Honorary Board
Our distinguished Honorary Board provides us with experience, guidance, and wisdom
Notah Begay III
NB3 Foundation for Healthy Kids, Healthy Future | Professional Golfer, PGA Tour and Golf Analyst
Navajo, San Felipe and Isleta Pueblo
Notah Begay III, Navajo, San Felipe and Isleta Pueblo, is the only full-blooded Native American to ever play the PGA Tour. Notah was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in 1995 graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Economics and led the golf team to a National Championship in 1994.
As a professional golfer Notah shot the first “59” in the history of the Korn Ferry tour and during a 12-year career on the PGA tour recorded 4 wins. Notah also earned the honor of playing on the US Presidents Cup team where he partnered with longtime friend Tiger Woods to contribute 3-points toward a lopsided US victory.
In 2012, Notah became a golf analyst for the NBC Sports and Golf Channel broadcast team and was named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the world by the Institute for International Sport. Notah’s other interests include the work of the NB3 Foundation which focuses on ensuring that Native American children achieve their full potential. And, in 2014 was inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. Notah happily resides in Albuquerque with his wife Apryl and three children.
Nedra Darling
Public affairs Director, Dept. of Interior | Executive Producer, Jim Thorpe Story | NCAI Distinguished Leader
Native American Policy Activist and Advocate
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Nedra Darling is a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and a proud Cherokee descendant. Nedra co-founded Bright Path Strong, a movement created to share and amplify authentic Native American voices and stories, past and present. Representation matters, and it is time we shine a light on our real history, our people and our resilience – in our own words. Nedra, also serves as an executive producer for the major motion film in development, Bright Path: The Story of Jim Thorpe. And she will be working on more film projects that will honor American Indian and Alaska Native peoples truth of our past, present and future.
Nedra devoted her 35 years of federal government service to celebrating and uplifting American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. Now that she has retired from the government, she is continuing to help celebrate and uplift Indian Country in a new way, telling our truths in movies.
She also is serving as a board member on the Keiko Fudoka Judo Foundation, empowering Indian women and girls through judo to help them be strong and unafraid in our communities with so many missing and murdered Indian women.
For over 20 years, Nedra served as the Public Affairs Director for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior (DOI). She played a key role in shaping the public’s image of DOI and its leadership as the department addressed programs such as Indian gaming, trust funds management, restoring tribal homelands, federal acknowledgement, energy, economic development and Indian education.
At DOI, Nedra produced several memorable events promoting broader recognition and understanding of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples: the Pentagon ceremony honoring the last living World War II Comanche Code Talker; the honoring of First Lady Michelle Obama during her visit to the DOI; the White House summits with tribal leaders; the showing at one of the summits of the video “Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuxshish - One Who Helps People Throughout the Land,” highlighting the Obama administration’s work in Indian Country, which she produced and directed; and the formal apology heard around the world by former Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover for the war on Indian people and their culture that the BIA waged in earlier years. She also established the DOI’s Hall of Tribal Nations, which is lined with tribal flags in honor of the federal government’s relationship with the 574 federally recognized tribes.
Before joining the DOI, Nedra established the nation’s first American Indian media center at the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she directed and produced several award-winning videos. She also co-produced the Peabody and Emmy award-winning PBS Special, “Surviving Columbus,” which told the story of the Spanish Conquest of the Pueblo Tribes and their resilience.
Nedra previously worked at the Census Bureau where she developed the first tribal liaison program and contracted with IAIA to create an award winning media campaign for Indian Country for the 1990 Census.
February, 2020 Nedra received the National Congress of American Indians Leadership Award for her outstanding leadership role in informing and guiding the federal government’s administration of its trust responsibility to tribal nations across multiple presidential administrations, and service as mentor to many young Native American professionals. Nedra received the Americans for Indian Opportunity’s (AIO) Eugene Crawford Memorial Peace Pipe Award for her lifetime achievements, particularly her
dedication and contributions to Indian Country and ensuring future opportunity for Indigenous peoples. In 2012, Nedra received the “Woman of the Year” Award at the National Indian Women’s annual luncheon. She has served as an advisor to the College Horizons Program, Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Program and was a founder and current advisor of AIO’s Ambassadors Program, where she has mentored many current and future tribal leaders.
