Cara Romero (b. 1977, Inglewood, CA) is an artist known for dramatic fine art photography that examines Indigenous life in contemporary contexts. An enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Romero was raised between contrasting settings: the rural Chemehuevi reservation in Mojave Desert, California, and the urban sprawl of Houston, Texas. Informed by her identity, Romero's visceral approach to representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and lived experiences results in a blending of fine art and editorial styles. Romero travels between Santa Fe and the Chemehuevi Valley Indian Reservation, where she maintains close ties to her tribal community and ancestral homelands. Maintaining a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Romero regularly participates in Native American art fairs and panel discussions and was featured on PBS's Craft in America in 2019.
Jami Powell is the Hood Museum's first associate curator of Native American art. A citizen of the Osage Nation, she holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has focused her research on American Indian expressive forms through an interdisciplinary lens and has published widely.
Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. She is only the second poet to be appointed a third term as U.S. Poet Laureate. She has published ten books of poetry and three award-winning children's books. Harjo has taught at universities across the U.S. and has been awarded numerous times for her poetry and activism. She lives on the Mvskoke Nation Reservation in Oklahoma.
Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne Citizen, Cheyenne & Arapaho, Hotvlkvlke Mvskokvlke, Nuyakv) is arguably the most consistent and effective advocate for Native American rights since the 1960s. President of The Morning Star Institute, founding trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, and Carter Administration political appointee, Harjo has been at the center of almost every legislative, legal, and cultural issue of import to Native Peoples. Born in Oklahoma, she was raised in Cheyenne-Arapaho Treaty territory and on Muscogee allotted farmland on the Muscogee (Creek) Treaty Reservation. She currently lives in Washington, DC.