Helen TeAta Gale Cole
Chickasaw Senator
 
Helen TeAtta Gale Cole was born half Chickasaw and half Choctaw in Tishomingo, Oklahoma in 1922. 

Helen served for more than nine years in the Oklahoma Senate and six years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and also served as mayor of Moore, Oklahoma.

She was well known for her fight against drug and alcohol abuse as well as her efforts as a member of the State Ethics Commission to raise the bar of behavior for state officials.

Helen began her political career by running for office in 1976, which was the only time she was ever defeated. 

In 1978, she ran again, won, and began an 18-year career of public service. 

One year after retiring from the Senate, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating appointed her to co-chair a state-wide task force on issues related to drug and alcohol abuse. Later that same year, she was also appointed to the State Ethics Commission by Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger.

Her grandfather, Thomas Benjamin Thompson, was the last elected Treasurer of the Chickasaw Nation before statehood.  She is also the niece of TeAta, famed Chickasaw storyteller. 
 

Neal McCaleb
Chickasaw Public Official
 
Neal McCaleb, who served as Assistant Secretary, Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs from July, 2001 until November, 2002, was a strong advocate for tribal economic development during his tenure in office.

Since leaving interior, McCaleb has worked as an economic development consultant for the Chickasaw Nation.

Mr. McCaleb served eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was elected minority floor leader in 1978.

He served as a presidential appointee on Ronald Reagan's Commission on Indian Reservation Economies in the 1980s.

As Oklahoma's secretary of Transportation, Neal McCaleb oversaw the construction and maintenance of the state's transportation systems. He was the first to serve as director of both the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, in addition to being secretary of transportation.

A 1957 graduate of Oklahoma A&M University, he is a licensed professional engineer with more than 40 years experience in designing and supervising the construction of roads, bridges, public facilities and architectural structures. 

Sam Paul
Chickasaw Lawman 
 
Sam Paul was born near Fort Arbuckle, I.T. in the Chickasaw Nation in 1848. Ten years later, his family founded what would become Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.

Sam Paul was one of the strongest advocates of Indian rights during his time.

He lived to only 44 years of age, murdered by his own son, but in the short period of his life, he served in the Chickasaw House of Representatives and Senate, and was a candidate for governor in 1890.

He was one of the driving forces for the economic development of the Chickasaw Nation and was instrumental in bringing the railroads here.

He owned the first newspaper in the Chickasaw Nation, The Paul's Valley Enterprise, and later owned and was president of The Chickasaw Chieftain newspaper in Ardmore.

He fluently spoke the language of all of the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as English, Kiowa and Comanche.

He was a member of the Lighthorse Police and constable of Pickens County in 1881. As a lawman, he shot a young non-Indian who was harboring horse thieves. For that act, he was sentenced to a federal prison, but was eventually granted a full pardon by President Chester A. Arthur in 1884.