Suzan Shown Harjo (born June 2, 1945) (

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

and Hodulgee

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsNative American rights. She is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate who has helped Native peoples recover more than one million acres (4,000 km²) of tribal lands. After co-producing the first American Indian news show in the nation for

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...

radio while living in New York City, and producing other shows and theater, in 1974 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work on national policy issues. She served as Congressional liaison for Indian affairs in the President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

administration and later as president of the

National Council of American Indians The National Council of American Indians (NCAI) was established in February 1926. The beginnings of inquiry about this council began with Zitkála-Šá (also known as Gertrude Bonnin) and Theodora Cunningham on March 1, 1926. This organization's ...

. Harjo is president of the Morning Star Institute, a national Native American rights organization. Since the 1960s, she has worked on getting sports teams to drop names that promote negative stereotypes of Native Americans. In June 2014, the Patent and Trademark Office revoked the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

trademark; the owner said he would appeal. By 2013, two-thirds of teams with American Indian mascots had changed them due to these public campaigns.Ken Belson, "Redskins’ Name Change Remains Activist’s Unfinished Business"
''New York Times'', October 9, 2013, accessed June 19, 2014 On November 24, 2014, Harjo received the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

, the United States' highest civilian honor. Harjo was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2022.

Early years

Harjo was born as Suzan Shown on June 2, 1945, in

El Reno, Oklahoma El Reno is a city in and county seat of Canadian County, Oklahoma, Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population was 16,989, marking a change of 1.55% from 16,729, recorded in the ...

. Her mother was Cheyenne and her father Muscogee, and they lived on his allotment near Beggs.Harjo, Suzan Shown
"Grace of Water, Focus of Rock"
''Talking Stick: Native Arts Quarterly'' Issue 12.4, Oct–Dec 2009 (retrieved January 14, 2009) One of her maternal great-grandfathers was Chief

Bull Bear A bull is an intact (i.e., not Neutering, castrated) adult male of the species ''Cattle, Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., Cattle, cows), bulls have long been an important symbol i ...

(Cheyenne). Between the ages of 12 and 16 she lived with her family in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy, where her father was stationed while in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. Upon her return to the States, she moved to New York City, where she worked in radio and the theater.

Activism

The roots of Suzan Shown Harjo's activism date from the mid-1960s, when she co-produced ''Seeing Red'', a bi-weekly radio program on New York's

WBAI FM WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...

station; it was the first Indigenous news show in the United States. Some of her pioneering radio work is preserved at the Pacifica Radio Archives in Los Angeles.WIMN’s Voices
/ref> She worked on it with her husband, Frank Harjo, whom she met and married in New York. They also worked on issues of protecting religious freedom for American Indians. In New York she worked in independent theatre and radio, producing and performing in numerous plays. After seeing sacred garments in the Museum of the American Indian in New York in 1967, she worked for repatriation to tribes of such items and for changes in museum policies. They moved to Washington D.C. in 1974, when Suzan Harjo started working as a legislative liaison for two law firms representing Indian rights. For a time she was also news director for the American Indian Press Association.Jennifer Weston, "Suzan Harjo"
Cultural Survival Quarterly Issue: 34-4 (Winter 2010), accessed June 19, 2014 Harjo was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board in 1982. In 1978 President

appointed Harjo as a Congressional liaison for Indian affairs. Harjo worked with multiple subcommittees within Congress to advocate Native American positions in the formation of federal policy. Harjo supported such issues as hunting and fishing rights on traditional lands, voting, and land contracts rights. Indian activists were filing longstanding claims for historic insufficient payment by the federal government for Indian lands under numerous treaties, and government representatives suggested there should be a statute of limitations for such claims. Her continued lobbying related to religious freedom helped lead to passage of the

American Indian Religious Freedom Act The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Public Law No. 95–341, 92 Stat. 469 (Aug. 11, 1978) (commonly abbreviated to AIRFA), codified at , is a United States federal law, enacted by joint resolution of the Congress in 1978. Prior to the ac ...

(AIRFA) in 1978, which Carter supported. In a Statute of Limitations for Indian Claims hearing on February 17, 1982, Harjo noted that the federal government had failed to comply with laws already in place to pay tribal nations settled claims since 1966. Harjo also fought for land rights. Congressional delays added to the time to settle such cases. As a ''Washington Post'' article reported on this issue, Harjo said, "They're adding 10 to 15 yrs. to a litigation process that is now going on… What I'm fearful is that tribes that are now negotiating in good faith… will back off and refuse to compromise."

