The Montana Constitution: The Work Between the Words. The Story of Indian Education for All Across Five Decades
A Mansfield Dialogue with Carol Juneau and Denise Juneau
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Montana’s 1972 Constitution didn’t happen by accident, and neither did the promises it made to Indian Education. Both were won, and are still being won, by people who kept showing up: tribal educators, elders, and young people who testified in committee rooms, parents and educators who pushed for funding and curriculum, attorneys who fought it out in court, and legislators who carried the bills across the finish line, year after year. Carol Juneau and Denise Juneau, a mother and daughter who’ve spent their careers on opposite ends of that same fight, one in the legislature and one turning law into practice in classrooms across the state, will share the story of how a constitutional promise gets written, and how it only survives because generations of people refuse to let it go unkept.
Join us! A Mansfield Dialogue with Carol and Denise Juneau
Thursday, September 10, 2026
University of Montana Campus
ALI Auditorium, Phyllis J Washington Education Center
Reception at 6pm
Lecture at 7pm
Free, RSVP Requested:
- RSVP to attend in person (reception starts at 6pm)
- RSVP to attend virtually (lecture will go live at 7pm)
Co-Sponsored by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center and the Friends of the Montana Constitution
About Carol and Denise Juneau:
Carol Juneau is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Tribes of North Dakota, and her career has been guided by a lifelong commitment to education, equity, and justice.
As an educator, Carol advocated for at-risk high school students and became Blackfeet Community College’s first president. “Education is one of the most important things we can do for our families and communities,” she says. “It helps level the playing field and gives us power.”
Carol served 12 years in the Montana Legislature, where her landmark achievements include the Indian Education for All Act and the bill removing the derogatory word “squaw” from 76 Montana place names.
A lifelong believer in building Native political power, Carol served as Vice Chair of the Montana Democratic Party, a founding board member of Western Native Voice, and a delegate to three Democratic National Conventions. She co-founded Carol’s List to support Democratic women candidates and helped launch Big Sky 55+, a voice for Montana’s seniors.
Denise Juneau has witnessed firsthand the powerful impact that a quality education can make in historically resilient communities. Her storied career in public service has focused on combating the tragedy of educational injustice, investing in opportunities for institutionally underserved peoples, and tearing down the pillars of systemic inequality.
Denise’s commitment to public service runs in the family. Her mother, Carol, founded the first alternative school and tribal college in their community, then carried that advocacy into the Montana Legislature, where she passed landmark Indian education legislation. Watching that work up close instilled in Denise a lifelong commitment to claiming a seat at the table and inviting new voices into the conversation. Denise taught in a rural reservation school, then pursued a law degree so she could deepen her advocacy against injustice, before devoting more than a decade to serving the public as a national education leader and big-city superintendent.
Her career includes many historic “firsts”: she was the first Native woman elected to statewide executive office, the first Native superintendent in Seattle, and the first “out” LGBTQIA federal candidate in Montana.