This page includes information that may not reflect the current views and values of the Penn Museum.

  1. Home
  2. Contributors

Native American Voices: The People—Here and Now - Principal Contributors

Lucy Fowler Williams

Lucy Fowler Williams, Ph.D., curator of the Native American Voices exhibition, is Associate Curator and Senior Keeper of the American Collections at the Penn Museum, where she has worked for 23 years. A cultural anthropologist, her research interests include issues surrounding Native American identity, material culture, Pueblo textiles, and representation. She has received grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, the School for Andvanced Research, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Penn Museum. Her recent projects include the creation of the Penn Museum's Louis Shotridge Digital Archive. For Dr. Williams, this exhibition, years in the making, has been a richly collaborative process with input from more than 80 Native American contributors living and working across the United States and Canada.

Penn Museum American Section staff members William Wierzbowski, Keeper of the American Collections, and Stacey Espenlaub, NAGPRA Coordinator, contributed to the exhibition. Several student interns have also assisted on the development of the exhibition including Tyler Ebeling, Carolyn Moneymaker, Deven Parker, Sophia Perlman, and Alexander Tickle.

Native American Voices: The People — Here and Now was developed in collaboration with numerous Native American advisors and contributors who graciously allowed the Penn Museum to present their opinions and works, including four key advisors noted below.

Tina Pierce Fragoso
Tina Pierce Fragoso is an enrolled member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Assistant Director of Equity and Excellence, Coordinator of Native American Recruitment, at the University of Pennsylvania. An active community member who has helped restore her tribal history, Fragoso holds degrees in anthropology from Princeton and Stanford Universities. As part of Penn Admissions, she has the opportunity to recruit Native American students. Ms. Fragoso generously served as an advisor on the Native American Voices exhibition, and contributed an essay about her work in support of Native American undergraduate education for the exhibition's special edition of Expedition magazine (Winter 2013).
Suzan Shown Harjo
Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee) is a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy advocate who has helped Native Peoples recover more than one million acres of land. She has developed key laws in four decades to promote and protect Native nations, sovereignty, arts, cultures, and languages, including the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the 1989 National Museum of the American Indian Act, the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the 1996 Executive Order on Indian Sacred Sites. Ms. Harjo is founder and President of The Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization founded in 1984 for Native Peoples' traditional and cultural advocacy, arts promotion, and research. Ms. Harjo has generously served as a leading advisor on the Native American Voices exhibition, and her essay "Sacred Places: Threatened and Damaged" is featured in the exhibition's special edition of Expedition magazine (Winter 2013).
Patty Talahongva
Patty Talahongva is a journalist who works in all platforms of the media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and websites. In her 30 year career, she has covered a range of topics from Native arts to education, health, and politics. She is Hopi from Sichomovi village located on First Mesa in northeastern Arizona. She directed and produced a video-documentary about the American Indian Code Talkers in WWII for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in 2006, and several other programs that have aired on PBS and HBO. She is an active volunteer and a founding member of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund, a past president of the Native American Journalists Association, and a member of Unity: Journalists of Color. Ms. Talahongva has served generously as a leading consultant on the Native American Voices exhibition. As part of this work, she and her film-crew co-produced 5 short video documentaries for the exhibition with Lucy Fowler Williams in 2010, portions of which are included in the exhibition. Her essay, "Being Hopi", is featured in the related special edition of Expedition magazine (Winter 2013).
Teri Rokfar
Teri Rofkar is a Tlingit fiber artist from Sitka, Alaska and a member of the T'akdeintaan [Raven] Clan. A National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage Fellow (2009), Ms. Rofkar is the recipient of numerous awards, honors, and fellowships for her textile arts from, among other entities, the Rasmuson Foundation (2009), US Artists (2006), and The Governor's Award for Alaska Native Art (2004). Rofkar was also a finalist in 2004 for the Buffet Award in Indigenous Leadership. She is an active teacher and has conducted numerous workshops in and outside of Alaska for the National Museum of the American Indian, the Sitka School District, the Penn Museum, and the Alaska Native Heritage center, among others. Her work has been installed throughout Alaska in Anchorage, Cordova, Fairbanks, Kechikan, Sitka, and in Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC. A Research Associate of the Penn Museum, Ms. Rofkar has studied its Tlingit collections on numerous occasions and the Penn Museum holds two pieces of her work in its collection. Rofkar has generously served as an advisor and contributor to the Native American Voices exhibition.

