Harjo, Suzan Shown, 1945-

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) is arguably the most consistent and effective advocate for Native American rights over the last five decades. As executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (1980s) and president of The Morning Star Institute (1984-), she has helped develop critical legislation, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the National Museum of the American Indian Act, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. A founding trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, curator, poet, and columnist, Harjo has been at the center of almost every legislative, legal, and cultural issue of import to Native Peoples, including protection of cultural rights and sacred places and the return of over one million acres of Indigenous lands. Recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, she is Editor and Guest Curator of the book (2014, Smithsonian Books) and award-winning exhibition (2014-2021, NMAI Museum on the Mall) of the same title, "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations."

<p>For Suzan Shown Harjo, 75, the prospect of ever seeing an end to the racially offensive name of Washington’s pro football team was slim to none. She had spent 17 years as lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to change the name. But to no avail.</p>

<p>In her role as an activist and leader of the National Congress of American Indians, she’d made repeated calls for a name change. That didn’t work, either. As a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by Barack Obama, she said that changing the name was the right thing to do.</p>

<p>Then on Monday came another near-miraculous development: Snyder, bowing to pressure from investors and corporate sponsors, announced that a search was underway for a new team name.</p>

Suzan Shown Harjo (born June 2, 1945) (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) is an advocate for Native 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 radio while living in New York City, and producing other shows and theater, in 1974 she moved to Washington, DC, to work on national policy issues. She served as Congressional liaison for Indian affairs in the President Jimmy Carter administration and later as president of the National Council of American Indians.

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 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.

On November 24, 2014, Harjo received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.

From Wikipedia article on Suzan Shown Harjo, accessed October 11, 2021