A success story: the tale of Jacqueline Johnson: from her rural Alaska Native roots, to her mission in Washington, D.C., this high-energy woman has broken the glass ceiling.

• Author: Tobenkin, David

It's a long way from Juneau to Washington, D.C.: 2,830 miles as the crow flies, to be exact. But for Jacqueline Johnson, an Alaska Native who now lives in the nation's capital, the distance traveled cannot be measured in miles alone.

Johnson was born 49 years ago into a hardworking, but struggling, Juneau Tlingit family, not too proud to take food handouts from grocery stores and past-due food. By age 26, she was a single mom with four children. That, however, was not the end of the story. These days, Johnson is executive director of the nation's oldest and largest Native American advocacy group in Washington, D.C., the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). When she calls U.S. senators on the telephone, they pick up the receiver.

"I enjoy working with Jackie on many issues," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in a written statement. "She is a skilled diplomat who listens to Native people and passionately articulates their views to the Congress and the Executive Branch. She testifies frequently before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and is well-liked by congressional staff from both sides of the aisle. That gives her entree to virtually every office on Capitol Hill."

How Johnson got there is a story of her enormous capacity for work, a refusal to accept barriers, and some lucky breaks. But it all began with a vision.

A CHILD AMONG SIX

Born into a family of six children, Johnson said her parents were self-employed in a variety of businesses, which, if not financially lucrative, imparted a strong sense of business ethics to all the children. A good high school student, Johnson attended college in Utah, did well, and seemed destined to escape the Native Alaskan binds of gender and economic disadvantage. But Alaska and tradition exerted a reverse pull. Pressured by family and tribe members, she said she eventually did what was expected: she dropped out of college, got married, and rapidly had three kids.

Johnson had always been close to Tlingit Chief Donawaak (Austin Hammond). In the late 1970s, near the end of his life, Donawaak fell gravely ill and at one point lingered on the edge of death.

"He felt like he had passed to the other world," Johnson said. "But his grandfather said it was not his time and that he had to go back because he had a duty to teach his grandchildren. He recovered, and for the rest of his life he felt a total duty to develop structures to teach about our culture. He said, 'I want to teach our children our ways, but not just our children. More people need to understand who we are.'"

Donawaak proceeded to set up a program where public schools in Haines and Juneau serving both Native Alaskan and non-Native children were visited by Native Alaskan elders who taught them traditional culture and crafts, which Johnson said was the first time this had been done. Beginning in 1983, Johnson assisted him in setting up the program, an experience that she said brought home the importance of hard work and of bridging the gap between her tribal identity and the larger non-Tlingit world.

STARTING SMALL

After a variety of low-level interim jobs while she raised her young children and tried to finish college in...