The Asian Hall of Fame honors its first Indigenous inductee

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https://crosscut.com/news/2022/11/asian-hall-fame-honors-its-first-indigenous-inductee

The Asian Hall of Fame honors its first Indigenous inductee

Virginia Cross, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s chairwoman for over four decades, was chosen for her devotion to economic and educational issues.

by Luna Reyna / November 23, 2022

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On Nov. 18 the Asian Hall of Fame, a nonprofit focused on educating the public, promoting Asian excellence and charitable work for racial equity, chose their first Indigenous inductee, Virginia Cross, chairwoman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. Cross was elected to the Muckleshoot council in 1980 and as chairwoman the following year, making her one of the longest-standing elected officials in Washington. Over the past four decades she has helped elevate the Muckleshoot and their efforts to properly steward their land, flourish economically and create further educational opportunities for their people.

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“[Cross is] a real leader for the advancement of equity for women leaders in the United States,” said Hsieh. “She should be on a coin!”

When Cross was growing up on the reservation in Auburn in the 1950s, her community had no electricity, plumbing or running water. Today the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe is one of the largest employers in King County and has donated more than $25 million to charities statewide. With the revenue from the casino and other investments Cross has influenced, the nation is now able to provide social services for the well-being of Muckleshoot citizens and contribute to the broader economy through charitable donations and employment. Cross received the Bill Kyle Memorial Award in recognition for these contributions from the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce in 2016.
Cross also served as the director of Indian education for the Auburn School District for 22 years, when she helped shape the relationship between local schools and the Muckleshoot by involving the nation’s leaders in school programming and encouraging district officials to learn more about the nation.

In 1973 she helped launch Native education programs in school districts in King and Pierce counties, hiring native educators to work in those schools to tutor students and address any other needs the kids may have had, from tutoring to social services. Cross believes that this may have been the first time these districts collaborated directly with Native students and educators. During this time, Cross also prioritized addressing Native graduation rates. She believed it was important to meet kids where they were at, and wanted to give kids who struggled to conform to the public school structure a chance to learn at their own pace.

“When I graduated from high school at Auburn, I was the only Muckleshoot that graduated that year,” Cross said.

So she helped create a program that provided cultural enrichment opportunities and advocacy for both students and their families, and pushed back the start time to 10 a.m. The program, named the Virginia Cross Native Education Center in her honor, was created over 25 years ago as a drop-out retrieval program for Native high schoolers. Today it provides students with educational support to meet high school graduation requirements as well as the emotional and social encouragement necessary for them to seek higher education opportunities.

For her work in education, Cross became the sixth person inducted into the Auburn High School Hall of Fame in 2012.

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