Native American Leader. An elder of the Niitsi’tapi people, she worked as treasurer of the Blackfeet Nation. During the course of her job, she noticed irregularities that led her to question the federal government’s management of Indian trust funds. As a result, she became the lead plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar, a class-action lawsuit against the United States government. The Native American plaintiffs claimed that the U.S. government had incorrectly accounted for Indian trust assets which were managed by the Department of the Interior. The ground-breaking lawsuit was settled in 2009 for 3.4 billion dollars. In addition to treasurer, she served as executive director of the Native American Community Development Corporation and chairperson for the Blackfeet National Bank. She received many awards for her contributions to the betterment of Native Americans including: a “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Fellowship; an honorary doctorate from Montana State University; an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College and the Montana Trial Lawyers Association’s Citizens Award. In 2000, she was honored as a warrior of the Blackfeet Nation, the first time this honor was given to a non-veteran. Cause of death was cancer. (bio by: ZenPanda)  Family links:  Parents:  Polite Pepion (1908 – 1979)  Catherine Dubray Pepion (1910 – 1968)  Siblings:  Shirley L Pepion (1933 – 1934)*  Theda Faye Pepion (1936 – 1955)*  Thelma Jean Pepion (1938 – 1955)*  Ernie Polite Pepion (1943 – 2005)*  Elouise Pepion Cobell (1945 – 2011) *Calculated relationship