By Brandy Lemon
Ha.we, my name is Me Hunka, Brandy Lemon and I am honored to announce my candidacy for the 2018 Osage Nation Congress. After great consideration and consultation with elders and family, my desire of serving my fellow Osage people with caring, fairness, and efficiency has led me to submit my intent and ask for your support.
Growing up in the Greyhorse district on the land allotted to my grandmother, Josephine Butler Tallchief, cultivated such a love of my family trust that I now am raising my own three wonderful children with my husband there, utilizing our ancestral property, raising livestock. My children have had this love and respect for hard work instilled in them as well, through our practices in animal husbandry and working the land.
The lessons of my upbringing prepared me to take on some incredible experiences including being a recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship in 1999, becoming a registered nurse, and working for almost a decade as clinical manager and director of nursing at a federally qualified nonprofit health center. In October 2016, I started as a RN case manager with the WahZhaZhe Health Center and it was an eye-opening endeavor seeing the many barriers placed on Native healthcare. It’s my goal to help our people overcome these barriers and find simpler paths to a healthier future. Thankfully, we are living longer and as such, we need to address this blessed longevity to ensure our elders have the resources they’ll need.
I am passionate about protecting and improving our Osage sovereignty through cultural practice and our language programs. Caring deeply for communication, I know that along with strong leadership, the Osage people can accomplish magnificent feats together. I intend to seek the counsel of my fellow Osages as we tackle the problems of economic development, healthcare, and educating our young. Through all of it, we must strive for excellence.
Coming from a family of leaders, I plan to utilize the qualities I’ve learned from them – to organize, cultivate, and nurture the greatness of our people. My grandfather, John Tallchief, served on the Osage Tribal Council for many years and my uncle, George Tallchief, served as chief. My parents are Cecilia Tallchief of Greyhorse who served on the first Osage National Council, and Wayne Lemon of Pawhuska.
Having been raised dancing under the arbor at Greyhorse, raising my children the same way, and now as head cook for the Cecelia Tallchief family camp, I have a deep and abiding love for our people, our culture, our traditions. I will be humbled and dignified by your vote of confidence to continue these traditions on June 4th.
For more information, please visit my campaign page on Facebook, facebook.com/BrandyLemonForCongress, or feel free to email me at brandy.lemon1797@gmail.com and let me know what’s important to you. Together, we can make a difference.
Thank you so much for your consideration.
By
Osage News
Original Publish Date: 2018-03-29 00:00:00
