Sen. Affie Ellis (R-Cheyenne) is a member of the Navajo Nation and a key figure in the Wyoming Legislature for the past eight years.
As the first Native American woman to serve in Cheyenne, Ellis led the Select Committee on Tribal Relations.
Earlier this year, she announced her retirement from the Senate, where she helped pass legislation relating to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples' crisis, among other measures.
Wyoming Public Radio’s state government reporter Chris Clements spoke with Ellis about what she called a bittersweet departure.
Editor’s Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Chris Clements: You're the first Native American woman to serve in the Legislature. When you came to Cheyenne to start that work, what was the dynamic like at that time for you?
Affie Ellis: When I was first elected, there was only one woman serving in the Wyoming Senate, and it was a lady named Bernadine Craft who had just announced that she was retiring.
My daughter, who was really young at the time – I took her into the Senate to watch some debate, and she innocently asked, ‘Mom, do they let girls be in the Senate?’ And I whispered to her, ‘Of course honey, there's one out of 30, right there.’ The notion of there being no women in the Senate really was jarring to me. So after a lot of soul searching, it was definitely a contributing factor for my decision to run.
After being elected, you start filling in certain shoes and certain roles that maybe you didn't anticipate. Providing a female perspective on some bills, and then obviously being a Native American serving, those were just natural things that I maybe didn't seek out to be a voice for, a representative for, but [that] just kind of came naturally to me.
I'd offer that years ago, we did a commemoration event of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. We had all the Wyoming dignitaries there: U.S. senators, Gov. Mead, all taking the stage. The program was going on a little long, so my first instinct in being humble was to just forgo my time on the stage. But as you look in the audience and see that there are other people there wanting to see representation that looked a little more like them, I thought it was important to offer some remarks. [That’s] just because I think especially for little kids, to see that representation really matters.
I've been incredibly humbled over the years that I've been serving and having students come up to me and admiring my work and knowing things I've worked on, it's been so humbling, and those are things that I will always cherish, those experiences.
CC: What do you think about the future of Native American representation in the Legislature now that you're retiring?
AE: Certainly as an attorney who practices in federal Indian law and has tracked and practiced in tribal law, I definitely think there will be a hole of people who are aware of some of the issues that are out there and just have my legal training and background. That said, there are candidates from Fremont County who are very well versed in these issues. Sen. [Cale] Case (R-Lander) has been a longtime leader and has served as the chairman on the Senate side of the Indian Affairs Committee. So I know that they'll be able to pick up a lot of that work. But just from my own perspective, I have brought a lot of my knowledge and background to those issues, and I do think that that's a difficult thing to replace, just because there aren't that many of us that practice in that area.
CC: In your opinion, should there be more tribal members from the Wind River Reservation who are serving as legislators in Cheyenne?
AE: I think that's up for the community to decide. Over the past several years, I've worked with Rep. [Lloyd] Larson (R-Lander), who is non-Indian, but is in Lander, and he works incredibly hard to be knowledgeable on those issues. I served as a co-chair with him and was always impressed with how much effort and passion he brought to those issues. For me, it's important to have that representation and that voice, but it's really ultimately up to the citizens of Fremont County to decide.
CC: What was your experience like as chair of the Select Committee on Tribal Relations?
AE: I think the thing I've enjoyed about it the most is: there are issues like missing and murdered Indigenous women [and] crime in Indian country that I've always been passionate about. Once you start raising your concerns and start asking questions and start asking other agencies ‘Can we be doing more?’ It's just created this groundswell of people that are now working, and it's not just me. Certainly the governor's taken an interest in this, tribes have taken an interest, and other advocacy groups. But seeing the amount of interest in crime in Indian country, particularly violence against women, in the last eight years in Wyoming has been amazing. I'm really proud of all the people that I've gotten to work with to elevate that conversation.
CC: When you had the chance to visit the Wind River Reservation, you mentioned the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples’ crisis, but were there any other topics that community members brought to you that stuck with you, or any interactions that have stayed with you?
AE: There have been so many conversations and things we worked on that affect the Wind River Reservation. One of them, that was one of the more challenging things I've worked on, was getting codification of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) at the state level. Prior to that, there's a federal law that requires adoption proceedings anytime a parent might lose or have their parental rights terminated in a court for certain protections to be involved, if there is an Indian child involved, such as allowing tribes to intervene and be notified of those proceedings. And at the federal level, there was some concern that parts of that might be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. So really, the states would have been a backstop for such a decision. So we looked at that issue. Initially I didn't think it was appropriate, timing-wise, for us to take that on. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was critical and necessary so that we wouldn't have any confusion or kids slipping through the cracks.
That was a heavy lift. It was not an easy thing to get accomplished, particularly in a conservative state like Wyoming, but I think some of those conservative values of keeping family units together really resonated with some conservative members who did vote for that bill. But it was a tremendous amount of work, and really reflected many decades and generations of hurt for Indian people from losing their children in state court proceedings. It really was the belief that it was better for Indian children to be removed and placed with white families, where they would be detached from their cultures. So there's a lot of history that goes along with working on an issue like that, and I knew it was really important. That one really stands out as something that I've worked on, that I was really proud of.
CC: Do you have any regrets from your time as a legislator, any things left undone that you wish you could have gotten to?
AE: Absolutely. I've worked on school safety issues for a lot of years, and we always had the ability to get them out of the Senate with strong support, but they always hit a wall when they hit the House. I find that incredibly frustrating, because at the end of the day, I don't think we're doing enough to make sure our schools are safe, but those are just some of those barriers. You just have to recognize the things you can change and things you can't.
CC: When you think of your time as a lawmaker, how do you hope you'll be remembered?
AE: Sitting in the Capitol building, you look at the walls and you see 100-plus years of composite pictures of legislators who have come before you. It's always interesting when you go in there and you look and you see a picture, and you're like, ‘Huh? I wonder what that guy worked on in 1923 that mattered.’ And at the end of the day, you kind of think, ‘Well, I have no idea, and maybe it doesn't matter,’ but it does, right? It's the laws that we write, things that are codified in the green books. ‘Did we do a good job of getting it right?’ To me, that's what matters. I'm not so worried about the legacy of my name being on that. I think what every legislator should strive to provide is, ‘Did we do a good job writing the law that's codified in those books?’ Because those are the laws of the land for the people of Wyoming.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
