The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association honored Jodi Gillette, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, on Monday night.

Gillette grew up on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and worked for the Native American Training Institute in Bismarck, North Dakota. After serving on the Barack Obama campaign last year, she got the call to go to the White House.

"When she went over, Itold her 'I don't think you're going to get hired,'" Gillette's father, Dave Archambault, told The Bismarck Tribune. "That they wanted somebody that knew reservations in the Obama administration really says something for her, and for him, too."

Gillette is the first Native American to serve as a director in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. She works as a liaison between tribes and the federal government.

Get the Story:
Standing Rock Sioux proud of 'rez girl' in the White House (The Bismarck Tribune 7/1)

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