First she broke through the binds of segregation to get her high school degree. This made her the first Seminole Indian to graduate from high school. Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, who was also the tribe’s first health director and the first (and only) woman to lead its Tribal Council, died last week at age 88.

The Sun Sentinel in Florida reports that Jumper died at her home. A memorial service was held for her on Monday.

Mrs. Jumper was extensively involved in tribal government. She was among the original group that gathered under the Council Oak in Hollywood to create the Seminole Tribe’s constitutional government and helped gain federal recognition of the tribe.

She chaired the Tribal Council from 1967-1971.

In 1970, she was one of two women appointed by then- President Richard Nixon to the National Congress on Indian Opportunity. She was a founder of the United South and Eastern Tribes, which became a powerful lobbying force for Indian interests.

“Because she was mixed race — she was half-Caucasian, she was half-Seminole — they told her they couldn’t do those things. She went against the taboos of the tribe,” her son said. “It gave her more willpower and more energy.”

Jenna Cederberg

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We already knew Florida State safety Myron Rolle was pretty cool, right? All-American and a Rhodes Scholar, with long-range plans that include the NFL and med school.

It gets better. Yesterday, Rolle and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a new partnership to bring an innovative physical fitness and health program into Interior-funded American Indian schools.

“I am inspired by the way American Indian tribes have persevered and thrived, while retaining their cultural heritage and identity,” Rolle says in this Tulsa Native Times story. “There are, however, significant health concerns that challenge this population – in particular diabetes and obesity.”

The Our Way to Health Program aims to get Indian schoolchildren to improve their diet and exercise habits and, by extension, those of their families. It will launch in five schools in Arizona and New Mexico.

Rolle initially developed the curriculum for American Indian fifth-graders at a charter school in Okeechobee, Florida, when he was working with the Seminole Tribe. Rolle was an All-American safety for Florida State University in 2008-2009, but has delayed entering the National Football League to pursue studies as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.

As part of the program, Rolle will visit each of the five schools twice.

Gwen Florio

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