The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO GEORGIANNA LINCOLN
For decades, Georgianna has been a force for good in our State. A force of nature, with an indomitable spirit, Georgianna, a Koyukon Athabascan Indian, was born in the village of Rampart, AK, in 1945. She moved to Fairbanks when she was in fourth grade. Like the experience of many Alaska Natives, moving from a small village to a relatively big city was tough. Fairbanks, she said, was ``foreign to me.'' But her mother, Kathryn Evans Harwood, told her repeatedly that she was as good as anyone else--an equal. And that message stayed with her throughout her long career in public service and politics.
``This path is cut clear for me and I am following it, willingly,'' Georgianna later recalled. ``Knowing that, I can take boulders and move them aside because in front of that boulder is green pastures; maybe more trouble, but nothing is insurmountable.''
Indeed, from executive board rooms, to the halls of the State legislature, to communities throughout Alaska that she has worked tirelessly to improve, nothing has been insurmountable for Georgianna. As a young woman in Fairbanks, Georgianna got involved with the Fairbanks Native Association, eventually becoming the executive director of the organization. This was in the 1960s, when the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act--the largest lands claims act in U.S. history--was in full debate. She, along with thousands of Alaska Natives from across the State, advocated tirelessly for the bill, which eventually passed. It redefined Federal Indian policy in Alaska and fundamentally transformed the lives of Alaska Natives.
That was just the beginning for Georgianna. She went on to develop health and education programs in her region, helping to improve the lives of so many. And then she decided to run for the Alaska legislature. She won a seat in the house in 1991, then ran for the senate, where she stayed until 2005. In the legislature, she was a fierce champion of issues impacting women and children, as well as natural resource management. Still today, she is the only Alaska Native woman ever elected to the Alaska State Senate.
Her achievements didn't end there. She became the director of programs for Tanana Chiefs Conference, served as a director on the Alaska Native Heritage Center board, United Bank of Alaska, Alaska Native Health Board, National Indian Health Board, and the North American Indian Women's Association.
Significantly, she dove head first into her work for Doyon starting in 1976, later serving as board chair of the corporation and its subsidiaries--and guiding the corporation through years of remarkable growth. Most recently, she served on the finance committee, shareholder relations committee, and on the Doyon Oil Field Services, Inc., board. She also served as the Doyon representative on the Alaska Federation of Natives board of directors.
Throughout the years, Georgianna has mentored countless Alaskans, focusing especially on Alaska Native women. Channeling her mother, she tells them, ``Know that you are Indian. Know that you are Native and that is enough. Apologize to no one. Be proud of who you are. Learn to love yourself.''
Her service to Doyon--now with 20,400 shareholders, and the largest private landowner in Alaska and one of the largest in North America--
and to all of the various organizations of which she has been part, have been invaluable. But she counts her greatest accomplishments to be her two adult children, Gidget Lincoln and Sean Lincoln, and her nine grandchildren.
We thank Georgianna's family, including her partner Chris Cooke, for sharing her with Alaska. We thank her for the many years of service to our State and congratulate her on such an illustrious career. We wish her all the best in retirement.
``Ana Baasee' Georgianna.''
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 45
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
Alerts Sign-up