COVID-19 Closure
Staff is currently working behind the scenes to transform your museum experience following the CDC and State of Illinois guidelines.
Please consider donating as we invest in safety-related updates.
COVID-19 Closure
Staff is currently working behind the scenes to transform your museum experience following CDC and State of Illinois guidelines.
Please consider donating as we invest in safety-related updates.
Our first virtual benefit gala will feature the presentation of our inaugural Trailblazer Award to two Native Americans that have paved the way for other Natives in Law and Technology. Read more about our awardees and join us as they speak about their rise.
Ambassador Keith Harper
Ambassador (ret.) Keith M. Harper serviced as the United States Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2014 to 2017. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, focuses his practice on Native American affairs, litigation, and international clients from the private and the public sector. Throughout his career, he has represented tribes and individual Indians. Among other matters, Ambassador Harper, since the inception of the case, represented the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Indians and served as class counsel in the landmark Indian trust funds lawsuit, Cobell v. Salazar. Ultimately the case settled for $3.4 billion in 2009, representing the largest settlement of a lawsuit against the United States in history.
From 2010 to 2014, Ambassador Harper served as Commissioner on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. He also served as a Chair for Native American policy in the 2008 Obama For America presidential campaign and then as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in the Energy & Environment Cluster.
Harper was Senior Staff Attorney and head of the Washington, D.C. office of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) from 1995 to 2006. During his tenure at NARF, he also taught Federal Indian Law as an adjunct professor at Catholic University Columbus School of Law and American University Washington College of Law. Ambassador
Harper served as a Supreme Court Justice on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from 2007 to 2008 and as an Appellate Justice on the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court from 2001 to 2007.
Tracy Monteith
Microsoft Senior Software Engineer
Tracy Monteith, Eastern Band Cherokee, is a Senior Software Engineer and co-creator of Indigenous Knowledge Graphs. He lead the translation of Microsoft Windows and Office into the Cherokee syllabary.
Monteith is a technologist, business solutions developer, and leader with global experience across multiple industries and cultures. Specializing in the fusion and integration between culture and technology as demonstrated in driving the Cherokee language’s inclusion in Microsoft technologies, the incubation of Indigenous Knowledge Graphs, and leveraging ML and AI technology to translate polymorphic languages. His tribal background as a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and hands-on work with multi-national technology corporations has provided me with a unique perspective and skill set.
Monteith was also a leader of Native Americans at Microsoft (NAmer), an employee network representing over 20 North American tribes who are Microsoft Employees. He was responsible for the strategy, organization, budgeting, national affiliations, and tribal-member employee group activities across North America. By partnering with Federal Account managers, they produced annuity business with over half of all federally recognized tribes. For three years in a row, Microsoft was named one of the Top 50 Workplaces for Native American STEM Professionals as published in the Spring 2015 edition of Winds of Change annual listing.
Johnnie Event by Visitor Services
Artist Johnnie Diacon (Muscogee (Creek)) has been working on a three-panel mural installation for the Museum of Native American History (MONAH) that depicts the Trail of Tears. This mural, based on the above work, will effectively create a new stop on the National Trail of Tears Association map of destinations at MONAH. The work will be installed on the south exterior wall of the museum on May 8th at 3:00 PM CST.
MONAH will be live streaming the event on their Facebook Live (5/8/2021 @ 3:00 PM CST).
MMAI ART TALK (5/12/2021 @ 5:30 PM (CST)): CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Keep up with Johnnie and his work by visiting his Facebook or Instagram!
Learn more about the National Trail of Tears Association and the Arkansas Trail of Tears Association
How will you support our mission?
Central to the Mitchell Museum’s mission is to collect and preserve traditional and contemporary Native American art and material culture to tell the stories of American Indian peoples for this and future generations.
You can support our mission in a variety of ways.
Discover Resources
Educating the public about American Indian experiences is one critical part of our mission. We strive to provide a variety of resources for those seeking to learn history from a different, unique perspective that incorporates American Indian voices.
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