- By Toni Gibbons Staff writer
- Dec 7, 2025 Updated Dec 9, 2025
From Linden to Washington, D.C., a local woman is now helping shape national policy affecting tribal communities. Kelly Rael, who has deep roots in the Show Low region, was appointed in February to a position under Secretary Doug Burgum at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Her role places her inside Indian Affairs, where she now serves as a special advisor to Assistant Secretary William Kirkland, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Rael’s path to Washington grew out of her work during the 2024 election cycle, when she focused her efforts on Navajo and Apache counties. As part of statewide Native American voter drives, she helped register more than 500 Native voters across 10 tribes to the Republican Party, spending much of her time on the Navajo Nation and in White Mountain Apache communities.
According to an NBC post-election analysis, Native American voters broke sharply toward Republicans in 2024. The outlet reported that 68 percent of Native Americans voted for Trump, a dramatic shift for the demographic.
Within Indian Affairs, Rael has also assisted in Burgum’s Secretary Tribal Advisory Committee, helping organize high-level discussions on crime and safety in Indian Country. One of those meetings brought together FBI Director Kash Patel and 24 tribal leaders to highlight the growing national concern over violence affecting Native communities.
The meeting took on a special significance when the family of Emily Pike, a young Indigenous woman from northeastern Arizona, met personally with Patel and Burgum. Pike disappeared in January 2025, and her dismembered remains were later found near U.S. Highway 60, milepost 277 outside Globe. The brutality of the crime shook tribal and non-tribal communities alike, intensifying calls for stronger protections and investigative resources.
The San Carlos Apache Tribe initially offered a $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. After hearing directly from Pike’s family, Patel announced the FBI would match and double that amount, raising the total reward to $150,000.
“We told them that we were grateful for any and everything that they’ve done, and we just don’t want this to happen again to anyone,” Patel said at the time.
Burgum also acknowledged the family’s courage, saying Pike’s story “represents both the tragedy and the urgency of addressing violence against Native women.”
Pike’s case has since become a national touchstone in the fight to address missing and murdered Indigenous persons. Patel referenced her case during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, and Burgum highlighted it during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, both using the moment to push for stronger law-enforcement coordination and improved safety in tribal communities.
In her new capacity, Rael is helping tackle a longstanding federal challenge: the Probate Land in Trust backlog. More than 48,000 cases remain unresolved across Indian Country. Her work will focus on improving efficiency in trust and land-management processes, while ensuring those systems better serve tribal members nationwide.
Even as her responsibilities take her to Washington, D.C., Rael returns home monthly to visit her husband and sons in Arizona, keeping close ties to the Linden community where her work began.