Nedra holds a B.A. in Government from Oberlin College and completed the Senior Executive Program at the John F. Kennedy School, Harvard University. She is married to Bowman Cox and has two wonderful sons, Hunter Cox and Forrest Co
Carmen Davis
President and Founder, Davis Strategy Group, Native Business Magazine and Summit
Mrs. Davis is founder and president of Davis Strategy Group, a consulting, business services and media production firm. Mrs. Davis has over 23 years of service to Indian Country and as an entrepreneur she has successfully established, operated, managed and grown several businesses in multiple sectors. She is equal parts a strategic visionary and behind-the-scenes implementor, essential in guiding and overseeing every process of brand development, business expansion, nation-to-nation relationship building and more.
Mrs. Davis is also the founder, publisher and executive editor of the only Native American owned and operated national print and digital tribal business publication, Native Business, and the producer of the annual and nationally attended Native Business Summit.
She was named in 2009 as one of the first recipients of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s prestigious, “40 Under 40” award which recognizes up and coming community and business leaders from across Indian Country.
She has helped to facilitate multiple strategic partnerships between tribal entities and corporations, participated on international tribal business delegations abroad and proudly raised over $1.3 million dollars philanthropically for outreach to tribal communities. She is continuously committed to leading initiatives that have a positive and lasting impact on Native communities across North America.
A highly regarded keynote speaker in Indian Country, Carmen has delivered speeches on tribal, corporate and event stages ranging from PNC Bank to the Navajo Nation to the “Native Women’s Business Summit.”
Gary “Litefoot” Davis
Award-winning Actor & Musician
Cherokee Nation
Gary “Litefoot” Davis, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, has been a notable figure in Indian Country for nearly 30 years. First recognized for his considerable achievements in music, film and television with eight award winning albums and starring roles in such films as, The Indian in The Cupboard (Paramount Pictures) and appearances on television programs such as, House of Cards (Netflix) and numerous inspirational concert tours which took him to nearly every tribal nation in the United States.
His accomplishments as a seasoned entrepreneur evolved into tribal economic development in 2007 when he became Vice-President of U.S. Native Affairs for the Triple Five Group (owners of the Mall of America) and then co-chair of the National Indian Gaming Association’s, American Indian Business Network. In 2011 he was asked to join the board of directors of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and soon after was asked to lead the organization as its president and CEO overseeing their annual Reservation Economic Summit (RES) in Las Vegas, multiple federal programs and initiatives related to business and entrepreneurship across Indian Country.
Mr. Davis currently serves as the executive director of the Native American Financial Services Association, is founder and publisher of Native Business Magazine, is CEO of Davis Strategy Group, is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and hosts his own weekly podcast, The Litefoot Show.
Mr. Davis has twice testified before the U.S. Senate and is astute at policy matters related to Indian Country. He is a relentless advocate for tribal sovereignty and has considerable experience building bridges on Capitol Hill. His effectiveness in working with federal agencies to advance business in Indian Country has been substantiated by his twice being appointed an ambassador for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Minorities in Energy (2015) and Equity in Energy (2020) initiatives as well as his appointment to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities (2016).
He is an accomplished international speaker having delivered the featured keynote speech at the World Indigenous Business Forum in Guatemala City, Guatemala and delivered remarks at Hannover Messe, the world’s largest trade fair for industrial technology, in Hannover, Germany.
He’s a recipient of the prestigious Sevenstar Award from the Cherokee Nation Historical Society and received the Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency National Director Special Recognition Award in 2015.
Recently, Mr. Davis was recognized by Scholastic Books in their publication “Native American Heroes” and in 2021 he will be part of an animated indigenous cartoon series for children on Netflix.
Suzan Shown Harjo
Poet | Writer | Lecturer | Policy Advocate for American Indian Rights
Instrumental in Removing Mascots and Protecting Treaty Rights
Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee
Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee) is a writer, curator and policy advocate, who has helped Indigenous Peoples protect sacred places and recover over one million acres of land. In awarding her a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, President Barack Obama said she has “fought all her life for human, civil, and treaty rights of Native peoples… With bold resolve, (she) pushes us to always seek justice in our time.”
In 2015, NCORE (National Conference on Race and Ethnicity) in American Higher Education named an annual award after her: the Suzan Shown Harjo Activist for Systemic Social Justice Award, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums honored her with a Leadership Award and a Guardian of Cultures and Lifeways Medal. She was the first woman awarded the Institute of American Indian Arts’ Honorary Doctorate of Humanities (2011), first Native woman Montgomery Fellow (1992); first Vine Deloria, Jr. Distinguished Indigenous Scholar (2008); first person awarded two Sovereignty Symposium Medals (Leadership, 2016; Honored One, 2015); and first to receive back-to-back residencies at the School of Advanced Research (2004 Poetry Fellow and Summer Scholar).
