Guest Speaker
Mr. Keith Heavyrunner comes
from the Southern Piegen (Blackfeet) Nation of Montana. He
grew up in Eureka, Montana. In 1977, he returned to the
Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana to complete high
school. After high school, he enlisted in the United States
Army where he served as a mechanic from 1979 - 1983. His
duty locations included Ft. Hood, Texas and Grafenwoehr,
Germany. Following his honorable discharge from the
military, he pursued a myriad of activities (mailman,
carpenter, cattle buyer, etc).
Commencing in 2001, Mr. Heavyrunner began working as the
Blackfeet Tribal Veterans Representative (TVR), a program to
assist Native American Veterans obtain Veterans Affairs (VA)
benefits. In 2006, he was the first Native American to be
appointed by the governor to the Montana Board of Veterans
Affairs, responsible for establishing a statewide service
for discharged veterans and their families and to actively
promote their general welfare. That same year, he
coordinated a Native Veterans conference in the state of
Montana, providing awareness of issues involving state and
federal VA assistance. From this conference, the TVR
program became a more robust program with training provided
to the representatives.
Other activities include:
collaboration with Jeff Mitchell on the "First Warrior"
website "Honoring Native Veterans. Honoring Native People,"
a collection of photographs and stories documenting Native
American service in the Armed Forces. In 2005, Mr.
Heavyrunner was appointed to sit on the board of National
American Indian Veterans Board with Montana, Wyoming, and
Idaho as his states of responsibility. Currently, he is the
Spokesperson for the National Native American Veterans'
Memorial (NNAVM) Project, a non-profit organization whose
goals are threefold: 1) To honor veterans who chose to make
the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom including
Veterans of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and
Iraq/Afghanistan, 2) To educate mainstream America and the
rest of the world as to the sacrifices made by Native
American Veterans, and 3) To have Native American Veterans
take their rightful place in history.
The
Heavyrunners have a long history of service in the U.S.
Armed Forces. Keith’s father, Jess Sr., was a decorated
Staff Sergeant with the Marines in the 1950s. His oldest
brother, Jess Jr., served in Vietnam. His younger brother,
Earl, serves in the National Guard and has seen service in
Desert Storm and Bosnia.
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