Video and Audio:

  • Mary Bordeaux, M.A. Lakota
  • Billings Gazette
  • Thosh Collins, Salt River Pima
  • Stephen Conaway, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Nora Dauenhauer, Tlingit
  • Richard Dauenhauer, Ph.D.
  • John Echohawk, J.D., Pawnee
  • Tartuilnguq Sophie Evan, Yup'ik
  • Harry W. Gould, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Lewis Fragoso, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Cliff Fragua, Jemez Pueblo
  • Nicholas Galanin, M.F.A, Tlingit/Aleut
  • Isabel Gonzales, San Ildefonso/Jemez Pueblos
  • Larraine Gregg, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Chief Mark Gould, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • John F.C. Johnson, Chugach
  • Tommy Joseph, Tlingit
  • Oren Lyons, Onondaga-Seneca
  • Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Ph.D., Lumbee-Cheraw
  • Chuck Miller, Tlingit
  • Duncan Munson, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Lesley Munson, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Natives at Penn
  • Reverend John Norwood, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Tanis Parentengru, Metis and Cree
  • Christy Pierce, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Edith Little Swallow Pierce, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Lewis Pierce Sr., Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Melanie Ridgway, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Rachael Ridgway, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Samantha Ridgway, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Urie Ridgeway, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Governor George Rivera, Pojoaque Pueblo
  • Clarissa Rizal, MFA, Tlingit
  • Josh Rogers, Chickasaw Nation
  • Patricia Rosello, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Sacred Land Film Project
  • Sealaska Heritage Institute
  • Alqaq Katherine Small, Yup'ik
  • Shawn Tafoya, Santa Clara Pueblo
  • Anton Treuer, Ph.D., Ojibwe
  • Gerald Vizenor, Ph.D., Anishinaabe
  • Joe Watkins, Ph.D., Choctaw
  • Lance Magpie White, Oglala Lakota
  • Emmie Whitehorse, M.A., Diné
  • Taylor Williams, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Jolene Yazzie, Diné
  • Rico Worl, Tlingit

Written Essays:

  • Joseph (Woody) Aguilar, San Ildefonso Pueblo
  • Marcus Amerman, Choctaw
  • Margaret M. Bruchac, Ph.D., Abenaki
  • Cippy Crazy Horse, Cochiti Pueblo
  • Ann Noe Dapice, Ph.D., Delaware/Cherokee
  • Melissa Darden, Chitimacha
  • Diane Glancy, M.A., Cherokee
  • Rayna Green, Ph.D., Cherokee
  • Buddy Gwin, J.D., Mandan
  • Sven Haakanson, Jr., Ph.D., Alutiiq-Sugpiat
  • Richard W. Hill, Sr., Tuscarora
  • Jerry Ingram, Choctaw/Cherokee
  • Harold Jacobs, Tlingit
  • Doug Kiel, Ph.D., Oneida of Wisconsin
  • Keevin Lewis, Diné
  • Rebecca Lyon, Alutiiq/Athabascan
  • Beatrice Medicine, Standing Rock Sioux
  • Dolly Naranjo Neikrug, Santa Clara Pueblo
  • Arwen Nutall, M.A., Four Winds Cherokee/Louisiana Cherokee Confederacy
  • Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo
  • Dextra Quotskuyva, Hopi-Tewa
  • Diego Romero, Cochiti Pueblo
  • Gary S. Roybal, San Ildefonso Pueblo
  • Ramoncita C. Sandoval, Ohkay Owingeh
  • Sherrie Smith-Ferri, Ph.D., Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega May Miwok
  • C. Maxx Stevens, M.F.A., Seminole
  • Rennard Strickland, J.D, Osage/Cherokee
  • Roxanne Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo
  • Michael Wilcox, Ph.D., Yuma/Choctaw
  • Curtis Zunigha, Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma
  • Caroline Kee, Choctaw (student intern)

Supporting Specialists

  • Denise Bright Dove Ashton-Dunkley, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape
  • Tyler Howe, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
  • Vanessa Iyua, Diné
  • Ansley Jemison, Seneca
  • Janet and James Littlecrow, Otoe-Missouria
  • Stephanie Mach, M.A. Diné
  • Denise Waterman Tsadeyohdi, Onondaga
  • Vince Williams, Ph.D., Lakota/Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape

Exhibition Fabrication Acknowledgments:

Exhibition Development:
Penn Museum Exhibitions Team

Exhibition Design:
Penn Museum Exhibitions Team

Exhibition Fabricators:
United Services Associates, Inc. (USA), Darby, PA; Quinlan Scenic Studios, Marcus Hook, PA

Exhibition Graphics:
Berry & Homer Large Format Digital Printing, Philadelphia, PA

Multimedia Development and Design:
Bluecadet Design Studios, Philadelphia, PA

Tina Pierce Fragoso Image Courtesy of Tina Pierce Fragoso. All photos Courtesy of Lucy Fowler Williams

Contributors

Membership