National Congress of American Indians

Suzan Shown Harjo served as the Executive Director of the

National Congress of American Indians The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...

(NCIA) from 1984 to 1989. The NCAI, a non-profit organization to represent all Native American Indians as well as Alaska Natives, was founded in 1944. Harjo persisted in working with Congress to support Native American rights to traditional hunting and fishing. She supported gaining more funds for Native American education. The NCAI goal was to ensure Native American children were educated, and with her leadership they gained increased appropriations for that purpose in 1984, 1986, and 1988. Harjo pressed the Congressional committee to gain access to government documents related to programs for Native Americans, and asked for continued support of Native American attempts at economic development. In the 1980s, she was concerned about declining federal support for health clinics on reservations and the adverse result of subsequent higher mortality rates among Native Americans. During this period, Harjo continued to work on issues of repatriation of sacred items from museums to tribes, and changes in the ways researchers dealt with American Indian human remains and artifacts. Her work, together with hundreds of others, resulted in additional reforms and national legislation in 1989 and 1990. She has spoken out against the negative portrayals of Native Americans in stereotypes featured in movies and television. Harjo has criticized author

Ward Churchill Ward LeRoy Churchill (born 1947) is an American author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1990 until 2007.

's controversial claim of Native American ancestry, which is unsupported by documentation. She has publicly denounced his claims. Harjo has appeared as a spokesman for Native American issues on many television programs, including '' Oprah!,'' C-SPAN, and ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

.'' Harjo is a long-time columnist for the online newspaper ''

Indian Country Today ''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations. It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...

.''

Federal laws

Harjo contributed to development and passage of federal legislation protecting Native sovereignty, arts and cultures, language, and human rights. These include the 1978

(AIRFA);"Suzan Shown Harjo: Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native American Artist Fellow"
, ''Dobkin Fellowship: Indian Arts Research Center''. 2004 (Retrieved 17 Jan 9) which allowed the protection of Native Americans for practice of traditional religion and rituals. In the first year of its enactment, it enabled the first repatriation of sacred items to American Indian tribes. In 2004, she published a keynote lecture as an article in the academic journal ''

Wíčazo Ša Review The ''Wíčazo Ša Review'' ("Red Pencil" in Lakota) is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of Native American studies. The journal was established in 1985 by editors-in-chief Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Dakota Santee), Dr. Beatrice Medicine (Lak ...

'': this article offers a twenty-five-year retrospective on the passage of AIRFA, discussing its genesis, impact, and legacies. Harjo considers in this article the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, ''

Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association ''Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association'', 485 U.S. 439 (1988), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark case in which the Court ruled ...

'' (1988), while describing what activists did to advance legislation in response to it. She also was involved in working for the 1989

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

Act, which authorized establishment of the museum at two sites, at the former Customs Building in New York City, and construction of a new building on the Mall; the 1990

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990. The Act requires federal agencies and institutions tha ...

(NAGPRA), which allows tribes to reclaim their human remains and ceremonial items from publicly funded institutions; and the 1996 Executive Order on Indian Sacred Sites.

Morning Star Institute

As president of the Morning Star Institute, which she founded in 1984 in memory of her late husband, Frank Harjo, Suzan Harjo promotes sacred land claims and protection for traditional cultural rights, artistic expression, and research. In this and other positions, she has lobbied and helped secure the return of one million acres, including holy lands, to the

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...

, Zuni,

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos, Missouri, a city in Cole County, Missouri, United States * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colo ...

Mashantucket Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino is in the northeast ...

, and other

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

nations. She has gained passage of laws to extend the amount of time a Native American can sue for damages against third parties, create protections for Native American children, and institute protective measures for Indian lands and tribal governmental tax status."Suzan Shown Harjo"
Answers.com The MSI sponsors ''Just Good Sports'', devoted to ending use of American Indian mascots and stereotypes by sports teams, a cause of Harjo's since the 1960s. Along with seven Native plaintiffs, including Vine Deloria, Jr. and Mateo Romero, Harjo was a party in '' Harjo et al v. Pro Football, Inc.'', filed on September 12, 1992 with the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative tribunal within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The TTAB is empowered to determine the right to register a trademark. It has no authority to determine the righ ...

