Our Staff
Board of Directors:
Dr. Henrietta Man
Dr. Patrick Weaselhead
Mr. Manny King
Dr. Alonzo Spang
Ms. Gail Small
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Executive Director: Gail Small
Gail Small is Executive Director of the non-profit organization Native Action. Gail is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe from Lame Deer, Montana and is the mother of four children. Her Cheyenne name is “Head Chief Woman.” Gail graduated from the University of Montana in 1978 with her BA degree and from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1982 with a Juris Doctorate Degree and a Certificate of Completion in Environmental & Natural Resource Law.
With a team of Cheyenne leaders, Gail founded Native Action in 1984 as one of the first non-profit organizations on an Indian Reservation. Native Action's work has led to national precedents in federal banking law, environmental policy, Indian voter discrimination, youth law and resulted in getting the first bank, the first public high school and the first Chamber of Commerce on the Reservation. Cutting-edge tribal laws have also been drafted by Native Action and successfully enacted, including: a tribal burial law that reclaims traditional burial rites; a tribal sexual assault law; a domestic violence code; and a tribal Uniform Commercial Code to facilitate small business development that now has reached over $12 million in Reservation-lending. Nurturing long-term alliances with non-Indian ranchers, labor unions, universities, non-partisan political leaders, and Tribes is a key to Native Action's success.
Ms. Small has served as an elected member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council and she remains very active in national Indian policy issues and international Indigenous issues. Ms. Small has taught Natural Resource Law and Federal Indian Law at the University of California at Humboldt, Chief Dull Knife Memorial College, and Little Big Horn Community College. She serves as a guest lecturer and speaker at universities throughout the country and before Congressional oversight hearings. She was appointed and served three years on the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council.
Gail was honored with Ms. Magazine's 1995 Gloria Steinem Women of Vision Award and A Territory Resource Foundation's 1997 Jeanette Rankin Award. Additionally, Gail was recognized in 1995 by Montana Magazine as one of Montana's most influential leaders in the past 25 years.
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