Past Presenters

MONAH is honored to work with many talented presenters. Explore the incredible individuals MONAH has been fortunate enough to work with below.

Film and Stories

**Gayle Ross (Cherokee)**
Gayle Ross is storyteller, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and a direct descendant of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee during the infamous Trail of Tears. Her grandmother told stories and it is from this rich Native American heritage that Gayle’s storytelling springs.

**Wes Studi (Cherokee)**
From small-town Oklahoma native to internationally acclaimed actor and musician, Wes Studi credits his passion and multi-faceted background for his powerful character portrayals that forever changed a Hollywood stereotype.

**Joseph Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki)**
For over forty years Joseph Bruchac has been creating literature and music that reflect his indigenous heritage and traditions. He is a proud Nulhegan Abenaki citizen and respected elder among his people. He is the author of more than 120 books for children and adults.

**Amy Bluemel (Chickasaw)**
Bluemel is a registered member of the Chickasaw Nation, storyteller, artist, and a member of the Chickasaw dance troupe Chikashsha Hithla.

**Dr. Lee Francis 4 (Pueblo of Laguna)**
Dr. Lee Francis 4 is the CEO and Founder of Red Planet BnC, an Indigenous Imagination Company, dedicated to unleashing the Indigenous imagination through popular culture, including comic books, graphic novels, games, toys, and collectibles.

**Eldrena “Blue Corn” Douma (Pueblo tribes of the Laguna, Tewa and Hopi)**
Her experiences as a teacher and her Native upbringing made a powerful foundation for her work as a storyteller. A recipient of the prestigious John Henry Faulk Award, she travels the country sharing her captivating stories.

**Kevin Locke (Lakota and Anishinaabe)**
Locke is a preeminent player of the Native American flute, a traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist, and educator.

**Tim Tingle (Choctaw)**
Tim Tingle is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and an award-winning author and storyteller. Tingle has performed before audiences in 46 states, plus Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Germany, sharing Choctaw traditional, historical, and powerful personal stories. He is the author of twenty-one books and has a wide range of stories for all age-levels, PreK-High school and adult audiences.

**J R Mathews (Quapaw)**
J R Mathews is the former chairman of the Quapaw Nation and creator of the American Indian Theater Company.

**Gene Tagaban (Cherokee, Tlingit, Filipino)**
Gene Tagaban, “One Crazy Raven,” is a storyteller, speaker, mentor, teacher and counselor of the spirit. He is Cherokee, Tlingit and Filipino, and of the Takdeintaan clan, the Raven, Freshwater Sockeye clan from Hoonah, Alaska.

**Roger Echo-Hawk (Pawnee)**
Roger Echo-Hawk is a historian, artist, and scholar. As a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Roger’s research interests include Pawnee oral traditions, concepts of racial identity, and the intersection of American Indian storytelling and the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

**Will Hill (Muscogee (Creek))**
**Will Hill** is a full-blood Native American Indian. He was raised as a traditional storyteller of the ***Nogonugojeeh*** (Storytelling Society) of the Muskogean people.

**Bobby Bridger**
Bobby Bridger is a singer/songwriter/poet/actor/playwright/author and painter who has traveled the globe performing a trilogy of one man shows.

**Geri Keams (Navajo (Dineh))**
Geri is an Indian storyteller, actress, and author born and raised in the Painted Desert of Arizona. Her mother’s clan is the Streak-of-Black-Forest (Tsi’nii jinnie), She is born for the Many Goat Clan (Tl’iizi’ Ll’annii)

**Floyd Clown Sr. (Lakota), foreground, and author William Matson**
Floyd Clown Sr. is a Lakota elder and descendent of Crazy Horse. Matson is the author of *Crazy Horse: The Lakota Warrior’s Life & Legacy*.
*(Photo by Luther C. Talks/Current Publishing)*

**Brad Wagnon (Cherokee)**
Brad Wagnon is Cherokee author and storyteller who lives in Gideon, Oklahoma. He has a passion for sharing Cherokee History and Culture with future generations.

**Lera “Toni” Carter (Chippewa)**
Alongside volunteering at MONAH on a regular basis, Toni was she formerly worked as a Child Life Specialist and was a lifelong staunch advocate for the rights of animals.

**Madeline Sayet (Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut)**
Raised on traditional Mohegan stories and Shakespeare, Madeline Sayet is a director whose work is shaped by the idea of Story Medicine - the belief that every story we put into this world has the power to do real world harm or healing.

