Full Name

Ruth Buffalo

Job Title

North Dakota District 27 State House Representative

Company

 

Speaker Bio

Ruth Buffalo is originally from Mandaree, North Dakota which is located along the southwestern edge of the Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation.  She is a citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation and a descendant of the Chiricahua Apache.  She is currently residing in south Fargo with her husband and four children.  She recently was elected into office in 2018 to serve North Dakota as a Representative for District 27 in south Fargo.  

Ruth is a public health professional and educator.  She is a volunteer to several local, statewide and national boards which focus on improving the quality of life for all people.  She has served on advisory councils focused on women's health, women's leadership development and local food systems.  Ruth served on the Fargo Native American Commission (2017-2018).  In 2017, she was elected to the Board of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition.
She is also the former chair of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition and recipient of National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development's 40 under 40 leadership award.  The Fargo Inforum newspaper named her among local leaders to watch in 2019.  In 2019, she was named North Dakota Woman of the Year by North Dakota Women’s Network.  She is a Joan B. Kroc Institute, Women’s Peacemaker Fellow (2019-202). Prior to the pandemic, she was elected to a four-year term as North Dakota’s Democratic National Committeewoman (2020). After President Biden became the Democratic Presidential Nominee, she was invited to volunteer on several Biden campaign policy committees (2020).  She is a recent graduate of National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, Administration for Children & Families, Office on Trafficking in Persons, Office of Women’s Health, CORO, Cohort 7, Human Trafficking Leadership Academy, (2021). 

Her consultant and independent contract work have included local nonprofit organizations and tribal communities.  She is also an advocate for research and advocacy, community capacity-building and continued reconciliation efforts through education.  Ruth hopes her efforts will contribute to policy changes in all levels of government for future generations.  She is a community organizer for all people and works diligently to ensure all people are informed of the electoral and legislative process.  Her passion is safe and healthy communities.  

Ruth earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Si Tanka University (Huron, SD) in 2002 and master’s degrees in management (2005) and Business Administration (2010) from University of Mary and Public Health (2016) from North Dakota State University.  

Ruth has served in various capacities focused on building healthy and safe communities. She was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives in 2018 and proudly serves the people of District 27 in south Fargo. Ruth is the first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature. In her first legislative session, she introduced 8 pieces of legislation focused on Human Trafficking prevention and awareness and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, all but one passed. In her second legislative session, she was the original bill author for SB 2304, a bill to require Native American history be taught in grades K-12.  This bill is now law.