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♪ Music ♪
Danelle: I wonder what they are going to start first.
Danelle: In the environment that we grew up in there's a lot of
negativity there's poverty, depression;
there's all these things that we see- but don't let that stop
you, let that motivate you.
Narrator: Danelle Smith has carved out an amazing career
against seemingly impossible odds.
Her mother had a tough life and gave up Danelle and her brother
Vern for adoption to an older winnebago couple.
Danelle: They took in these small children who needed a
place to go so that to me says a lot about what kind
of people they were.
Francine Smith: Danelle was spoiled by my mom and dad,
whatever she wanted, baby got.
Everybody fell in love with her she brought a lot of joy
to the family.
Danelle: My dad raised horses he always had horses and he liked
to garden so we had a garden every year in the fall we would
harvest Indian corn what we call washa.
By the time I got to Jr. High, I was antsy
I wanted to see more, I wanted to do more,
I wanted to go to more places.
Narrator: At age 17 Danelle enrolled at fort
Lewis college in Colorado.
Danelle: I was very homesick, I didn't know anybody,
so I lasted about 2 and half-3 months.
And then called my sister, crying and said
I want to come home.
Narrator: Back at home, Danelle spent time with her adoptive
mother before she died of cancer.
Being with family and friends was comforting,
but the temptation to drink and party was
everywhere on the reservation.
Danelle: When I found out that I was pregnant,
I told my family and in my mind I was totally freaking out.
Narrator: Danelle feared the prospect of becoming
a single mother.
But then came a turning point.
Her adoptive sister, who had two children of her own,
was killed in an alcohol related traffic accident.
Danelle: I saw-I watched her and I saw her struggle,
and I thought her life doesn't have to be that way.
Narrator: Danelle was six months pregnant when she
enrolled in tribal college.
Danelle: So I signed up for college when I was six months
pregnant I had him in the middle of the semester.
Took a week off and took him to class with me.
Somewhere along the way, I realized and picked up that,
that was going to be the key.
That no matter what, if I could get a college degree nobody
could take that away from me.
Narrator: A year later Danelle was married,
had a second son and an associate's degree
from tribal college.
But her journey was just beginning.
Danelle: I always knew I wanted to practice Indian law,
it's my tribe, I grew up there, that's my home,
my family's there.
Narrator: Over the next few years Danelle went
into hyper speed.
She got a bachelor's degree from Wayne state college,
had another child, went through a divorce and was accepted to
law school at the university of Iowa.
The single mother of three packed up and
moved to Iowa city.
She wasn't the typical law school student.
Instead of joining her peers for happy hour after class,
she raced off to collect her three young sons from daycare.
Danelle: "Totally cool movie, starring Chayse as the serial
killer, Jalen as the shadow ninja,
Bryson as the undercover agent."
Bryson Smith: She said we where moving one day I was all upset.
I didn't enjoy moving around and everything all the time but she
did what she needed to do to get where she is today.
Danelle: People thought I was crazy (laughs) especially
lawyers, people who had gone to law school.
Sarah Wheelock: It is highly competitive she didn't get
swept up in the social side of law school which was a sacrifice
for her because that is a big part of the
law school experience.
Jalen James Hallowell: We spent a lot of time on our own just
looking out for ourselves but she would be around whenever she
could otherwise she was always studying or focusing on her work
but I always knew what it was for and why we were doing it.
Narrator: Danelle's adoptive father died before he saw his
daughter realize her dream of becoming an attorney.
Danelle: He was a hard worker,
even after he retired he was constantly working that was
where I get my work ethic is that they would tell me it
doesn't matter if you're sweeping floors or flipping
burgers you do the best job that you can.
Narrator: Six years later, Danelle Smith made partner at a
national law firm in Omaha.
Through the firm, she serves as general counsel for the
Winnebago tribe-her tribe.
Danelle: New buildings, new developments, it's all positive,
it's growing there's such a demand, need for housing.
Home ownership is not something that has been common,
there has been no opportunity.
I mean we went from removal, put on a reservation,
take all our land because we couldn't farm (laughs),
put us in HUD houses, feed us commods, and then somehow,
where were we ever going to accumulate the wealth enough to
buy or build a house?
So we're just now trying to get out of that system.
We're doing things for ourselves and we're not waiting around for
the federal government to do it for us.
Lance Morgan: We were sort of trapped in this cycle of
poverty; all tribes were you can't just hand somebody some
money and hasn't had it before you really have to develop all
the systems you need to be successful long term and that's
really what's happening in our community,
it's one person at a time, and it's
one family at a time.
Danelle: It's neat to see, actually a real thing compared
to all the drawings and the plans and stuff that we looked
at for months, and months and months.
(Laughs)
Danelle: I like the positive growth and to help tribes
exercise their sovereignty.
It's meaningful to that tribe.
It helps them to get to their goals of self-sufficiency,
of being able to generate revenue,
to help support their program, to provide jobs.
Danelle: Cool.
The idea of being a lawyer it's not all
courtroom and litigation.
Lance Morgan: She does her homework she's prepared
she hasn't messed up anything which is always the test of a
good lawyer no one's been sued (laughs).
Danelle: Jalen you can come make the garlic toast?
Narrator: Today, Danelle splits her time between Winnebago and
her home in south Sioux city, Nebraska where her
two youngest attend school.
Danelle: I think they have a life that I didn't have right
now and I hope that they take lessons away.
I have a nice home for my kids. I don't really have to
worry about how to pay the light bill.
It takes away a stress that used to be there.
Danelle: So you went to go see, what'd you see yesterday?
Narrator: Danelle has become a second mother to her teenage
nieces and a mentor to native students from all over Nebraska.
Danelle: It's all about choices all along the way,
every day you're making a choice.
Those choices all add up to something.
Narrator: For Danelle's brother Vern,
choices somehow added up to heartbreak.
The two grew up together in a loving adoptive family,
but her brother took a different path.
A father of six, Verne committed suicide just a year earlier.
At the Winnebago powwow, Danelle and her family
prepare breakfast in his honor.
Isaac Smith: He had a lot of irons in the fire at once he was
really proud of being in the army that was one of the things
he really carried high everything was army,
army, army.
Like with Danelle it was all books, books, books.
Sarah: She's remained true to herself,
and who her personality is and what she believes.
Danelle: To me it doesn't end, like I'm not done.
I'm doing the job I want to do but my career is evolving,
my relationship with my boys is evolving and I as a person am
still evolving so to me life is a constant learning
process yeah I don't think this is it.
(laughs)
Crowd: Go Danelle!
(Cheering)