Millie Thompson Williams was elected the tribe’s first female second chief, a lifetime...
Mille Thompson Williams sits behind her desk at the Head Start building on the Alabama-Coushatta reservation. “I want to be there for my tribe, especially the young people who are coming up,” she says.Show Less
Now, 60 years later, Williams recalls those memories fondly and realizes they are no longer the things of daydreams. “To me what this represents is not a step forward, but things coming full circle,” said Nita Battise, vice chair of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribal Council and a distant cousin of Williams. “We were a matriarchal society at one time. … Things always come full circle.”
Still, the tribe struggles. The tug-of-war battle for recognition from politicians continues, and the reservation faces the same challenges as other rural Texas communities — aging infrastructure, limited access to health care and low educational attainment.Of its enrolled membership, 39 percent are under the age of 18, more than 1.5 times the rate in the United States at large.
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