August 2008

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee) is a writer, curator, and Native political activist. Her efforts have contributed greatly to the protection of sacred land and the repatriation of cultural objects. Harjo has been a key figure in many important legal and legislative battles concerning indigenous rights over the past three decades, including the passage of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the 1989 National Museum of the American Indian Act, and the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act. She was a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian and a chief architect of many of its policies, and remains active in NMAI initiatives. Harjo has been honored with numerous awards and fellowships, including visiting positions at Dartmouth and Stanford and two consecutive fellowships at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. She has curated exhibitions at NMAI, the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Peabody Essex Museum, and participated as a moderator in numerous NMAI programs with writers and filmmakers. She is a past executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, and the current president and executive director of the Morning Star Institute, a Native rights advocacy organization.

Image credit: Audience at Club Red Radio, 2000 Native American Film and Video Festival - Photograph by Amalia Córdova, NMAI