(TTAB) to cancel the registration of the

football team, as they said the name was disparaging to Native Americans. The three PTO judges unanimously ruled in favor of the Native Americans plaintiffs. But, Pro Football appealed to the United States District Court, which ruled against the plaintiffs on the question of

lache The Lache ( ; sometimes simply Lache) is a housing estate in the city of Chester, in Cheshire, United Kingdom, with a population of around 10,000. It is located approximately southwest of the ancient city, with good local transport links en ...

s."Blackhorse et al. V. Pro Football, Inc.: Case/Background Status as of 1/4/10." ''Morning Star Institute.'' January 4, 2010. The U.S. Supreme Court declined the plaintiff's petition for

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...

and refused to hear the Native American group's appeal. This case was followed by ''Blackhorse et al. v. Pro Football '', in which six young Native American plaintiffs challenged the federal trademark licenses of the Washington football team name. Harjo has continued to speak publicly in favor of a change. On June 18, 2014, the US Patent and Trademark Office again revoked the registration for the Washington Redskins, saying the name was "disparaging." The team owner said he would appeal. Activism by Harjo and others has resulted in dramatic changes in the sports world since the late 20th century: by 2013 two-thirds of teams with American Indian mascots had dropped them due to these public campaigns by Harjo and others. She also has worked with college and high school sport teams to eliminate names that reinforce negative stereotypes associated with Native Americans. Harjo worked on the ''1992 Alliance,'' formed to develop alternative ways to mark the Quincentennial of Columbus' arrival in the Americas, which Native Americans considered the beginning of terrible times for them. She ensured that tribes that have survived were celebrated, as well as mourning tribes that became extinct. Harjo has also written poems related to this history. The Morning Star Institute has organized the ''National Prayer Day for Sacred Places'', an annual event to highlight efforts to protect and preserve places sacred to Native Americans.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

Harjo was a trustee of the Museum of the American Indian and its corresponding collection 1980 to 1990. When, in 1990, the Museum of the American Indian became the

, Harjo served as a founding trusting from 1990 to 1996. During this time, Harjo oversaw the creation of the museum's exhibition and repatriation policies. From 2004 to 2005, Harjo was the director of the Native Languages Archives Repository Project, which established methods of linguistic preservation including information on safe storage of artifacts and a guide for identifying lost artifacts in other archives. As acting director, Harjo coauthored the section of the "ANA Native Language Preservation: A Reference Guide for Establishing Archives and Repositories" concerning what constitutes a language repository, how to construct the necessary foundations for a language repository, and how to find sources within the language repository. In 2014, Harjo curated an exhibit entitled "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations" at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Accompanying the exhibit, she edited a book, which serves as an encyclopedia of treaties between Native nations and the United States. Additionally, the book contains several chapters of Harjo's own analysis of U.S. policies and their direct impact on her family.

Academic recognition

Harjo has been selected or invited for stays at universities to lead special classes in poetry and policy. In 1992 she was the first Native American woman to receive the Montgomery Fellowship at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, which was originally established to educate American Indians. In 1996 she was the first Native person to be selected as a Stanford University Visiting Mentor. The

School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...

(SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico awarded her two succeeding fellowships in 2004, the Dobkin Artist Fellowship for Poetry and the Summer Scholar Fellowship. At SAR, Harjo chaired two seminars, about Native Identity and Native Women's Cultural Matters. At the

University of Pennsylvania Museum The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

in 2006, she chaired a seminar on "US Civilization and Native Identity Policies."Suzan Harjo.
''Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.'' (retrieved June 25, 2009) In 2008, Harjo was selected as the first Vine Deloria, Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholar at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Writing

Harjo first published her poetry in an Italian magazine, when she was 12 years old. "I began writing poetry because of the poetics and density of Cheyenne and Muscogee oral history as related by my Cheyenne mother and her parents and my Muscogee father and his parents," says Harjo. For the first International Women's Day in the 1970s, Harjo wrote the poem "gathering rites" and read it at "Women/Voices at Town Hall" in New York City. She was one of 20 American women writers featured that day, who included

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

and

Nikki Giovanni Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. (born June 7, 1943) is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets,Jane M. Barstow, Yolanda Williams Page (eds)"Nikki Giovanni" ''E ...

