Taboo Issue Topic: Politics
Words by Laura Zolman Kirk
Photography by Keith Pitts

We found her by chance: a search for small-town female politicians. The more we researched, the more complex and diverse she became. “Surely this cannot be the same woman,” we thought. A run for president of the Navajo Nation, a mother of six , a grandmother to four, a member of the Navajo Nation Council, a unifying leader in her community and the current Apache County Recorder. Does a mother of six really run for president?

The answer we soon discovered was “yes.”

LeNora could easily be described as the Navajo Leslie Knope. You name it, she’s done it, with poise and a “that’d be fine” attitude. She is not the type of grandmother to sit around and let others take over the firewood delivery for her; she’s the one rolling up her sleeves to deliver it herself. She is a woman in the service of people: her family and her nation. What we need to do with our lives, LeNora told me through a tender smile, “is to help others, to love and have love in our hearts for other people.”

To read more about LeNora Fulton, subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.