Baldwin, Marie L., 1863-1952

Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin 1863-1952; 1914 Baldwin was the first Native American student to graduate from the Washington College of Law; worked in the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and was an officer in the Society of American Indians, appointment to the Bureau was approved by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, She was an accountant in the Education Division of the Bureau; Her grandparents were Pierre Bottineau and Genevieve "Jennie" LaRence, b. 1818; her father was John Bottineau;

Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, Native American rights activitst, December 14, 1863, Pembina, North Dakota - May 17, 1952, Los Angeles, California; Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin (Metis/Turtle Mountain Chippewa); father, J.B. Bottineau, was a lawyer who worked as an advocate for the Ojibwa/Chippewa Nation in Minnesota and North Dakota; lived in Minneapolis, and Marie attended school there as well as in nearby St. Paul; spent some time across the border at St. John’s Ladies College in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), and returned to Minneapolis to work as a clerk in her father’s law office; She and her father moved to Washington, DC in the early 1890s to defend the treaty rights of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Nation; in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Marie as a clerk in the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA); involved with the suffrage movement and the Society for American Indians (SAI); became nationally known as a spokesperson for modern Indian women, testifying in front of Congress, meeting with women from across the country, and was a member of the contingent who met with President Woodrow Wilson in the Oval Office in 1914; colleagues with Zitkala-Sa, another Native American woman who worked towards Indian suffrage; 1912, at the age of 49, she enrolled at the Washington College of Law; was the first woman of color to graduate from the school; active with the suffrage movement in Washington DC and marched with a group of other female lawyers in the 1913 Suffrage Parade organized by Alice Paul; continued to work for the Indian Office in Washington, DC until 1932, when she retired for health reasons; 1949, she moved from DC to Los Angeles, where she died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1952.

Native American lawyer and suffragist Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin was a prominent advocate on behalf of Native women and on Native Americans’ position in mainstream America; member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota; worked as clerk in her father's law office; 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Baldwin as a clerk to the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA); member and active speaker for the Society of American Indians (SAI); In 1912, at 49, enrolled at Washington College of Law, becoming the first woman of color and Native American to earn a law degree from the college; marched in the 1913 woman suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., and shifted her message from assimilation to extolling the values of Native Americans.

Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin b. 14 Dec 1863, d. 17 May 1952