Shelly Fyant

Previous Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal Council Chairwoman

Shelly Fyant is Bitterroot Salish and resides on the Flathead Indian Reservation in what is now western Montana. She served on the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal Council for 8 years, most recently as the Chairwoman from January 2020-December 2021.

During her tenure, CSKT led the people of the Flathead Indian Reservation in reaching out to Lake County Commissioners to develop a Unified Command Team to address the pandemic. During this time, CSKT and Lake County collaborated on getting all the people of the reservation vaccinated, adding Elders, Salish and Kootenai Language Apprentices, and reservation Teachers to the top of the list.

She graduated from the University of Montana in 1989 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Shelly is an avid UM Griz football fan, a gardener and beader. Her spare time is spent in the mountains with family which includes four adult sons, seven grandchildren, and one great granddaughter. She is resuming her Food Sovereignty work focusing on increasing access to locally grown, healthy foods in the Jocko Valley.

Learn more about Shelly Fyant’s work:

• Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation: Shelly Fyant
• Check out the tribe’s COVID Youth Campaign promoting video collaborations with youth artists and singers:
  • United We Native
  • You Stay Way Over There and I’ll Stay Way Over Here
  • Native Strong