AILA President’s Program: Building Awareness for Historical Change: The MMIW Movement in Minnesota with Senator Mary Kunesh

Having served as a State Representative since 2017, Mary Kunesh was elected to the MN Senate in 2020, representing District 39, communities of the first ring suburbs of Minneapolis/ St. Paul. As an educator, Mary retired from her role as a library media specialist after 25 years’ service.
Mary is the daughter and granddaughter of members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and is committed to supporting positive legislation for our American Indian and marginalized people in Minnesota. She served as an Assistant Majority Leader for the DFL Caucus in the House of Representatives and is a founding member of the first MN Native American Legislative Caucus and the POCI (People of Color, Indigenous) Caucus in the Minnesota legislature. She is currently the first woman of Native heritage to be elected to the MN Senate and serves as the first Native Senate Assistant Minority Leader.

Senator Kunesh successfully authored and co-chaired the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force in MN; completed in 2020. In Session 2021, Mary successfully passed legislation to establish the first in the nation, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office and Missing and Murdered African American Women task Force within the state system and continues the work outlined in mandates as a result of the MMIW Task Force report. At this time, a bill establishing a reward fund to be housed in the MMIR office aimed at garnering information on cold cases and a unique MMIR license plate is moving through the Minnesota legislature and are expected to pass into law this month.

She has also authored and passed components of the Increase TOCAI (Teachers of Color and American Indian Act), modified concurrent state law and reservation enforcement jurisdictional authority, equity funding for our BIE schools, and the first increase in MFIP grants to Minnesota families in over 30 years, and created the first Indigenous art grants and language recognition, among a number of other pieces of legislation that affect our tribal nations in Minnesota.


Cindy Hohl, MBA/MLIS, is a member of the Santee Sioux Nation and director of branch operations at the Kansas City Public Library. As immediate past president of the American Indian Library Association, she works with librarians all over North America including other countries in her work with the International Federation of Library Associations. Cindy serves on the executive board of the Freedom to Read Foundation and on the steering committee for the Joint Council of Librarians of Color conference. As an ALA Spectrum Scholar, she strives to increase diversity in the library field through mentorship, recruitment, and advocacy.