The Tribe wishes Judy a Thankful Farewell

By Alyssa Kelly

Judy Herman

PABLO — Judy Herman began her work with the BIA on a cold day in 1983. "The roads were so slick that morning I was going really slow and still sliding across the road. Finally, I turned around and made a call to Johnny Newman and said 'The roads are so slick I'm going to be late for my first day of work.' What a way to start a job," she recalls. Judy worked in tribal operations with BIA where she conducted 6-38 contracts and grants with the tribes. She worked with the BIA for 13 years.

Following Judy's BIA work, she started the CSKT mail service from the ground up in 1995. Before the mail service, the mail communication with the tribes was very unorganized and there were a lot of man-hours involved. "My goal for the mail service was getting all the information together. I had to figure all of the tribal departments, all of the routes, and basically just build the whole department. We started serving 34 and now we're serving around 70 departments. We have two deliveries a day, south bound, and to Polson. Then we have one delivery daily to Elmo," says Judy.

Now after serving the mail service for ten and half years, Judy is bidding farewell on April 30, 2007. "The best part of the job was meeting a lot of people and making a lot of friends. I wanted to do my best job at whatever task I was given and gain a good work ethic. I wanted to perform my job to my best ability and learn something new," says Judy.

So what's next for this hard-working woman? "My husband and I have a ranch that I plan on working on. I like working with flowers and I hope to spend more time with my grand kids and family," says Judy.

On a final note to the department that she helped build she remains positive "I hope the mail keeps improving and becomes more efficient," says Judy.