Charlotte M. Roderique passed away June 3 at Harney District Hospital, at the age of 74.

Charlotte was born to Maurice Leon Roderique and Rose Mary Pete on June 2, 1946, in Redmond.

Throughout her early childhood, Charlotte grew up on various ranches in southeastern Oregon, including Emigrant Creek Ranch, Alvord Ranch, Horseshoe T Ranch and the Venator Ranch, where her stepfather, Ernest Carlson, worked as a ranch hand and her mother, as a cook. She enjoyed all the animals, but horses were certainly her favorite. She enjoyed wrangling them early in the morning and helping the cowboys gear up for their day.

Her education consisted of numerous schools, including Slater Elementary, Chemawa Indian School, Crane Union High School, and Chilocco Indian School, where she graduated in 1964 with a nomination for Honor Society.

She then attended Denver University in Denver, Colo., for a summer college prep program. During her time in Denver, she followed the Native Militant Movement, more commonly known as the American Indian Movement. Promoting and advocating for Native American rights was a huge part of what she believed in. In 1965, she attended Rocky Mt. Christian College in Billings, Mont., for spring and fall semesters. She then returned to Burns, and became involved in volunteering for the Burns Paiute Indian Colony, Business Committee. At that time, the Colony was seeking federal recognition and after much hard work and perseverance, it was finally obtained in 1968.  The Wada-Tika Indian Colony, Community of Paiute Indians became the Burns Paiute Tribe in 1972. The Burns Paiute community had raised money to send her and Alma Kennedy to Washington, D.C. where she spoke on behalf of the Burns Paiute people to help secure the 771-acre land base, which is now the Burns Paiute Indian Reservation.

She was the first general manager of the Burns Paiute Tribe and helped with the development of the policies and procedures for the various Tribal programs, to include but not limited to, housing, planning, education, health, financial management, grants management and environmental issues. She also worked close with Dale Hile, while they planned for housing and roads.

She was a liaison for the tribe who worked diligently with other federal agencies to further the development of administration facilities for the Tribe. Additionally, she helped retro-cede the Public Law 280 through the tribal court. In 1969, she attended the BIA police academy in Brigham City, Utah, and became a certified Officer for the Tribe.

From 1975 through 1978, she was the social services director for the Tribe where she helped develop and supervise the health and mental health residential treatment programs and analyzed their accomplishments. In addition to her duties with health programs, she also served as a private contractor; preparing and submitting bids. These bids included fence building, reforestation projects, tree thinning and logging area recovery with the US Forest Service. Further, these projects used Native American adults in recovery. During this time, she also helped secure the fence boundaries and installed the well in the hay field while she held the name of Charlotte Teeman. In 1982, she helped in the development of the Tribe’s frozen food plant.

In 1980, she moved to Nevada and she worked for the Inter Tribal Council of Nevada as a field supervisor for the NIAA chemical dependency program. This allowed her to work with various reservations throughout the state. Also in 1980, she was employed by the Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe as the director of the Social Detox Center. She developed and implemented a social detoxification unit, funded through the state of Nevada, and she orchestrated personnel to provide training, staffing, patient care and medical screenings.

After four years in Nevada, she moved back to Burns and again, became the general manager of the Burns Paiute Tribe. This included management of all tribal programs, as well as the development of frozen food processing plant and health facility.

In 1989, she moved back to McDermitt, where she began working for the Department of Health and Human Services (IHS) as a substance abuse and mental health specialist. Her time in McDermitt contributed to the relationship she had built with the Ft. McDermitt community through her work, both as a counselor and a volunteer with the McDermitt Combined School. Even while she was in McDermitt, she found time to advocate on behalf of the Burns Paiute Tribe, sharing input by phone in regards to the Ruby Pipeline. She worked with numerous state, Tribal and government agencies until she retired in 2010, with a host of credits from the University of Nevada Reno. She always promoted wellness and awareness to the communities and was always willing to help people out when she could.

After retiring, she returned to Burns, and once again, became involved with the Tribal government of the Tribe. In 2011, she was appointed as the Burns Paiute representative to the Upper Snake River Tribes (USRT) Foundation and found herself advocating for the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock territory through USRT. She used her knowledge to explain how these tribes once ate salmon when they would spawn inland through the numerous tributaries and streams, despite the push back from individuals on the opposite side who believed that these Tribes didn’t get salmon that far into the territory. As the tribal council chair, she represented the tribe in the Columbia River Treaty negotiations. Charlotte was also involved in the Steens Mountain Cooperative.

In more recent years during her term of leadership as the chairwomen of the Tribal Council, she helped facilitate huge accomplishments to include the purchase of Beech Creek property and Jonesboro going into trust. She also pushed forward with installing the new dam, and tirelessly dealt with the state in regards to ceremonial hunting. During her last term as the Tribal chairwoman, she represented the Tribe through the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. She always advocated for the preservation of language and culture.

She was active with the Numu Allotee Association and held the vice president position.  She worked with the people of Fort Bidwell and was the president for E’numu diip Cooperation from 2017 to present.                                                                                                                                           Charlotte enjoyed gathering native foods and preparing them, teaching through oral history of tribal past and sharing tribal stories with her family. She passed down the art of traditional crafts, tribal values, prayers and beliefs and loved sharing all of this with her children and grandchildren.  She enjoyed reading, beading, arts and crafts, making Indian dolls, sewing, camping, hunting and fishing with family and friends. And recently, she found a new challenge in basket weaving. In her younger years she liked to challenge her rock climbing skills on the Santa Rosa Range in northern Nevada and often found herself hiking in the mountains throughout the great basin.

Charlotte is survived by her uncle, Clifford Sam; children, Lonnie Teeman, and Henrietta and Danny Snapp; cousins, Denise Buchanan and Angela Hemmingway; grandchildren, Lonnie Teeman Jr, Angelica Teeman, Thomas Teeman, Michael Teeman, Ukiah, Avah and Ruby Snapp, and Jamison Brown; as well as many nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her grandson, Theodore Ross Teeman; son, Albert Lynn Teeman; parents, Rose M. Carlson and Maurice Leon Roderique; maternal grandparents, Willie Pete and Susan Farley; grand-aunt, Maggie Pete Jack; aunts, Daisy, Margie and Lindy; and uncles, Norman and Joe Pete.

She was buried June 9 at the Burns Paiute Old Camp Cemetery.