Native in the Spotlight Archives » Native America Calling

Raquel Montoya-Lewis (Isleta and Laguna Pueblos) built an impressive legal career that includes a foundation at tribal court systems in the Pacific Northwest. That career led her to become the first Native American to serve on the Washinton State Supreme Court. She is only the second Native jurist in the country to hold a supreme court seat. That position is also a platform to educate others about...

The work of Margaret Pearce (Citizen Potawatomi) as a cartographer does not separate Indigenous people, stories, culture, and memory from a place that she is mapping. She works with tribes, Native scientists, and culture keepers to bring forth map layers often overlooked by the mainstream. One of her recent projects, "The Cold at Inuit Nunangat" , maps the ways Inuit protect their homelands in nor...

Born in Greenland, Aaju Peter did not begin to explore the breadth of her own Inuit culture until she moved to Nunavut, Canada. It was there that she got in touch with an internal drive to learn about and strengthen language, education, policy, and the arts toward improving Inuit representation on an international scale. That has resulted in a varied career as an activist, lawyer, clothing designe...

Keeya Wiki (Yurok and Maori) is not yet old enough to vote, but she is making waves in official discussions about climate policy and environmental sustainability. She was among a group of young people who made a historic kayak journey down the Klamath River from its source in the Cascade Mountains to its confluence with the Pacific Ocean after the largest dam removal project in history. It was bot...

Elaine Miles (Cayuse and Nez Perce) didn’t seek out her breakout role as the humorously deadpan Lingít office manager Marilyn Whirlwind in the hit TV show, " Northern Exposure ", but after she was cast and became a beloved addition to the show, acting was her vocation from then on. She had a hilarious presence in the classic movie, " Smoke Signals ", and just appeared on the acclaimed HBO series,...

Rodeo announcer Randy Taylor (Cherokee) knows what he’s talking about. He was a bareback rider for nearly 20 years. Forty years ago, the Oklahoma native was the first rider out of the chute at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nev. After a stint in college and then as a chiropractor, Taylor turned to announcing. His voice is now recognizable all over and on his nationally syndicated show, "...

Mel Tonasket ( Colville Tribes)  is one of the key reasons the Colville Tribes remain thriving today. As a newly elected tribal council member in 1971, he cast the deciding vote against a deal with the federal government that traded cash payouts to individual tribal members for the tribe’s permanent termination. Tonasket credits the mentorship of tribal activist Lucy Covington for guiding his insi...

A new book is just one of multidisciplinary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger ’s (Mandan, Hidatsa, & Arikara and Lakota) many current creative projects. He’s the 2025 artist-in-residence for Verbier 3-D Foundation, a contemporary art non-profit in Switzerland. He has new work that is part of an augmented reality exhibition with other Indigenous artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wi...

For more than three decades, Tina Kuckkahn 's work has centered on supporting Native culture and the arts. The Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe citizen is the new head of the Native artist non-profit organization, the First Peoples Fund. She previously directed s'gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ: House of Welcome (The Evergreen State College Longhouse) and most recently helped build NDN Collective’s philanthropic infrastruc...

Michael Steven Wilson (Tohono O’odham) was a lay pastor on the Tohono O’odham Nation in the early 2000s when he started putting out water for migrants crossing the U.S.- Mexico border. He considered it a religious and ethical calling, but it put him at odds with U.S. immigration officials, his church, and his own Native nation. Growing up in Tucson, Ariz. in the 1950s, Wilson endured racism and po...