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Carol Lee Sanchez is a poet, visual artist, essayist, teacher and mother of three adult children. She is a native of New Mexico and her cultural heritage is mostly Laguna Pueblo and Lebanese-American. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art Administration from San Francisco State University in 1978. From 1976-85, Sanchez was a member of the San Francisco State University faculty. After a brief stay in Central California (1986-89) she relocated to Central Missouri and has taught at the University of Missouri-Columbia, State Fair Community College, Sedalia, MO and Whiteman Air Force Base, Knob Noster, MO. Currently she writes and paints in a two-story Victorian Farmhouse, east of Hughesville in Pettis County, Missouri.

As a poet and lecturer, Carol Lee was invited as a Native American cultural specialist, author & visual artist by the Art America Division of the United States Information Agency (USIA) to speak at various seminars on Native American culture held in Germany and Latvia (Fall 1993). She has given numerous Poetry readings throughout the United States and in several cities in Europe. She has also appeared on the PBS Television network reading her poetry. A Past Executive Director of the California Poets In The Schools Program (1976-78), she received her training and appointment as a Master Poet Teacher while serving as Bay Area Coordinator of the Program (1974-76). Sanchez continues to conduct Poetry Workshops in the schools . . .

Sarris, Greg (Coast Miwok/Pomo)

Greg Sarris is a college professor, author, screenwriter, and current Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. He was chosen in 2005 to fill the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University. The Chair was endowed by his tribe. He was formerly the Fletcher Jones Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; and a full professor at UCLA for ten years. Sarris was born in 1952 in Santa Rosa, California. His mother was an unmarried, 16-year-old white Jewish girl from Laguna Beach, in southern California. She died a few days after his birth, he says from a mismatched blood transfusion. He was adopted by a local couple, George and Mary Sarris . . .

Shenadoah, Joanne (Oneida)

Singing in her native Iroquois language, Joanne Shenandoah has become one of the most critically acclaimed Native American singers, finding crossover success with her ethereal voice and blend of traditional melodies and contemporary styles. Her appeal has been broadened by performances at events such as the Olympics, Woodstock, President Bill Clinton's and President George W. Bush's inaugurals, and at a private tea party for Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton. Shenandoah has been compared to Irish chanteuse Enya and is devoted to Native American causes, taking the stage at countless gatherings across the country in support of those causes. Voted Best Female Artist of the Year at the Native American Music Awards (NAMMYS) two years in a row, Shenandoah--and all Native American musicians--were vindicated by the mainstream music industry in 2001. The Grammy Awards debuted a new category, Best Native American Album, for which Shenandoah was nominated. Singer Robbie Robertson, with whom Shenandoah has recorded, told the Observer-Dispatch, "She weaves you into a trance with her beautiful Iroquois chants . . .

Silex, Gabriel Edgar (Pueblo)

Tri-cultural poet Edgar Silex was born in El Paso, Texas. He writes from his Native American/Chicano/European ancestry.

Edgar holds a BA and an MFA from the University of Maryland at College Park and teaches at St. Mary's College of Maryland. His poems have appeared in Harper's Ferry Review, The Baltimore Review, The New American Poets: A Breadloaf Anthology, and Gargoyle, among others. He has served as poet-in-residence for Howard County, Maryland high schools, for Diné Reservation high schools, and Hartford, Connecticut high schools. He currently lives with his family in Laurel, Maryland and teaches at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

Edgar was awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1995. He received three nominations for the Pushcart Prize in 1996 and one in 1992. He was selected to the 1995 and 1996 Maryland Poetry Quartets and received a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in 1995. Edgar was the Featured Poet in the Hispanic Culture Review in the Summer 1993 issue and the Featured Poet in Haight Ashbury Literary Journal in the Summer 1992 issue. He received an Academy of American Poets Honorable Mention in 1993.

Smith, Cynthia Leitich (Creek)

Born in 1967, Cynthia Leitich Smith is a children's author from Austin, TX. She was raised, at least in part, in northeastern Kansas and attended college in Douglas County, the home of fictional Hannesburg, and completed a journalism degree at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. During college, she worked at a few small-town newspapers as a reporter. Then she earned a law degree at the University of Michigan. Today she lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two gray tabby cats. She's a mixed blood, enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Cynthia Smith is also the author of the picture book Jingle Dancer, which Publishers Weekly called a "heartening portrait of a harmonious meshing of old and new."

Smith, David Lee 'Tim' (Winnebago)

David ‘Tim” Lee Smith has been a valuable asset to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska for many years. His interest in history, particularly Native American History, is undying; in fact, the more knowledge he gains, the more knowledge of our Tribal ancestry is passed on to our people.

Mr. Smith attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he graduated with a degree in History before going on to get his Masters Degree in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Upon completion of this, David returned to Winnebago as the Tribal Historian. He has been assisting the tribe through his writing for over 25 years . In addition, he travels frequently throughout the world for repatriation activities . . .