Science, History, and Scholars

Dr. John Herrington (Chickasaw)

Commander, USN (Ret) and NASA Astronaut (Chickasaw Nation); Educator and Story-Teller

**Dr. Jose Hernandez**
Migrant Farmworker Turned NASA Astronaut

**Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi)**
Robin W. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim.

**Farina King Ph.D. (Diné)**
Dr. King, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is Associate Professor of History and affiliated faculty of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She is also the director and founder of the NSU Center for Indigenous Community Engagement. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University in U.S. History. King specializes in twentieth-century Native American Studies, especially American Indian boarding school histories.

**Phil L. Smith, MD, MPH** **(Diné)**
Dr. Smith is a retiring Senior Clinician for the Utah Navajo Health System and an Associate Faculty member at Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. He works closely with the Center’s Training team on developing and implementing courses and mentoring students.

**Gerald Torres**
As a pioneer in the field of environmental law, Torres has spent his career examining the intrinsic connections between the environment, agricultural and food systems, and social justice.

**Joseph Marshall III (Brulé Lakota, Sicangu Oyate)**
Joseph M. Marshall III is a historian, writer, teacher, craftsman, administrator, actor, and public speaker.

**Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee)**
Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) is a Native American speaker, author, and attorney.

**Mary Katherine Nagle (Cherokee)**
Mary Kathryn Nagle is a playwright and a partner at Pipestem Law, a firm specializing in tribal sovereignty of Native nations and peoples.

**Dr. Caitlyn Ahrens**
Dr. Ahrens is currently a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center

**Sarah EchoHawk (Pawnee)**
Sarah is the Chief Executive Officer-American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)

**Aaron Jones (Muscogee (Creek))**
Aaron works as an administrator at Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers, Arkansas. His professional career has been arts education where he has served as a public school art teacher, university professor of art history and studio art, a museum educator and state arts administrator for the Oklahoma Arts Council. Prior to his position with the Academy Aaron served as the Interpretation.

**Gregory Gagnon (Chippewa)**
Dr. Gregory O. Gagnon, Professor of Indian Law, Loyola University of New Orleans and Citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He has published extensively and has given presentations on Native American topics in several states. Professor Gagnon combines extensive day-to-day experience working and living on several reservations.

**Lawrence Panther (Cherokee)**
Lawrence works as a Cherokee Language teacher at Stilwell High School, Stilwell Oklahoma, and as an adjunct instructor (Cherokee I) at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

**Mary Smith (Cherokee)**
Chair and CEO of the Carolina and Ora Smith Foundation, which supports and trains Native American girls in STEM

**Sam Scinta**
Sam Scinta currently works as the IM Education President and CEO. He has over twenty years of experience working in publishing, and served as Vice President and Associate Publisher at Fulcrum Publishing, before being named Publisher in 2006.

**Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Accomac/Pocomoke)**
Drew Shuptar-Rayvis (Pekatawas MakataweU “Black Corn”) holds a cum laude Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from Western Connecticut State University and a Certificate Degree in Archaeology from Norwalk Community College. He honors all of his ancestors as a practicing living historian and regularly participates in colonial era reenactments, interpretations and public educational events.

**Joseph Kunkel (Northern Cheyenne)**
Joseph, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, is a Principal at MASS Design Group, where he directs the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Travis Wolfe (Cherokee)

Wolfe is a certified Cherokee Language expert and Executive Assistant to the Chief at United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

Don Dickson: Dickson is a prominent authority on Native American archaeology and prehistory of the Ozarks regions and is known for his excavations at Calf Creek Cave and Albertson Shelter, as well as authoring several archaeological publications.

Artists

**J Nicole Hatfield (Commanche (Penatuka Band) and Kiowa)**
J. NiCole Hatfield, a self-taught mural artist, member of the Comanche and Kiowa tribes, and Oklahoma native uses bold, vivid acrylic paints to create works of art that are as beautiful as she is.

**Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa/Choctaw)**
Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa/Choctaw) is an award-winning contemporary visual artist and filmmaker.

**Weyodi Oldbear (Comanche)**
Weyodi has written 4 novels, hundreds of poems, numerous speculative fiction and science fiction short stories in addition to a historical play about her great-great grandparents Weckeah OldBear and Quanah Parker, and is one of the principal writers for the groundbreaking Indigenous Futurist tabletop Role Playing Game Coyote&Crow.

