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LaDonna Harris, a Comanche woman born in
1930 in Walters, Oklahoma, is a well-known
political activist. Once shy and retiring, but
nonetheless aware of the inequities of being an
Indian in America, LaDonna blossomed during
her marriage to Fred R. Harris, who was
later a U.S. senator from Oklahoma and candidate
for president. She put her personality
and many talents to work as the founder of
Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity (OIO), a
Native American charitable and educational
nonprofit organization. OIO expanded into
civil rights activities in the 1960s and was the
forerunner of Americans for Indian Opportunity,
with its flagship Ambassadors program,
a nationwide project headed by Harris.
The Ambassadors project takes some of the
nation's brightest and most promising young
Indian professionals through an intensive
one-year program aimed at rekindling and reinforcing
the use of the tribal values in a modern
context.
Harris's work takes her all over the country,
including Washington DC, where she is well
known in Congress as a fighter for, and defender
of, Indian rights and programs. She is
in demand as a speaker, both locally and nationally,
and frequently leaves her home in
Bernalillo, New Mexico, to travel in support of
Indian issues. Publicly acknowledged by various
Indian and non-Indian organizations as a
successful activist, LaDonna remains at heart
a Comanche woman and returns frequently to
her Oklahoma roots, often accompanied by
one or more of her three adult children and
one grandchild, to draw strength and vitality
from her heritage.