A Conversation with U.S. Representative Mary Peltola

Mary Sattler Peltola is a member of the US House Representatives. She was elected in August 2022 to fill the remainder of the late Representative Don Young’s term, becoming the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress and the first woman from Alaska to serve in the U.S. House. In November 2022, she was elected to a full two-year term in Congress. She serves on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, its Aviation Subcommittee and Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, and on the House Committee on Natural Resources and its Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, and its Federal Lands subcommittees. Rep. Peltola is Yup’ik, born in Alaska and raised on the Kuskokwim River.  She began fishing commercially with her father when she was six and worked as a herring and salmon technician for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game during college. At age 24, she was elected to the Alaska Legislature, where she served in the House for ten years.  A Democrat, she helped to rebuild the Bush Caucus, which passed legislation and influenced budgets that improved lives in rural Alaska under her tenure as Chair. After leaving the legislature, she worked as Manager of Community Development and Sustainability for the Donlin gold mine project and as Executive Director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She served on the Orutsararmiut Native Council Tribal Court and the Bethel City Council, and on the boards of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska Humanities Forum, Alaska Children’s Trust, and Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska.  Mary has seven children (including three stepchildren).