WE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND TRIBAL AND GOVERNMENT RESOURCES FOR THE SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND VISION TO BE SELF-SUFFICIENT. WE ALSO NEED TO LOOK TO OUR TRADITIONS TO BECOME AS CREATIVE, RESOURCEFUL, AND SOVREIGN AS WE WERE IN THE OLD DAYS.
-Peggy White Wellknown Buffalo
Peggy White Wellknown Buffalo is the founder and Executive Director of the Center Pole.
Peggy White Wellknown Buffalo grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. As a child, Peggy studied at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Montana.
When she was older, she had the opportunity to work with bilingual education in Kansas and as an optical technician in Alaska.
When Peggy returned to the Crow reservation over 20 years ago, she worked for the Crow Tribe as a community health worker. After being a tribal employee for two decades, she realized that in order to provide a positive environment for Crow children, she needed to take action.
In 1999, she founded the Center Pole on her family's land as a center to empower American Indian children through entrepreneurship, cultural knowledge, and education.
Peggy was featured in Montana Folks as a "Native American Entrepreneur" and named one of 57 personalities that make Montana unique.Â
Peggy and the Center Pole were featured in the October 2008 issue of National Georgraphic Traveler.
Peggy's creativity, commitment and hardwork have led the Center Pole to be ranked as one of the leading organizations for social justice in the United States by the Ford Foundation and the Advocacy Institute of Washington, DC.
In February 2009, Peggy received the award for Youth Entrepreneurship of the Year from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.
In June 2009, Peggy was awarded a Petra Fellowship for her work and leadership at the Center Pole in Montana.Â
Contact Peggy at
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