Newsmaker: Latter-day Saint Chief Elected

For the first time, a Latter-day Saint woman has been elected chief of a North American Indian nation. Gail Sparrow of the Vancouver First Ward, Vancouver British Columbia Stake, recently won a landslide victory over five other candidates to become chief of the Musqueam Nation.

Chief Sparrow, who had served for several years in various leadership capacities in her “band” (tribe) council, decided to run for chief when many members of the band approached her with the idea. “They told me they knew I would stand for what is true and right,” she says.

A member of the Church for 30 years, Chief Sparrow says she relies on principles of the gospel to help her lead her people. “I live by the Church’s standards of excellence. I want to apply those standards to leading my community.”

As chief, she plans to emphasize economic independence, higher education, and better employment opportunities for the Musqueam people. Chief Sparrow, in partnership with Victoria Hanneman of the White Rock Ward, Surrey British Columbia Stake, owns two businesses—a consulting firm for Native American entrepreneurs and a training institute that offers courses in computers, accounting, and office skills to Native Americans.

Because the chief of the Musqueam Nation is considered a spiritual as well as political leader, Chief Sparrow also desires to emphasize spirituality among her people. Under her leadership, community meetings are now opened and closed with prayer. “The Book of Mormon promises that the Lamanites will blossom as a rose,” she says. “I feel right now that our people are ready to blossom.”

Chief Sparrow first heard about the gospel as a teenager in 1966, when Sister Marion Hanneman and Sister Rebecca Ashton of the Alaskan-Canadian Mission received special permission from their mission president to visit the Musqueam reservation. The missionaries went directly to the Musqueam chief, who happened to be Sister Sparrow’s father.

“The sisters gave my father a brief presentation about the Church,” she recounts. “He knew nothing about the Church, but he could feel that the sisters had a good spirit about them, so he allowed them to share the gospel on the reservation.”

Through the invitation of these missionaries, Sister Sparrow soon became involved in various activities with the youth of the Vancouver Stake and began hearing the missionary discussions. She was impressed by the Book of Mormon account of Jesus Christ’s appearance in America, the basic principles of the gospel, the Church’s emphasis on families, and the examples of the missionaries and other Church members, and she decided to be baptized. “This is what I wanted in my life; I saw what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she explains.

“Since then, the gospel has taught me much about building character,” says Chief Sparrow. “I attribute what I am today to my acceptance of it.”—Barbara J. Jones, Salt Lake City, Utah