Alcatraz Island in a peaceful protest of the federal government’s ill treatment of Native people and broken treaties with tribes. While a student at UC Berkeley, War Jack participated as the Native American component of the Third Worlds Strike to establish the first Ethnic Studies Program in the University of California statewide university system. Pursuing enforcement of treaty obligations and Native rights, Dr. War Jack was on the board of directors of the Native American Rights Fund for nearly a decade. She has been an elected councilwoman for her tribes and served on many boards both locally and nationally.