Ramona Bennett (b. 1938) is a prominent Puyallap Tribe leader and activist. She was elected to the Puyallup Tribal Council in 1968, and served as Tribal Chairwoman from 1971 to 1978. Bennett is also a pioneer of fishing rights advocacy, co-founding the Survival of American Indians Association in 1964, and helping to bring “fish-in” protests to national prominence.

Much of Bennett’s work focuses on social welfare issues, mainly fighting for the rights of women, children and families. She began her social service work in the 1950s, with the Seattle’s American Indian Women’s Service League. In 1972, she co-founded the Local Indian Child Welfare Act Committee, where she developed a model for childhood and family services that she used to co-author and secure the national Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, a Federal law that governs the removal and out-of-home placement of Indigenous children. In the 1980s, she co-founded the Rainbow Youth and Family Services in Tacoma, a non-profit which she ran for many years.

This photo of Ramona Bennett was taken for a profile of her run by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in October 1976. At the time, Bennett was chairwoman of the Puyallup Tribal Council.

Caption information source: “Ramona Bennett,” The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, University of Washington, https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/bennett.htm
Caption information source: "Ramona Bennett - a Cool, Witty, Charming Leader" by Jack Wilkins, Seattle Post=Intelligencer, October 28, 1976, p. A7