2022 – Advocacy

Suzan Shown Harjo, S. Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is a writer, curator, activist, and policy advocate who has campaigned to improve the lives of Native peoples. As a member of the Carter administration and president of the Morning Star Institute, she has been a key figure in important national Native issues and Indian legislative battles. She served as Congressional liaison for Indian Affairs, as president of the National Congress of American Indians, was a founding trustee of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and has written and curated numerous works.  Harjo received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, in 2014.