Cora Anderson

Cora Reynolds Anderson served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1925 to 1926. She was both the first woman and the first Native American elected to this role. Of Ojibwa descent, Anderson studied education at the Haskell Indian Institute in Kansas and taught native children in Baraga County, MI. She also brought the first public health nurse to the county, and she led efforts to fight alcoholism and tuberculosis in the area. As a representative, she advocated for increased public health provisions and fishing rights on Huron Bay. In 2000, the MI House named their new office building in her honor.