. Harjo also has presented the poem on the West Steps of the

US Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

. During her fellowships at the School for Advanced Research in 2004, Harjo wrote poetry inspired by oral history related to her time working for land claims, repatriation laws and policies. She also is a columnist for ''

Indian Country Today Media Network ''ICT News'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and First Nations. It was founded in 1981 as a weekly print newspaper, ''The ...

'' and a contributing writer to ''

First American Art Magazine The ''First American Art Magazine'' is a quarterly art magazine covering living, historical, and ancestral art of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Background ''First American Art Magazine'' was established in 2013 "to provide a common platfor ...

''.

Personal life

In New York, she married Frank Ray Harjo (died 1984). He was an artist and they co-produced ''Seeing Red,'' a biweekly news program on WBAI radio. They had two children together.

Works

Books

* Romero, Mateo. ''Painting the Underworld Sky: Cultural Expression and Subversion in Art.'' Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press, 2006. . (Harjo wrote the foreword) * Deloria Jr., Vine. We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf. Lincoln: Bison Books, 2007. . (Harjo wrote the introduction) * Suzan Shown Harjo, editor. ''Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2014. . * Verzuh, Valerie K. ''Indian Country: The Art of David Bradley''. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2015. . (Harjo wrote the foreword)

Exhibitions

* "Visions from Native American Indian Art," 1992, U.S. Senate Rotunda Building; Washington D.C. * "American Icons Through Indigenous Eyes, 2007, District of Columbia Arts Center; Washington D.C. * "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations," 2014, National Museum of the American Indian; Washington D.C.

Film/Video

* Documentary, ''Sacred Earth: Makoce Wakan'' (1993), about the Native Americans’ sacred lands and their need of protection.

Articles

"Chief Offenders"
, ''Native Peoples Magazine,'' Summer 1999 (related to sports mascot issue). *
American Indian Religious Freedom Act after Twenty-Five Years: An Introduction
" ''Wíčazo Ša Review'', Vol. 19, No. 2, Autumn 2004.
"Carlisle Indian School's History Must Be Preserved So Those Who Suffered Aren't Forgotten."
''

'', October 11, 2012. *
Washington 'Redskins' is a racist name: US pro football must disavow it
" ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', January 17, 2013. * "Cultural Heritage, Art, & Living Beings: Justice Lost in Translation," ''

'', No. 1, Fall 2013 (related to the Paris auction of Hopi Friends). *
The R-Word Is Even Worse Than You Think
" ''Politico'', June 23, 2014.

Poetry

Harjo's poems have appeared in numerous journals including ''Antaeus'', ''New York Quarterly,'' ''Nimrod'', and the ''Potomac Review.'' They have been published in several anthologies, including ''Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America,'' ''The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature,'' and ''Third World Women.'' *''Repatriation Laws and Policies: An Oral History Poetry Collection'' (2004).Suzan Shown Harjo, Ethel-Jane Westfeldt Bunting Summer Scholar 2004, ''Repatriation Laws and Policies: An Oral History Poetry Collection''
School for Advanced Research *Several of her poems were published in the ''Beltway Poetry Quarterly'', Fall 2005.
''Beltway Poetry Quarterly'', Volume 6, Number 4, Fall 2005, accessed June 19, 2014

Plays

* ''My Father's Bones'', written in collaboration with Mary Kathryn Nagle, 2013.

References

External links

Suzan Shown Harjo
''Indian Country''

''Beltway Poetry Quarterly,'' Fall 2005
Suzan Shown Harjo, "Nobody Gives Us Sovereignty: Busting Stereotypes & Walking the Walk"
Video of lecture at University of Arizona. * *Excerpt of speech included i
Frank Waln's song "Treaties"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harjo, Suzan Shown 1945 births Living people 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans People from El Reno, Oklahoma Native American activists Native American curators Native American journalists Native American women writers University of Arizona faculty Muscogee people Cheyenne people University of Arizona alumni Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients People from Beggs, Oklahoma Journalists from Montana American women non-fiction writers 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women American women academics National Museum of the American Indian Members of the American Philosophical Society