Submitted Photo Marilyn Hudson and her husband, Kent, are shown in this photo taken during the 100th anniversary of the Pendleton Roundup in Oregon. Marilyn Hudson died on Thursday. She was well versed in the history and culture of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

PARSHALL – Marilyn Hudson of Parshall has had a major role in the history and culture of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Hudson died on Thursday at a Bismarck hospital. She was 84.

“She truly was the historian and more,” said Dr. Monica Mayer, New Town, North Segment councilwoman to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation business council.

Mayer knew Hudson all her life. “My mother (Avis Mayer) and Marilyn were good friends throughout their lifetime,” Mayer said. “I always looked up to her and respected her.”

Born at Elbowoods, a community on the Fort Berthold Reservation, Hudson grew up there. After high school she went to Haskell Institute, then had a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was the first woman to serve as administrative manager of the BIA in New Town. After retiring from the BIA, she began a new career at the Three Tribes Museum in New Town.

Mayer recalled when her mother, Hudson and Pauline Nez worked at the museum in about the 1990s. She said the museum was in bad shape. “Those three revived the museum,” she said.

Hudson was the administrator of the museum for a number of years.

“Marilyn to me was one of those outstanding women of our tribe and played a significant role in service to the tribe and to her family,” Mayer said.

Hudson and her husband, Kent, have lived in Parshall for many years. They have two children Charles Jr., Portland, Ore., and Sonya Rensch, Wickenberg, Ariz., six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“She was bright, intelligent and hard working. She had all those qualities,” Mayer said of Marilyn Hudson. “She was disciplined, she was diplomatic. She had a strong voice within the Nation and when she said something, people listened.”

Hudson came from the large family of Martin and Dorothy Cross. Her father was chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes in the late 1940s and 1950s.

“Her contributions to her people were significant and she’ll be a loss. We’ll need to have more young people come in and fill the position as historian to preserve our history,” Mayer said.

“She was like a mentor to me,” said Vonnie Alberts of Hudson. “She started mentoring me when I was in my early 20s when I was editor of the MHA Times. It was helpful and encouraging.”

Alberts now is public relations director for Mayer.

“She (Hudson) was our tribal knowledge keeper, even federal law and policy. She was knowledgeable on all those issues due to all of her years with the BIA, even the transactions of different things in the Bureau. She remembered times, places, land transactions – all those things that are not necessarily kept as far as history timelines,” Alberts said.

Merrill Piepkorn, a North Dakota senator from Fargo, said he first learned of Marilyn Hudson when he read a newspaper article she wrote about the 1942 Elbowoods basketball team. That was probably 20 years ago and he was hosting a morning show.

“The article was so intriguing I called her and did a brief interview,” he said. “We both agreed the story was so interesting and inspiring.” He said both of them thought it should go before a bigger audience as it did when Prairie Public did a film about the basketball team called “Basketball, Water and the Lost City of Elbowoods.” Piepkorn said the film still is available on YouTube.

As host of a daily talk show on Prairie Public, Piepkorn said he traveled to New Town and interviewed Hudson at the Three Tribes Museum. He said many of the interviews were on tribal history.

“She became a friend,” he said. He said she also introduced him to buffalo berries.

“What a wonderful legacy she will leave,” Piepkorn said.

Langhans Funeral Home in Parshall is in charge of funeral arrangements for Hudson.