Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/216837
CONNECT PERSPECTIVE FLY, GIRL! HELICOPTER PILOT AND SOLDIER JONI MATHEWS' WORDS TO LIVE BY BY MARNI MCENTEE JONI MATHEWS HAS ALWAYS looked beyond the horizon. Growing up on the Ojibwe reservation in Northern Wisconsin, Mathews avoided the alcohol and drug problems that befell so many of her peers and left the reservation as a teenager. college. duty in return for a full scholarship and an aviation degree from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Her latest accomplishment again sets and Wisconsin Army National Guard. ning," Mathews' 83-year-old mother Jeanne Brown said at a recent Army Guard ceremony. "When she was 6 or 7, we'd have family gatherings and she'd organize all the little ones—the parents were happy about it—to play some games or teach them something." When she wasn't organizing her family members, Mathews was watching the 16 BRAVA MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2013 PHOTOGRAPHED BY SHANNA WOLF Mathews' progression from a determined little girl on the Lac du Flambeau reservation to a leader of men (and women).