Biography

Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola was born in Alaska and raised on the Kuskokwim River in Kwethluk, Tuntutuliak. Peltola was sworn into the 117th Congress September 13, 2022. As the first Alaska native woman elected to Congress, she served the remainder of the late Rep. Don Young's term and was re-elected to a full term in the 118th Congress on November 8, 2022.

At age 24 years old she won her first state election and represented the Bethel region in the Alaska State Legislature.

During her ten years in office she built consensus around budgets that improved lives in rural Alaska. Since then she has worked as Manager of Community Development and Sustainability for the Donlin gold mine project.

Executive Director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. She helped mobilize 118 Tribes and rural Alaskans to advocate for the protection of salmon runs in Western Alaska.

Rep. Peltola also served on the Orutsararmiut Native Council Tribal Court and the Bethel City Council, and on the boards of the Nature Conservancy, the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Alaska Children's Trust, and the Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Won the August 2022 special election for Alaska's at-large U.S. House seat. Her win was seen as an upset, as she defeated former governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. She also became the first Democrat elected to the House from Alaska since 1973, the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Alaska since 2008, as well as the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

She and Sarah Palin are known to be friendly, despite belonging to opposing parties. They ran against each other in two U.S. House elections in 2022 but refrained from attacking each other or running any negative ads -- which was something of an anomaly as Palin is known to be a brutal campaigner. Palin even congratulated Peltola after her win, calling her a "real Alaskan chick".

Her husband, Eugene "Buzzy" Peltola Jr., died in an airplane crash in Alaska, on September 13, 2023.