A former New Town teacher who is an enrolled member of the Three Affililiated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation is among those invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Denise Juneau, Montana's state superintendent of public instruction, is scheduled to speak tonight at 7 p.m.
Juneau also is chair of Montana's delegation to the convention and will announce her state's nomination on the convention floor. Her mother, former Montana state Sen. Carol Juneau, will be among the Montana delegates. Carol Juneau grew up on the Fort Berthold Reservation and is a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes.
Denise Juneau, 45, grew up in Browning, Mont., on the Blackfeet Reservation. She was elected Montana's state school superintendent in 2008 and was the first American Indian woman to win a statewide executive office in Montana. She began her teaching career in New Town where she taught eighth- and ninth-grade English and coached speech and debate. Before being elected to her present post, she was director of Indian education for the Montana Department of Public Instruction. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Montana State University in Bozeman, a master's degree in education from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and a law degree from the University of Montana Law School in Missoula.