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Women's liberation is old hat to Mrs. Dolly Cusker Akers, an Assiniboine Indian leader in Montana, who has been competing with men and the system for most of her 69 years.
"I haven't thought too much about women's lib," she says. "I've always had enough liberty and never felt the need to compaign for more. Indian women have always been the boss. Their men walk in front and the wife several paces behind, but that doesn't mean she's not the boss. She's probably telling him where to walk."
"I've never felt any resentment from any men because of my work. They have always been quite willing to let me pull their chestnuts out of the fire."
Mrs. Akers has been in the forefront of the struggle for Indian rights since 1920, when she journeyed to Washington, D.C. as an interpreter for leaders of her tribe in their dealings with the Federal government.
Since then she has chalked up an enviable record of pulling chestnuts from the fire in a long, distinguished career. She was the first woman of her tribe to be elected chairman of the tribal council, and the first American Indian woman elected to the Montana State legislature, garnering 100% of the Indian vote.
Her most recent honor came when she was appointed to the Montana State Advisory Committee of the Farmers Home Administration, the rural credit service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mrs. Akers lives on a 1400 acre ranch at Wolf Point, Montana, her birthplace, and serves as advisor and special advocate for some 30,000 Indians on seven reservations in the state. These include the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne...