Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Juanita Howling Buffalo, first woman chair of Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes

Juanita Howling Buffalo, born September 6, 1930 in Canton, Oklahoma, became the first woman to chair the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. After finishing her education she served in the Women's Army Corps where she met John W. Learned, whom she married and had 10 children with.

In 1965, she was a write-in candidate for the Cheyenne-Arapaho Business Committee and was not elected.  She obtained an injunction and was successful. A new election was held in 1966, and she and two other women won council seats. 

She became the first woman to serve as tribal chair in 1982.  During her term, she led protest against closing of the Concho Indian School and managed to obtain an injunction, but the school closed in 1983. 

Learned went to Washington DC with other tribal leaders in 1990 to reclaim the land and facilities of Fort Reno (near El Reno, Oklahoma) which had been vacated by the military in 1948 and transferred to the Dept. of Agriculture. In 1991, she helped reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

She passed away in Oklahoma City in 1996.