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By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)


Droupadi Murmu (Santhal) made history on Monday, July 25, 2022, for being sworn in as India's first Indigenous woman president. It is a rare achievement for a member of a Scheduled Tribe to hold the country's highest post. Many Indigenous Peoples in India now have great hopes that their issues will be addressed through this appointment. However, several worry that this is just a superficial political move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which has been the ruling political party since 2014.

Joy Harjo is a Muskogee Creek poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. Phoebe Mills Farris, Ph.D. (Powhatan-Pamunkey), a Purdue University Professor Emerita, photographer, freelance art critic, and Cultural Survival Quarterly contributing Arts Editor, spoke with Harjo at First Peoples Fund’s We The Peoples Before event on June 30-July 2, 2022, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

 

Walter Richard "Rick" West Jr. (Cheyenne and Arapaho) is currently President Emeritus of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. He was the founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, retiring from the position in 2007. He is also a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. Phoebe Mills Farris, Ph.D.

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