Suzan Shown Harjo: An Oral History
- Penn Cultural Heritage Center
- Penn Cultural Heritage Center
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Project Support Grant
Photo by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye during the Symposium on the Life and Work of Suzan Shown Harjo at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC, 2019.
Suzan Shown Harjo: An Oral History focuses on one of the most influential living Native American activists within the United States. She is an enrolled Cheyenne citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, and is Hotvlkvlke Mvskokvlke, Nuyakv. Harjo was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2014 for her work to protect Native rights, cultures, and sacred spaces that has led to the return of more than one million acres of Indigenous lands. She has spearheaded some of the most crucial advancements for Native Rights in the last century, including the establishment of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Religious Freedom Act, and legislation abolishing the use of Native Mascots among American sports teams. Born in 1945, Suzan Shown Harjo is now 80 years old. This is a critical moment to create a comprehensive record of her life and work.
The Penn Cultural Heritage Center (PennCHC) is committed to the preservation of cultural heritage as part of the foundation for social justice worldwide. The PennCHC implements a bottom-up approach to heritage preservation, ensuring that ideas, decisions, and narratives about the past rest in the hands of local communities.
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