At 92, a first-time voter: Agnes Kenmille to go to poll in 24th presidential race of life
By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian
PABLO - A lifetime holds countless firsts - first words, first steps, first day of school - and at the age of 92, Agnes “Oshanee” Kenmille is still breaking new ground.
For the first time in her life, she has registered to vote.
A Salish Indian revered across the Flathead Reservation for her knowledge of the culture and language of both her people and the Kootenais, Kenmille was born in Arlee the year Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president, in 1916.
She started tanning hides and doing beadwork when Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.
She married for the first time, moved to Elmo, and had her first child, during the Hoover administration.
Agnes “Oshanee” Kenmille has lived through the terms of 16 American presidents but, at the age of 92, is registered to vote for the first time in her life. Kenmille flies an American flag outside her home in Pablo every day. Photo by KURT WILSON/Missoulian
She has lived through 16 of the 43 American presidents who have held the office since George Washington was sworn in back in 1789, without ever having voted for any of them. Nov. 4 will mark the 24th presidential election of Kenmille's lifetime, and the 18th in which she was eligible to vote.
Why now?
“I didn't think it was important before,” she says. “Now that I've gotten older, now I know how important it is.”
Kenmille had a favorite candidate this year - one she even met - but she didn't get a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton, who campaigned right here in Pablo prior to last June's Democratic presidential primary.
Kenmille hadn't yet registered to vote.
“I've always wondered if I should” register, she says, “but everything goes by so fast. I'm always a day behind.”
Prior to Clinton's speech in Pablo, Kenmille gave the U.S. senator and former first lady a pair of moccasins she had made, and got to shake her hand.
“Oh yes, I wanted her to be president, but she couldn't quite make it,” Kenmille says. “I liked her speech, when she told how she was going to help Indians.”
Now Kenmille - who, had she registered the first time she was eligible, would have voted for either Franklin Roosevelt or Wendell Wilkie - will decide among John McCain, Barack Obama and a handful of third-party candidates in her first U.S. election.
We say U.S., because Kenmille says she has always voted in tribal elections, helping to select the men and women who govern the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. A stepson, Mike Kenmille, is one of the 10 council members.
What does she want the next president of the United States to focus on?
“I know darn well what they should do,” Kenmille says. “Help, help for jobs. These young people should find a job.”
Kenmille just last spring retired from hers. She taught hide tanning at Salish Kootenai College for 28 years. A granddaughter, Gigi Caye, will take over the classes.
“She told me I can boss her around,” Kenmille says with a smile.
Married three times and the mother of seven children - six are still living - Kenmille has more grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren than she can count - two more “great-greats” have been born just in the last month.
She herself started early. Kenmille (her maiden name is Cullooyah) was married at the age of 14, became a mother at 15 and was widowed before she was 16.
Her first husband died of tuberculosis. Her second husband was killed in 1937 while working on the construction of Kerr Dam.
Both were Kootenai Indians who spoke not a word of English. Kenmille, meantime, spoke both English and Salish.
“My first husband didn't talk English, so we started with sign language,” Kenmille says.
By the time she remarried she knew some Kootenai, she says, and by the time she was widowed a second time - at the age of 21 - she knew much more.
More than 70 years later, Kenmille says she can still speak Kootenai better than her native Salish.
Her handmade beadwork, cradleboards, dresses and tanned hides are much sought after, and it was only a year ago that she gave up sewing.
“I can't even thread my needle anymore,” she says.
But she can - and will - vote for president of the United States for the first time in her 92 years. Kenmille has requested an absentee ballot so she can vote at her home in Pablo, where she's lived for the last 10 years after moving from Elmo.
And who will get her first-ever presidential vote?
She may not have done this before, but Oshanee Kenmille knows how it's supposed to work.
With a twinkle in her eye, she answers immediately.
“None of your business,” she replies.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com. Photography editor Kurt Wilson can be reached at 523-5260 or at kwilson@missoulian.com.
