US Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK) poses during a photo session after a campaign event in Anchorage, Alaska on September 17, 2022. – Peltola is the state’s first Indigenous national legislator elected to Congress.
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
On September 13, Mary Peltola made history as the first Alaska Native sworn into Congress.
Peltola told Insider she was on the fence about running until an encouraging call from her father.
The congresswoman describes herself as pro-jobs, pro-fish, pro-family, and pro-choice.
Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola almost missed her opportunity to represent Alaska: A few days before the deadline to declare her candidacy in the special election to fill the late Rep. Don Young’s seat, she was undecided whether she’d run.
The night before making her decision, her father called. “He said, ‘I know that this is your decision. I just want to say one thing. You are as well positioned as anyone in Alaska to run for this and win this seat,'” she told Insider.
Her dad’s words were imperative, she said, because there were people who didn’t take her candidacy seriously. “There are so many reasons not to do something and oftentimes there’s more reason not to do something than to do something. So to have that kind of encouragement was really critical for me,” she said.
The next day, she declared her candidacy.
Peltola found out the results of the special election on August 31, on her 49th birthday. She defeated Republican Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor, and Republican Nick Begich III.
Her dad called again and said, “Well, it took 49 years but you finally had a really good birthday.”
Growing up commercial fishing on the Kuskokwim River in Southwest Alaska, Peltola’s birthdays were usually spent on the water during one of the last days of the cold and rainy fishing season. “This year made up for all those other years,” she said.
Pro-jobs, pro-fish, pro-family, and pro-choice
Peltola describes herself as, “pro-jobs, pro-fish, pro-family, and pro-choice.”
In her early 20s, she began representing the Bethel region, located in Western Alaska, in the Statehouse where she rebuilt the Bush Caucus, a non-partisan group of lawmakers representing rural parts of the state. According to her campaign website, she helped pass legislation and increase budgets to improve the lives of people in rural Alaska.
After winning the special election, her first piece of legislation was the Food Security for all Veterans Act, which would create an office of food security within the Department of Veterans Affairs and was passed on September 29.
US Representative Mary Peltola is welcomed by supporters before a campaign event at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1547 in Anchorage, Alaska on September 17, 2022.
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Peltola credits a number of people for helping her get to where she’s at. She remembers going to a meeting with her father when she was around seven years old after one of the local fisheries had closed. The fishermen were angry.
As Peltola looked around the room, she saw a petite, young woman in the center of the meeting. It was DeeDee Jonrowe, a well-renowned dog musher and Iditarod racer. “She ran that meeting like a boss. She did not flinch,” she said. “On some level, I know that had a very strong impression on me.”
Jonrowe wasn’t the only one to leave a mark. Peltola became emotional when speaking about her paternal grandmother who grew up on a farm in Nebraska. “She used to say to me when I was a teenager, ‘Every day is a gift from God and you never get that day back. You have to make sure that every day, you are as productive as you possibly can be,'” she said.
Over the past month, the congresswoman has been putting in long hours, sometimes working up to 20 hours per day. She said her thoughts wander to the woman who helped raise her often. “I’ve been thinking, ‘Well grandma, I certainly haven’t wasted any part of this day.’ She’s really been on my mind a lot lately,” she said.
Peltola is the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress
On September 13, Peltola was sworn into Congress, making history as the first Alaska Native. During the ceremony, she wore white and dark brown mukluks. When she was thinking about what to wear that day, she remembered her mother’s stepsister who made her a pair of what she referred to as pilugguqa — or mukluks — when she was a child. “She’s definitely one of the role models in my life,” Peltola told Insider.
—Mary Peltola (@MaryPeltola) September 14, 2022
As a Yup’ik woman, Peltola is proud of her culture. She knows her role is significant and is happy to be part of the growing diversity in the House of Representatives. Peltola is one of six Indigenous Americans in Congress, joining the ranks of politicians like Rep. Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and Rep. Kai Kahele, a Native Hawaiian.
The day Peltola was sworn into office, Rep. Kahele commemorated it by posting a photo to Twitter of himself, Davids, and Peltola, saying, “It has taken 233 years for the U.S. Congress to be fully represented by this country’s Indigenous peoples.”
Kahele is part of the Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group that works to protect tribal sovereignty and amplify the voices of Indigenous people in policy discussions. He told Insider the caucus has an obligation to bring attention to Indigenous communities, “especially those that have experienced generational trauma in our country.”
That trauma includes the forced removal of Indigenous people from their ancestral lands by European settlers beginning in the 17th century, as well as children who were sent to oppressive boarding schools from which many never returned home.
Kahele said the growing presence of Indigenous representatives serves as an example for young people who may be inspired to one day work in politics.
“At the end of the day it’s representation. Representation matters and it’s really important,” he told Insider.
‘We built the table’
When Dr. Michele Yatchmeneff, the Executive Director for Alaska Native Education and Outreach at The University of Alaska Anchorage found out about Peltola’s win, she teared up. “It’s just amazing that this has happened and I’m proud to be Alaska Native and proud that we have that representation now in Congress,” she told Insider.
Yatchmeneff is Unangax̂ (Aleut) and from a large commercial fishing industry town. She also knows what it’s like to break barriers. Yatchmeneff is one of the only Alaska Natives to hold a PhD in Engineering Education, she said. “When people are the first at things, they’re always told, ‘Now you have a seat at the table.’ And what I like to connect is that because Indigenous people have been here for thousands of years, we built the table. We’re not just at a seat at it,” she said.
She told Insider she’s happy to hear Peltola speak up for rural Alaskans, as well as highlight industries that are crucial to many people in the state, such as fishing,
“All of our cultural base and things that we do revolve around salmon. I’m just so happy that she’s keeping that at the forefront in terms of the state and livelihood and also Indigenous livelihood,” she said.
In November, Peltola will again face Republican opponents Sarah Palin and Nick Begich during the midterms. Polling ending on October 8th showed Peltola three points ahead of Begich.
Despite Peltola being a Democrat, several former staffers of the late Don Young are endorsing her, noting that Peltola’s candidacy is about “making sure that there’s an actually effective legislator in the seat.”