The Nez Perce Tribe honored its first female physician at this fall's Tuxinmepu Pow Wow in the University of Idaho Kibbie Dome.
The achievement marks another step along a path women are following toward careers that will bring leadership and inspiration to their tribe.
Among the pioneers are a doctor, a police officer and a Presbyterian minister, who attribute their successes to education and spirits undaunted by adversity.
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"I feel like it's a privilege every day," says Dr. R. Kim Cunningham-Hartwig, 31, of Spokane.
She graduated from the University of Washington medical school in June, joining fewer than 500 Indian doctors in the United States.
Cunningham-Hartwig was raised in Lapwai, where she graduated from high school in 1991. She played basketball for Loyola Marymount University at Los Angeles until her 1995 graduation with a biochemistry degree.
It never occurred to her there was anything she couldn't do.
"I am the kind of person who decides if I want to do something, I'm going to do it."
The mother of three "little angels," ages 5, 3 and 1, she says without the help of her husband, Jack M. Hartwig, she wouldn't be a doctor.
"I had our first baby at the end of my first year of medical school. The statistics (for becoming a doctor) are low for a Native American student, period, let alone a Native American who has children."
Now she works 65- to 70-hour weeks at a family medicine clinic in Spokane. Her three-year residency means she is much closer to a goal she declared as a junior high student in Lapwai: to be a doctor for her people.
"I want to go home and provide the tribe with somebody they know is going to be there for a long period of time."
As a family doctor, she will work with children as well as elders. She plans to bring a community-based approach to her tight-knit tribal community. One area of focus will be prevention through education.
"Type II diabetes is affecting younger and younger people and it's a preventable disease," she says. "It's a travesty."
Cunningham-Hartwig says her dream of returning to the reservation is still several years down the road.
"I want to mature medically before I come home."
Regardless, her colleagues have already taken note of her skills as a physician.
"One colleague just asked me to be their baby's physician," she says. "It's quite an honor."
Cunningham-Hartwig hopes her success can inspire other Nez Perce youth to reach for their dreams.
"I think it's really important for me to interact with the kids. Just exposing them to a Native American doctor and giving children the insight that you can be what you want to be -- teachers or carpenters or lawyers or reporters, whatever field they want to go into, they can do it."
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Lewiston Police Officer Leslie Hendrick, 49, has made a career of service and firsts.
Hendrick, who lives in Lewiston and is married to a fellow police officer Keith Hendrick, made an early entrance into public service.
In 1973, as a Lapwai High School student, Hendrick (formerly Jackson) became the first Nez Perce tribal member to serve as a page in the Idaho Legislature.
She assisted 10 legislators in Boise and updated legislative books by inserting the new laws. Hendrick says the work was basically being "a glorified go-fer."
But Hendrick took her job seriously and was critical of lawmakers when they appeared to take their responsibilities lightly.
Her outspoken criticism once earned her a talking to by Republican Speaker of the House William J. Lanting.
"I talked to a newspaper lady," recalls Hendrick.
The reporter asked her about her impressions of the Legislature and Hendrick related a tradition that involved placing a stuffed crow on the desk of the legislator whose bill had received the fewest votes, signifying he had "to eat crow."
"It was all giggles and laughter. I thought it was childish."
The next day the Idaho Statesman ran a headline, "Aide Chides Legislature as Childish."
Lanting took her into his office and advised her not to criticize the state as an employee, and not to talk to reporters anymore.
Also while in high school, Hendrick served on a committee that reviewed Idaho history textbooks for derogatory depictions of Indians.
"We were looking for key words like 'savage' and 'pagans' and 'heathens' ... and just how we were written about."
Because of the committee's work, at least three textbooks were removed from Idaho public schools.
Hendrick also was the first Nez Perce woman to be named to the National Honor Society, and 17 years ago, became the first Nez Perce woman on the Lewiston police force.
"I had to do everything twice as good," says Hendrick.
But she says being Nez Perce is an asset on the job. It makes her recognizable to the public and she is generally greeted with warmth. Also, when she sometimes has to arrest fellow tribal members, they treat her with deference.
"They say, 'That's my cuz. That's my sister.'"
Although she stands only 5 feet, 1 inch tall "in her moccasins," Hendrick says she has learned to command respect. She has twice been named American Legion Officer of the Year.
"You don't have to be 6-foot-5 to do the work. ... It's how you carry yourself."
Hendrick sometimes speaks to students about careers for women and encourages young people to consider a career in law enforcement.
She tells them when she was in high school, careers for women were limited to nursing, teaching, being a clerk or secretary or homemaking. Now, the world is wide open to those who stick to their studies.
"I like the adage, 'You miss school, you miss out,' " says Hendrick. "You have to have the education."
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Rev. Mary Jane Miles, 63, of Tuba City, Ariz., trod a rocky path to a nontraditional career.
"My calling came really late in life," says Miles. "But I had an elderly mentor encouraging me for years and years."
Miles, a 1958 Lapwai High School graduate originally from Kooskia, has three grown children and two grandsons. When her sister died, Miles raised two nephews and a niece.
She says her life was difficult and she struggled through domestic violence. That experience, however, gives her a special ability to minister to women who deal with alcohol or spousal abuse.
"It's something that I've been through," Miles explains. "Women feel a lot more comfortable with me than they might with a male minister."
Miles was ordained June 28 at the Talmaks Presbyterian Camp near Winchester. The achievement makes her the first Nez Perce woman Presbyterian minister.
"I find myself very humbled to have come to this point in my life. And I am a very joyful person."
Miles attended Bacone Indian College in Muskogee, Okla. She earned a social science degree at Lewis-Clark State College in 1974 and became a social worker in Lapwai. In 2001, Miles earned her master of divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.
Miles is the daughter of the late Rev. David J. Miles. As an Indian and a Christian, Miles says it was difficult reconciling the two backgrounds.
"I always wondered about Native American religion and Christianity. I always felt like I wasn't really being fed what I needed. ... I used to study the Bible quite a bit."
After years of soul-searching and study, Miles arrived at the belief that Nez Perces have a strong Christian desire within them. She cites four Nez Perce warriors who journeyed in 1831 to St. Louis, Mo.
"They went back looking for the Book of Heaven."
Although historians debate whether the men were looking for the Bible or for technology, Miles is certain they wanted the Bible. The debate has to do with "younger people, almost in defiance I think, trying to claim their roots, which is fine," says Miles.
As a Christian Indian, her interpretation of the journey gives her inspiration, she says.
Miles now ministers to a Navajo population in a town near the Grand Canyon. She sits on national Presbyterian boards and represents her church in Tuba City meetings.
"They have just welcomed me with that love that Jesus talks about."
Miles does not know how she fits as role model for other Nez Perce women.
"I don't really feel that a lot of the women will follow me into the ministry."
Her father, who was a traditional man, might have raised his eyebrows at the notion, she says.
"Sometimes I think he's looking down from Heaven and saying, 'What are you doing behind the pulpit?' "
But from the pulpit, Miles can help women who are trapped in a cycle of violence.
"You don't have to live like that. That's my message."
And for children, especially Indian children, Miles says they should follow their dreams.
"Live life to its fullest. It's a beautiful life when you're doing what you want to do."
Although Arizona is now her home, Miles has not forgotten her roots in Kooskia or her time in Lapwai. She says she is proud of the accomplishments of Nez Perce women such as Cunningham-Hartwig and Hendrick.
"I would be honored to be in their company."
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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson@lmtribune.com