Fawn Sharp First Tribal Leader Given Diplomatic Recognition from US
Fawn Sharp Becomes First Tribal Leader to Receive Diplomatic Recognition from United States
The President of the National Congress of American Indians and Quinault Indian Nation Vice President Officially Represents the United States at COP 26
Glasgow, UK -- National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp has become the first elected Tribal leader to ever officially represent the United States of America on the international stage. Sharp, the past five-term President and current Vice President of the Quinault Indian Nation, was appointed by the Biden Administration as an official credentialed delegate of the United States at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP 26), the global climate change summit currently being held in Glasgow in the United Kingdom.
An Oxford-educated human rights attorney, Sharp is recognized by the United Nations as a global expert on Indigenous human rights law and climate change, and she has testified extensively on both issues in front of Congress and the U.N. She is a citizen of the Quinault Indian Nation, a "climate refugee" Tribe that is urgently relocating its ancestral coastal villages upland due to catastrophic flooding caused by sea level rise.
Though the U.S. government in extraordinary circumstances recognizes qualified American elected officials as diplomatic delegates, Sharp is the first elected official ever elected exclusively by Tribal citizens to receive that honor.
"It is impossible to confront the global existential crisis of climate change without the active leadership and engagement of the world's Indigenous Peoples, and the Tribal Nations of the United States of America have an incomparable brain trust of leaders, scientists, and policymakers who are ready to lead that effort," said Sharp.
"As I accept the honor of being the first Tribal leader to receive full credentials as a delegate to the United Nations Conference of Parties, I do so with an incredible sense of optimism, because I know the invaluable contributions to the fight against Climate Change that Native Americans and our Indigenous brothers and sisters globally will make to turn the tide," she continued. "Indigenous communities globally have one thing in common: we are resilient survivors, and we will help lead the world through this challenge to a brighter, more just, and more sustainable future."
Fawn Sharp was elected by over 500 Tribes nationwide in 2019 to serve as a global spokesperson for Native Americans as the President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the oldest, largest nonprofit representing Native American governments. Last month, Sharp became the first woman ever re-elected to a second term as NCAI President, which she won without opposition. Earlier this year, she made national news for her key role in co-authoring and helping to pass the Climate Commitment Act in Washington State, the cap-and-invest bill that is commonly lauded as the most comprehensive climate change law ever passed in America.
