Exhibit opening and curator tour: 'Did You Know They're Native III?'

The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston is preparing to unveil the third and newest edition of its ongoing exhibit spotlighting notable and successful American Indians of the present and past.
   
Organized by the Mitchell, “Did You Know They’re Native III?” will open Saturday, July 27, at the museum, 3001 Central St. The exhibit, updated periodically with a new roster of honorees, first opened in July 2011.

Exhibit curator Melissa Halverson will lead a tour of the exhibit at 2 p.m. on July 27.

The display will consist of photos and biographical information depicting 25 noteworthy people of American Indian descent, “celebrities and industry leaders that you may not have known were Native and new faces that have also made major contributions in their field,” according to exhibit materials.

 “While individuals featured in this exhibit have varying percentages of Native ancestry, they have all celebrated this important part of their heritage,” the museum says.

The new exhibit features the following people:

•Evan Adams, public health physician and feature-film and television actor from the Sliammon First Nation of British Columbia

•Dan Akee, Congressional Medal of Honor winner and member of the World War II Navajo Code Talkers in the Pacific theater who transmitted secret battlefield messages using a code based on their tribal language

•Blair Atcheynum, former professional hockey player, member of the Cree First Nation, and veteran of several NHL teams, including the 1999-2001 Chicago Blackhawks

•Elias Boudinot , editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper

•Alice Brown Davis, educator, rancher, postmistress, interpreter, and the first woman chief of the Seminole, 1922 to 1935

•John B. Herrington, NASA commander of Chickasaw descent and first enrolled member of a tribe to fly as an astronaut in outer space

•Ericka Hinton,  member of the all-female Apache 8 wildfire firefighting squad from Arizona’s White Mountain Apache tribe

•Jodie Gillette, enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, senior policy advisor for Native American affairs on the Obama administration’s White House Domestic Policy Council

•Woodrow W. Keeble, highly decorated World War II and Korean War combat veteran and the first full-blooded Sioux to receive the Medal of Honor

•Wayne Newton, pop singer and Las Vegas entertainment figure, of Cherokee and Powhatan descent

•Shelley Niro, Mohawk photographer, painter, sculptor, bead worker, multimedia artist, and independent filmmaker whose works have been widely exhibited

•Samson Occom, Mohegan teacher and spiritual leader in colonial New England and one of the first ordained Christian Indian ministers. Wrote one of the first American Indian autobiographies

•Harlan Pruden, member of the Cree Nation, co-founder of New York’s Northeast Two-Spirit Society, a support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Native people

•Queen Anne, a chief of the Pamunkey tribe who fought for the rights of her people in colonial Virginia

•John Red Corn, Osage architect, co-founder of Blue Star Studio, Inc., a full-service planning and architecture firm whose projects include green and sustainable developments in Indian Country

•Ben Reifel, first Congressman from the Sioux nation. While in office, helped to establish the National Endowment for the Humanities. Earned a master’s degree and doctorate at Harvard

•Yvette Roubideaux, Rosebud Sioux physician, public health administrator and the first woman to be appointed as director of the Indian Health Service, a federal agency

•Santanta, Kiowa chief  and warrior known as the “The Orator of the Plains”

•Squint Eyes (Tichkematse), Cheyenne “warrior artist” of the late 19th-century known for his ink and watercolor drawings of southern Plains life  and his work for the Smithsonian Institution

•Maria Tallchief, international prima ballerina of Osage descent and first Native American woman to break into ballet

•Jim Thorpe,  legendary all-around athlete from the Sac and Fox tribe, gold medal runner at the 1912 Olympics, and professional football and baseball player

•Touch the Clouds, longtime chief of the Minneconjou Sioux, remembered for his military prowess, courage, and abilities as a negotiator and a diplomat

•Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Dakota Sioux concert and recording artist, activist, and actor on TV (“Walker Texas Ranger,” “Dharma and Greg,” “The X Files,”) and in movies (“Dances With Wolves,” “The Doors”)

•Wovoka, Paiute mystic who founded the Ghost Dance religion in the late 19th century

•William Yellow Robe, Jr., award-winning Assiniboine and Sioux playwright, director, poet, actor, and educator whose new play, “Wood Bones,” recently received its world premiere in New York

In the exhibit area, visitors can submit names and information about American Indians they’d like to see featured. Books of American Indian biographies are available, and visitors can leave with a printed handout of sources for further research.

Admission to the exhibit and curator tour is included with Mitchell Museum admission, which is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors, students, teachers (with valid school ID), and children. Admission is free for Mitchell Museum members and tribal members. Admission is also free to active-duty members of the U.S. military and their families through September 1.

Admission is free to everyone on the first Friday of every month. The independent, nonprofit Mitchell Museum is at 3001 Central St., Evanston. For information, phone (847) 475-1030 or email visitor.services@mitchellmuseum.org. Website: http://www.mitchellmuseum.org.

The organization is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.