HONORING CORA VIGIL GOMEZ

HONORING CORA VIGIL GOMEZ

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 4, 2026)] [House] [Page H2380] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING CORA VIGIL GOMEZ (Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.) Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life and legacy of Cora Vigil Gomez, one of the first women on the Tribal Council for the Jicarilla Apache Nation. She lived a life of passion, self-reliance, service to the community, and hard work. As one of the Tribal Council members, she was instrumental in the lawsuit against corporations who said that you can't tax them. She attended the United States Supreme Court hearing, and that Nation established the sovereign right of Tribes to impose taxation to fund their government. She started an elderly meal program where she actually butchered the sheep herself and then delivered the meals. It eventually became federally and State funded and is now still serving the people of the region. In the 1980s, she was one of only four Native American representatives from New Mexico for Title IV of the Older Americans Act, which commenced the Federal funding of Tribal programs for elders. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have represented Cora Vigil Gomez and her Nation as an attorney and as her Representative. I honor Councilwoman Gomez, and am so sad for all of us now that she has passed, but I am so glad that we can remember and be inspired by her for generations to come. ____________________