BIO
Carrie is a Pawnee/Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian from Pawnee, Oklahoma. Her Native American name is Sti-Da-Soo, which means “Princess” or “Woman Chief” in Pawnee. She has lived in Colorado for over thirty years. She has three sisters, one brother, two daughters, and four grandchildren, who all practice traditional ways.
She was a Girl Scout leader and was a Prevention Services Specialist with the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, where she programmed and coordinated American Indian Nurturing Parenting classes. She also worked for the Program of American Indian Youth Leaders (PAIYL), which worked with at-risk native youth in the Denver Metro area. Her passion is to instill within our urban Native American youth a sense of belonging and connection to their traditional heritage. She also owned and managed the Seven Falls Indian Dance Troupe in Colorado Springs. Her family has performed competitive and social dances at Powwows throughout the country for many decades. She graduated from Metropolitan State University with a B.S. in Human Services, with an emphasis in Drug and Alcohol Counseling.