Witt, Shirley Hill, 1934-....

Shirley Hill Witt (Box 6, Folder 7).

Shirley Hill Witt was born on April 17, 1934 in Whittier, California. She is a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1965 and 1966, respectively. She earned her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of New Mexico, in 1969. She was one of the first Native American women in the United States to receive a Ph.D.

Witt was a founder and vice president of the National Indian Youth Council (1961-64); member of the Colorado Springs Human Relations Commission (1972-74); member of the steering committee of the National Women's Political Caucus (1972), and a member of the college committee of the Colorado Commission on the Status of Women (1973). She has held teaching positions at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1970-72) and Colorado College, Colorado Springs (1972-74). She served as director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1975 until she resigned this post in 1983 to accept appointment to the New Mexico state government as Cabinet Secretary for Natural Resources under Governor Toney Anaya. In 1985, she became a member of the American diplomatic corps, having been appointed a Foreign Service Officer in the U. S. Information Agency (U.S.I.A.). Since then, she has served in South America and in Africa as Cultural Affairs Officer, Binational Center Director and Deputy Director of the U.S.I.A. on those continents.

Dr. Witt has been named a fellow in the American Anthropological Association and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and the American Civil Liberties Union- Indian Rights Committee. She received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Race Relations in 1968. Witt has published extensively on Native Americans and is also a poet and fiction writer.