[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 173 (Thursday, October 26, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING CHERYL SEIDNER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JARED HUFFMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 26, 2017

  Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Cheryl 
Seidner, who will be honored as Humboldt County Citizen of the Year on 
October 27, 2017, an award she richly deserves.
  Cheryl Seidner's contributions to the Wiyot Tribe and advocacy for 
American Indian rights are exemplary. As Chairwoman of the Wiyot Tribe 
from 1996-2008, Ms. Seidner was essential to the establishment of the 
Table Bluff Reservation, now home to permanent housing for tribal 
members and a community center. She was instrumental to the 
repatriation of Indian Island in Humboldt Bay, the site of a terrible 
massacre in 1860 that nearly exterminated the Wiyot Tribe. And, as an 
author and poet, Ms. Seidner also organized an annual vigil 
commemorating this massacre and brought back the Wiyot young women's 
coming-of-age ceremony.
  Cheryl Seidner has served on the executive committee of the National 
Congress of American Indians and the Northern California Indian 
Development Council. She worked as a mentor for students during her 28 
years in the Humboldt State University Educational Opportunity Program 
and was an advisor to the American Indian Alliance, which supports 
American Indian students' academic efforts. In 2008, Ms. Seidner was 
granted an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Humboldt State 
University for her activism on behalf of American Indians at the local, 
state and national levels.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in expressing deep appreciation for 
Cheryl Seidner's extraordinary leadership and devotion to American 
Indian activism and achievement and congratulating her on decades of 
service to the North Coast's Indian communities.

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