Lafond, Alphonsine (1926-2000)

Born at the Muskeg Lake First Nation on March 7, 1926, Lafond attended St. Michael's Indian Residential School in Duck Lake from 1933 to 1942. In 1958 she was elected councilor at her reserve, and lobbied to give First Nations people the right to vote. In 1960 Lafond was elected the first woman chief in Saskatchewan, and the first female tribal representative for the Shellbrook Agency. In 1975 she became the first First Nations woman appointed as justice of the peace, and in 1992 the first woman appointed as senator in the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations; in 1999 she became Chair of the Senate. Lafond was Saskatchewan Indian Women's Association Mother of the Year in 1986; she was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1988 and the Canada 125 Medal in 1992. She was living at Muskeg Lake First Nation at the time of her death on August 17, 2000.

Daria Coneghan