ABOUT
Fawn Sharp
WHERE I COME FROM
President Fawn Sharp of the Quinault Indian Nation is serving her fifth term as President and CEO of the Quinault Indian Nation. Born on the Quinault Reservation, she lives on beautiful Lake Quinault with her mother and her four children. She is blessed to live in a Nation where you can still travel from mountain glaciers, down flowing streams, through temperate rain forests, and onto pristine sandy beaches -- without seeing short-sighted development and environmental degradation.
FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS
Blessed to have been mentored by visionary Native American leaders like President Joe DeLaCruz (Quinault), Billy Frank Jr. (Nisqually), and Chairwoman Ramona Bennett (Puyallup), President Sharp has dedicated her life to fighting to protect the sovereignty, human rights, and cultural inheritances of all Tribal Nations. A human rights attorney by training, she left home to get her education, ultimately receiving degrees and advanced certificates from the University of Washington, Gonzaga University, the University of Nevada, and Oxford University. In 2018, she was recognized by the United Nations as one of the foremost experts on the human rights of indigenous people globally.
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After serving as an intelligence officer, Tribal attorney, and judge, Fawn Sharp has been elected to five consecutive terms as President of the Quinault Indian Nation. Under her leadership, the Quinault Nation has seen unprecedented economic growth while upholding its age-old traditions of civil rights activism, public advocacy, and local, regional, statewide, and national leadership on issues of civil rights and environmental protections. In 2018, President Sharp co-authored and co-led I-1631, the most aggressive climate change initiative in American history, ultimately receiving the support of global celebrities like Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Michael Bloomberg en route to forcing fossil fuel companies to spend $32 million in Washington State alone to fight it at the ballot box.
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MISSION STATEMENT
Think Sharp. Vote Sharp.
We must continue to honor the legacy of past leaders who made defining and strengthening tribal sovereignty their life's work. We must also protect our future from the impacts of climate change.