Ross is a Blackfeet Indian, veteran of the USMC, and has spent many years working on farms and ranches in the Browning, Montana area.

WHITEHOUSE: Ross racine | The White House

The 1997 awardees included Luis Alfaro, a Los Angeles performance artist who challenges views on race relations, gender and poverty, and Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, who started a bank for American Indians.

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His professional career began with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Browning, Montana as a Soil Conservationist working with Indian livestock producers on the Blackfeet Reservation.

WHITEHOUSE: Ross racine | The White House