[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 45 (Thursday, March 9, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S740-S741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO GEORGIANNA LINCOLN

 Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I rise to join the other 
members of Alaska's Federal delegation--Senator Lisa Murkowski and 
Representative Mary Peltola--in honoring our very dear friend 
Georgianna Lincoln, who will be retiring from the board of the regional 
Alaska Native Corporation, Doyon, Limited, after 47 years of service.
  For decades, Georgianna has been a force for good in our State. A 
force of nature, with an indomitable spirit, Georgianna, a Koyukon 
Athabascan Indian, was born in the village of Rampart, AK, in 1945. She 
moved to Fairbanks when she was in fourth grade. Like the experience of 
many Alaska Natives, moving from a small village to a relatively big 
city was tough. Fairbanks, she said, was ``foreign to me.'' But her 
mother, Kathryn Evans Harwood, told her repeatedly that she was as good 
as anyone else--an equal. And that message stayed with her throughout 
her long career in public service and politics.
  ``This path is cut clear for me and I am following it, willingly,'' 
Georgianna later recalled. ``Knowing that, I can take boulders and move 
them aside because in front of that boulder is green pastures; maybe 
more trouble, but nothing is insurmountable.''
  Indeed, from executive board rooms, to the halls of the State 
legislature, to communities throughout Alaska that she has worked 
tirelessly to improve, nothing has been insurmountable for Georgianna. 
As a young woman in Fairbanks, Georgianna got involved with the 
Fairbanks Native Association, eventually becoming the executive 
director of the organization. This was in the 1960s, when the Alaska 
Native Claims Settlement Act--the largest lands claims act in U.S. 
history--was in full debate. She, along with thousands of Alaska 
Natives from across the State, advocated tirelessly for the bill, which 
eventually passed. It redefined Federal Indian policy in Alaska and 
fundamentally transformed the lives of Alaska Natives.
  That was just the beginning for Georgianna. She went on to develop 
health and education programs in her region, helping to improve the 
lives of so many. And then she decided to run for the Alaska 
legislature. She won a seat in the house in 1991, then ran for the 
senate, where she stayed until 2005. In the legislature, she was a 
fierce champion of issues impacting women and children, as well as 
natural resource management. Still today, she is the only Alaska Native 
woman ever elected to the Alaska State Senate.

[[Page S741]]

  Her achievements didn't end there. She became the director of 
programs for Tanana Chiefs Conference, served as a director on the 
Alaska Native Heritage Center board, United Bank of Alaska, Alaska 
Native Health Board, National Indian Health Board, and the North 
American Indian Women's Association.
  Significantly, she dove head first into her work for Doyon starting 
in 1976, later serving as board chair of the corporation and its 
subsidiaries--and guiding the corporation through years of remarkable 
growth. Most recently, she served on the finance committee, shareholder 
relations committee, and on the Doyon Oil Field Services, Inc., board. 
She also served as the Doyon representative on the Alaska Federation of 
Natives board of directors.
  Throughout the years, Georgianna has mentored countless Alaskans, 
focusing especially on Alaska Native women. Channeling her mother, she 
tells them, ``Know that you are Indian. Know that you are Native and 
that is enough. Apologize to no one. Be proud of who you are. Learn to 
love yourself.''
  Her service to Doyon--now with 20,400 shareholders, and the largest 
private landowner in Alaska and one of the largest in North America--
and to all of the various organizations of which she has been part, 
have been invaluable. But she counts her greatest accomplishments to be 
her two adult children, Gidget Lincoln and Sean Lincoln, and her nine 
grandchildren.
  We thank Georgianna's family, including her partner Chris Cooke, for 
sharing her with Alaska. We thank her for the many years of service to 
our State and congratulate her on such an illustrious career. We wish 
her all the best in retirement.
  ``Ana Baasee' Georgianna.''

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