Lila DeMarrias Mehlhaff, human services coordinator for the City of Rapid
City, speaking at South Dakota Mines annual Constitution Day Talk on
Sept. 16, 2022.
South Dakota Mines hosted speaker Lila DeMarrias
Mehlhaff on Sept. 16, 2022, for the annual talk celebrating the U.S.
Constitution. Mehlhaff is currently the human services coordinator for the City
of Rapid City, in the mayor’s office, where she helps coordinate community
resources to help end homelessness. Mehlhaff’s professional background involves
mostly small business development, franchising and startups, but it also
includes non-profit experience with early-stage development of the South Dakota
Center For Enterprise Opportunity based at Black Hills State University as well
as Warrior’s Circle, a Native American ministry.
Mehlhaff spoke about the United States Constitution
and its role in Indian Treaty-Making. “In the Constitution, Article XI talks
about the Supremacy Clause. ...One of the things that it basically addresses is
treaties,” Mehlhaff said. “There is lots to be learned about treaties,”
Mehlhaff said later in the program.
Mehlhaff was born and raised in the village of
Little Eagle on the Standing Rock Indian reservation. She is Hunkpapa Lakota
and Wahpekute Dakota. In addition to working in the mayor’s office, Mehlhaff
has worked for United States Congress as a tribal liaison and is also a South Dakota
licensed real estate agent. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science
with an Indian studies minor and a Master of Science in strategic leadership
(MSSL), both from Black Hills State University. Mehlhaff and her husband are
partners in the two Qdoba Mexican Eats restaurants in Rapid City and is also an
inventor with a provisional patent pending. She and her husband, Stewart, have four
children, four grandchildren and Isabel the cat.
Constitution Day commemorates the formation and
signing of the United States Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, recognizing as
citizens all who are born in the U.S. or those made citizens by naturalization.