Lilakai Julian Neil

Who is Lilakai Julian Neil?

Lilakai Julian Neil, in 1946, was the first woman elected to the Navajo Tribal Council. After a serious automobile accident, she was forced to withdraw from public service.

In September 1947, Lily wrote a letter to Mr. Beatty, the General Director of Indian Education for the Education Division of the Department of the Interior. In her letter she was critical of the double bind placed upon the Navajo residents in the chapter that she represented. On the one hand the government encouraged the Navajos to get education so that they could get better employment and become self-sufficient. On the other hand, the government neglected agreements to supply adequate education and schools placed roadblocks to Navajos getting the necessary education.

She points out that in the period after World War “when the government is making all these big loans to foreign countries… Who tried to ruin us…, it seems as if they would try to do something for their poor little neglected children or wards at home who they made treaties with but most of them were never kept…”.

This portion of the letter was cited by other authors to emphasize the mood of the Native Americans about post war race relations and proposals to improve economic status of the Navajo Nation by dividing into four parts corresponding to the separate boundaries in the four states of the Four Corners.