Championing Native Rights with Suzan Shown Harjo, Part 1 (5 Plain Questions)

This two-part episode was produced in partnership with 5 Plain Questions and Eleven Warrior Arts.

Hosted by Joe Williams, 5 Plain Questions is a podcast that proposes 5 general questions to Native American and Indigenous artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers.

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Episode Summary

Suzan Shown Harjo is a Cheyenne citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes and Hodulgee Muscogee. She is a six-decade champion for Native rights, Founder and President of the Morning Star Institute, and former Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians and Native American Rights Fund. Her poetry has been published widely in several journals and anthologies, including Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America and The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature.

In Part 1 of this conversation, you will hear about Suzan’s early life, family influences, and the experiences that have shaped her decades-long advocacy work. From her transnational upbringing & education, including in places like Hawaii and Italy, she underscores the presence of shared values across cultures, including intergenerational respect, kinship, and resilience. Her elders’ teachings about tribal treaties and her background in both language arts & journalism influenced and informed her transition to Native advocacy.

Throughout her advocacy work, Suzan has helped win landmark laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1979, the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection Act of 1990. She has also led campaigns to end Native mascots, helped return over a million acres of Indigenous land, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She remains a leading voice for Indigenous culture and legal rights.

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Resources

• Episode transcript
• 5 Plain Questions website

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Art of the Rural is honored to support 5 Plain Questions. We are grateful to individual donors across the country, the Ford Foundation, and Good Chaos for making these conversations possible. Learn more about our work and show your support at artoftherural.org