**Wanis Running Buffalo (Arapaho)**
Running Buffalo is a talented beadwork artist of numerous, beautifully designed, stitched beaded pieces of this generation artform. As a young aspiring Indigenous artist, he sought out and learned the Native artform from a premiere Native beadwork artist, Camille George, whom he lovingly referred to as “Cah-goo - grandmother.”

**Jones Benally Family (Diné)**
World Champion Hoop Dancer and traditional healer Jones Benally, his daughter Jeneda, son Clayson and granddaughters Dyatihi and Deezchiil Benally form the Jones Benally Family Navajo Dance Troupe.

**Minisa Crumbo Halsey (Muscogee Creek and Potawatomi)**
Dawn Woman brings professional artistry from her Native childhood home to her present professional practice in the arts of painting, silversmithing, lapidary arts, ceramics, basketmaking, beadwork, and quilting.

**Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee (Creek))**
Bobby C. Martin is an artist/educator/facilitator who works out of his 7 Springs Studio near West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma. Martin’s artwork is exhibited and collected international- ly.

**Jay Benham (Kiowa)**
Jay Benham is a member of the Kiowa Tribe. He has a BSE in Art Education from Henderson State University, a MA in Art Education at Northern Arizona University, and has studied American Indian Law at the University Of New Mexico School Of Law.

**Johnny Diacon (Muscogee (Creek))**
Johnnie Diacon is an award winning artist and a graduate of Bacone College and the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, and Deer Clan.

Mary Lee (Cherokee)

Mary is a basket artist and retired public school teacher. She now spends time teaching future generations the art of basketry.

**Richard Zane Smith (Wyandot/Wendat)**
Richard’s been a self-employed full-time ceramic artist since 1984. He’s active in Wyandot/Wendat language and culture revitalization, longhouse ceremonies, and spent seven years teaching Wyandot language and storytelling in the Wyandotte public schools. He is continually holding pottery workshops for First Nations peoples including Wyandot, Seneca/Cayuga, Mi’kmaq, Shawnee, Oneida, and Wendat and Innu in Canada.

**Dolores Purdy (Caddo/Winnebago)**
Dolores Purdy is a contemporary Ledger artist. For nearly 2 decades, she has followed the gender-specific traditional art form by using the same medium of antique paper and color pencils, only creating a contemporary version from a female perspective

**Betty Gaedtke (Quapaw)**
Gaedtke is an incredible potter and enrolled member of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma (Quapaw Nation) and part of the Buffalo clan.

Musicians

**Brooke Simpson (Haliwa-Saponi)**
Brooke is a powerhouse vocalist who is passionate about songwriting and people. She was a finalist on NBC’s The Voice and America’s Got Talent. She will be making her Broadway debut in the Diane Paulus revival of the Tony Award-winning musical 1776.

**Michael Begay (Diné)**
A Dine composer of chamber music, experimental sound, Native American flute, and metal music. Michael is both a performer and educator.

**Tommy Wildcat (Cherokee)**
Tommy Wildcat is a musician and Cherokee National Treasure.

**Los Texmaniacs**
Max Baca and Los Texmaniacs are the past, present, and future of conjunto music. Combine a hefty helping of Tex Mex conjunto, simmer with several parts Texas rock, add a daring dash of well-cured blues and R&B riffs, and you’ve cooked up the tasty GRAMMY-winning Los Texmaniacs groove.

**Gaby Nagel (Eastern Band Cherokee)**
Gaby Nagel is a Native flute player, she has released two CDs and won several competitions around the United States, including the Musical Echoes Flute Players competition in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida where she was the first female and youngest competitor to win.

**Lauren Nicole Clare (Chickasaw)**
Curator of Emmy nominated The Allie Lauren Project, Vocalist, Producer, Composer, & Educator

**Sihasin (Diné)**
A hard punk backbone, softened by folk world and thumping by pop, and based in Navajo Rhythm.

Mitch Walking Elk (Southern Cheyenne & Arapaho)

Oklahoma born and raised, now residing in St. Paul, Minnesota, Mitch Walking Elk is an enrolled member of the Southern Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He also is part Hopi. He has seven recordings to his credit and is the winner of 2005 Best Blues Recording, “TIME FOR A WOMAN” Indian Summer Musical Festival, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the 2013 Best Blues Recording, “UP FROM THE ASHES” Native American Music Awards, (NAMA OR NAMMY) Niagara Falls, New York. He believes his musical strengths to be his vocals and songwriting and at this juncture his endurance in the business.