Mary Kathryn Nagle is a playwright and an attorney specializing in tribal sovereignty of Native nations and peoples. She was born in

Oklahoma City, OK Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital city, capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, Oklahoma County, it ranks List of Uni ...

, and is an enrolled citizen of the

Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

. She previously served as the executive director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP) from 2015 to 2019.

Education and career

Mary Kathryn Nagle received her bachelor's degree in Justice and Peace Studies from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, and later received her degree in law from

Tulane University Law School Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. In addition to the usual common ...

where she graduated summa cum laude. After graduating from law school, Nagle clerked for two federal judges at once in the

United States District Court for the District of Nebraska The United States District Court for the District of Nebraska (in case citations, D. Neb.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nebraska. Court offices are in Omaha and Lincoln. Appeals from the District of Nebraska ...

, Senior Judge

Joseph Bataillon Joseph Francis Bataillon (born October 3, 1949) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. Education and career Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Bataillon received a Bachelor of Arts deg ...

, and Chief Judge Laurie Smith Camp. The majority of her work in court involves fighting for the rights of Native people on and off of reservations. One of the most prominent cases she litigated was '' Adoptive Couple v Baby Girl'' (also known as the Baby Veronica case) trial in 2013, held in the US Supreme Court. She wrote a brief which cited the ICWA (Indian Child Welfare Act) to keep a young Native girl from being taken away from her birth-father and being adopted by a white family. It was during law school that Nagle realized she wanted to advocate for Native rights as a playwright. Nagle is an alumna of the 2013 Emerging Writers Group, a prestigious program supported by

The Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

for up-and-coming playwrights. During her time in the Emerging Writers Group she wrote '' Manahatta'', a play that received recognition from the groups that give the William Soroyan Prize for Playwriting and the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. ''

Sliver of a Full Moon ''Sliver of a Full Moon'' is a play by Mary Kathryn Nagle. The play was written in 2013 following the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and has written and p ...

'' is one of her most successful works to date, having been performed at the Church Center of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and various law schools across the country, including

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. After being commissioned by the

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

to write ''

Sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

'', she became the first Native American playwright to ever have their work featured in the venue.

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticism ...

will publish ''

'' in 2020.

Family

Nagle's grandmother, Frances Polson, was a Cherokee woman, and her grandfather, Dr. Patrick Sarsfield Nagle II, was an Irish man and the son of the leader of the Oklahoma Socialist Party. The couple were forced to elope from Oklahoma to Iowa because Patrick's family opposed the marriage. Her great-great-great grandfather was

John Ridge John Ridge, born ''Skah-tle-loh-skee'' (ᏍᎦᏞᎶᏍᎩ, Yellow Bird) ( – 22 June 1839), was from a prominent family of the Cherokee Nation, then located in present-day Georgia. He went to Cornwall, Connecticut, to study at the Foreign Mis ...

, a Cherokee politician. Ridge's father,

Major Ridge Major Ridge, The Ridge (and sometimes Pathkiller II) (c. 1771 – 22 June 1839) (also known as ''Nunnehidihi'', and later ''Ganundalegi'') was a Cherokee leader, a member of the tribal council, and a lawmaker. As a warrior, he fought in the ...

(Nagle's great-great-great-great grandfather), was also a Cherokee politician. They were both involved with the drafting of

treaties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...

with the United States in an attempt to protect Cherokee rights in the era of

Indian removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a de ...

Plays

* ''Katrina Stories'' (2008) *''Welcome to Chalmette'' (2008) *''Waaxe's Law'' (2009) *''To the 7th Degree'' (2009) *'' Manahatta'' (2013) – a young Native American woman with a degree in Financial Mathematics from MIT rediscovers the history of her homeland, Manahatta. *''

'' (2013) – a group of survivors of domestic violence on Indian reservations tell their stories about how jurisdiction laws have impacted them, while an effort to re-authorize the

Violence Against Women Act The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investi ...

(VAWA) is pushed in congress. *''Miss Lead'' (2013) – a young Native American woman discovers and must acknowledge she has

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...

. *''Fairly Traceable'' (2013) – set in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, two young Native American law school students grapple with career ambitions, rights of native communities, and environmental welfare. Staged in March 2017 in the

Autry Museum of the American West The Autry Museum of the American West is a museum in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to exploring an inclusive history of the American West. Founded in 1988, the museum presents a wide range of exhibitions and public programs, including le ...

"Native Voices" series. *''In My Father's Eyes'' (2013–14) *''My Father's Bones'' (2013–14) – the children of

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

, Olympic gold medalist and member of the

Sac and Fox Nation The Sac and Fox Nation ( ''Mesquakie'' language: ''Othâkîwaki / Thakiwaki'' or ''Sa ki wa ki'') is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox) Indian peoples. Originally from the Lake Huron and Lake Michiga ...

, attempt to

repatriate Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

their father's remains. *''Diamonds... Are a Boy's Best Friend'' (2013–14) * ''

'' (2015) – young Cherokee lawyer Sarah Ridge Polson returns to Oklahoma in order to help restore her Nation's tribal jurisdiction. * ''Crossing Mnisose'' (2017) * ''Reclaiming One Star'' (2020) *''On the Far End'' (2023)

References

External links

* September 21, 2014 production of
Sliver of a Full Moon
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagle, Mary Kathryn Living people 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Native Americans American people of Irish descent Cherokee Nation lawyers Cherokee writers Georgetown University alumni Native American dramatists and playwrights Native American lawyers Native American women writers Oklahoma lawyers Tulane University alumni Writers from Oklahoma City Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century Native American women