GRAYHORSE VILLAGE – Pam Shaw hosted a Sunday evening meal here and shared her campaign and first term experiences as she is seeking reelection to the Osage Nation Congress in the 2024 General Election.
Kirk Shaw introduced his mother to the community building audience of approximately 100 in attendance on April 7. “I’ve been able to see a lot of her accomplishments, a lot of hard work that her and other members of Congress and our executive staff have done in this time of COVID (pandemic) much like we had done at the health system,” said Shaw, who is the Clinic Administrator for the Wahzhazhe Health Center.
“My mom, she’s somewhat of a shy person who’s not one to list out her accomplishments, but it’s something that myself and my family are very proud of. She spent many years working in the corporate world for 17 years and then got into tribal gaming with our casinos in 2006 and worked her way up and worked for the Kaw Nation. She became the chief executive officer for the Kaw Nation and then in 2020 she was elected to Congress,” he said.
“It was a totally different situation with COVID and that’s one of the first things we had to deal with once we were fortunate enough to be elected,” Pam Shaw recalled. “Then CARES (Act) money, ARPA money, projects that came along with them, so we’ve had a lot of big things to deal with in my first term … Unless you have truly grown up in the government, once you’re elected to this position, you have a lot to learn, it takes a minute to really get your feet underneath you and learn all of the policies and even the accounting is different (from business), and I’m thankful I’ve been given this opportunity.”
Going forward, Shaw said “I’m going to start looking at education a little bit differently. We’ve spent the money, we will continue I hope, to spend the money on scholarships for college, for trade school, we’ve got this wonderful WELA program, Daposka (Ahnkodapi), immersion school, but let’s talk about the children and adults that maybe aren’t college-bound who aren’t going to have that opportunity or have different challenges – is there something we can do for them?”
“When it comes to sovereignty, when it comes to this very land we’re standing on, I will do everything in the power of my position to defend them,” Shaw said. “I feel very strongly about that … I put all my energy into being a Congress person, so that means I’m at work, I’m actually at the office, I’ve been Second Speaker for the past two years, which means I take care of the administrative stuff for Congress with the employees … Everything in my personal career has prepared me to serve in this spot, it’s an honor, it’s a blessing to me and my family and I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate your trust in allowing me to serve in that way.”