St. Pierre, Mark (Abenaki)

Mark St. Pierre is the author of Madonna Swan: A Lakota Woman's Story. He is an adjunct professor of sociology, anthropology, and creative writing at Regis University in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. St. Pierre has spent twenty years living and learning among the Lakota.

Born in 1950 of French Canadian, Native and Irish Ancestry, Mark St. Pierre's attended Holy Cross Elementary, then Cathedral High School in Springfield Mass. His family attended St. Joseph's Parish as well as St. Thomas Aquinas. He was first nationally published short story was written when he was 17 years old. Interestingly it was a story about a Catholic Sister at the time of her death. The Freshman English professor had instructed the students to, "Write what you know… and that was most of what I knew." . . .

Standing Bear, Luther [Ota K'te] (Lakota)

Chief Luther Standing Bear was born to the Lakota people just as the great Sioux Reservation was formed. Changing circumstances led his father to send him to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Standing Bear's books were reviewed in the New York Times and other major newspapers. In 1933 he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposing a bill to require public schools to teach a course on Indian history, religion, philosophy, art, and culture. His proposal has remained unanswered by the United States for over sixty years. Standing Bear wrote three books about Lakota life: Land of the Spotted Eagle, My Indian Boyhood, by Chief Luther Standing Bear, Who Was the Boy Ota K'te (Plenty Kill), and My People, the Sioux.

Storm Horse (Yankton Sioux)

Clifford Bernie (Storm Horse), Ihanktonwan Nakota, is a tribal member from one of the seven council fires of the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Nation. A displaced social worker currently employed at the American Indian Community House in a Security/Maintenance position, he came to New York City in pursuit of fulfilling a life long goal - to publish a collection of Native poetry.

The community was saddened to hear of the sudden loss recently of Clifford Bernie (Nakota), also known as Storm Horse. Clifford’s poetry spoke of his experience as a Native man and his work appeared in such publications as Minneapolis Tribune, South Dakota Writer Anthology and Talking Stick, to name but a few. Here we remember Bernie with a poem from his collection Bear Dreamer . . .

Strickland, Rennard (Cherokee/Osage)

A legal historian of Osage and Cherokee heritage, Professor Strickland is considered a pioneer in introducing Indian law into university curriculum. He has written and edited more than 35 books and is frequently cited by courts and scholars for his work as revision editor in chief of the Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Strickland has been involved in the resolution of a number of significant Indian cases. He was the founding director of the Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy at the University of Oklahoma. He is the first person to have served both as president of the Association of American Law Schools and as chair of the Law School Admissions Council. He is also the only person to have received both the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) Award and the American Bar Association's Spirit of Excellence Award. Strickland was the dean of the law school from 1997 to 2002.

Swamp, Jake (Mohawk)

Chief Jake Swamp, Wolf Clan sub-chief of the Kahniakehaka, Mohawk Nation, is founder of the Tree of Peace Society, an international organization promoting peace and environmental conservation. He is also the author of the children's book, "Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message." Chief Jake Swamp travels around the world meeting with world leaders and community groups to share the Tree of Peace ceremony and spread the Iroquois wisdom surrounding Peacemaker Principles and the Thanksgiving Address. The Tree of Peace Society "emphasizes individual responsibility for one’s actions, a deep personal relationship with the natural world, and the acknowledgment that all living things are blessings from the creator to be treated with sensitivity and respect."

Swan, Madonna (Lakota)

1928–1993. Born on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Madonna Swan prevailed over extreme difficulties including the Native American tuberculosis epidemic of the 20th century to lead a fulfilled life. She overcame the terrible conditions of socio-economic deprivation, restricted education, poor health care, and confinement to the Indian tuberculosis sanatorium and the reservation, to attend college, become a Head Start teacher, marry, raise a child, and be named Native American Woman of the Year. Madonna Swan become an inspiration to both Indian and non-Indian women. In the autobiographical narrative Madonna Swan: A Lakota Woman’s Story as told through the author Mark St. Pierre Madonna Swan relates the stories of her life.

Swentzell, Rina (Santa Clara Pueblo)

Dr. Rina Swentzell (b. 1939) (Santa Clara Pueblo) Swentzell earned her B.A. in Education from New Mexico Highlands University, as well as her M.A. in Architecture in 1976 and her Ph.D. in American Studies in 1982 at the University of New Mexico. She writes and lectures on the philosophical and cultural basis of the Pueblo world and its educational, artistic, and architectural expressions. Her writing appears in magazines, scholarly journals, and edited collections and she appears in video presentation for television and museums commenting upon Pueblo cultural values. She acts as a consultant to a number of museums including Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts and the Smithsonian, and was a visiting lecturer at both Yale and Oxford in 1996.

Rina is the daughter of Rose Naranjo, sister of Dr. Tessie Naranjo, Professor Tito Naranjo, sculptors Michael Naranjo and Nora Naranjo-Morse and potters Jody Folwell, Dolly Naranjo and Edna Romero. She is the mother of sculptor Roxanne Swentzell and aunt of potters Jody Naranjo, Susan Folwell, Polly Rose Folwell, Dusty Naranjo and Forrest Naranjo.

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