In 2020, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. A founder of the National Museum of the American Indian, she began coalition work in 1967 that led to NMAI and nationwide museum reforms, which she wrote about in It Began with a Vision in a Sacred Place (in Past, Present and Future Challenges of NMAI, 2011). In 2019, NMAI and IAIA honored her with a symposium, where 14 writers presented papers that are being published in A Promise Kept: The Inspiring Life and Works of Suzan Shown Harjo (NMAI Press, Founders Series, 2021).
Among her curatorial credits is the first exhibition of contemporary works by Native artists ever shown in the U.S. House and Senate Rotundas, Visions from Native America (1992). She is Editor and Guest Curator of Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations – the Smithsonian Institution/NMAI’s book (SI/NMAI Press 2014) and exhibition (NMAI Museum on the Mall, 2014-2021), which won the Alliance of American Museums’ 2016 Overall Award--Excellence in Exhibition.
An award-winning Columnist for Indian Country Today and WBAI-FM’s former Drama & Literature Director and Co-Producer, “Seeing Red,” she served as News Director for the American Indian Press Association and on the Boards of the Native American Journalists Association and UNITY: Journalists of Color/Journalist for Diversity. A political appointee in the Carter-Mondale Administration, she was Legislative Liaison for the Native American Rights Fund and the Fried, Frank law firm and Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians and Coordinator of the National Indian Litigation Committee.
President of The Morning Star Institute, dedicated to Indigenous traditional and cultural rights, Suzan has directed its National Day of Prayer for Native Sacred Places (2003-present), The 1992 Alliance (1989-1992) and the Just Good Sports project (1984-present). Active in the no-mascots movement since 1962, she has led many campaigns to end racist stereotypes and cultural appropriations, most notably, the offensive name and image of the Washington football team, which announced an end to its R*dsk*ns name and logo in July 2020.
Sid Jamieson
Bucknell Head Lacrosse Coach-38 seasons | NCAA Division I, only Native American Head Coach | Iroquois Nationals
Cayuga Nation
Sid is an American former lacrosse coach. He is the only Native American head coach in the history of NCAA Division I lacrosse. He was Bucknell University's initial head coach for the men's college lacrosse team, serving from the inception of the program in 1968 until his retirement in 2005 (38 seasons).
In 1983 Jamieson also became the co-founder and first head coach of what was to become the Iroquois National Team. He later served as Executive Director of Iroquois National Lacrosse and is an Emeritus member of that organization's Board of Directors. He has also been a dynamic force on the international lacrosse scene through his involvement with the Iroquois National Team, and he has served as an avid spokesman for the Native American influence on the sport.
Seven organizations have inducted Jamieson into their Halls of Fame, including the Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the National Native American Hall of Fame and the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaching Association Hall of Fame.
Many of lacrosse's most prominent honors have been bestowed upon him including the highly esteemed Gen. George M. Gelston Award as the person who most represents the symbol of the game of lacrosse, the Spirit of Tewaarton Award and the prestigious Burma-Bucknell Bowl for "outstanding contributions to intercultural and international understanding."
He remains active in conservancy and was instrumental in obtaining recognition from the National Park Service of the Susquehanna River as a National Historic Water Trail. He has served on the Advisory Board to the Chesapeake Conservancy and on the Board of Directors of the Greenwoods Land Conservancy. A native of Youngstown, New York, Jamieson attended Lewiston-Porter High School. He graduated from Cortland State. He is a member of the Cayuga Nation and his parents were both raised on the Six Nations Indian Reservation in Brantford, Ontario.
Oren Lyons
Faithkeeper Turtle Clan | Environmentalist | Author | Professor Emeritus | Global Speaker | Lacrosse Hall of Fame
Founding Member, Iroquois Nationals
Onondaga Nation
Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, serves on the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois).
Oren holds the title of Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo, has a Doctor of Laws Degree from his Alma Mater, Syracuse University, and Lyons Hall at SU is named in his honor.
Lyons is an All-American Lacrosse Hall of Famer, and Honorary Chairman of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team. He is an accomplished artist, environmentalist, author, and global presenter and holds the title of Wisdom Keeper.
He is a leading voice at the UN Permanent Forum on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples, serves on the Executive Committee of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders for Human Survival, acts as Chairman of the Board for both the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and Seventh Generation Fund.
Recipient of several prestigious awards including; Green Cross International Environmental Icon Award, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. The United Nations NGO World Peace Prize, the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, The Rosa Parks and George Arent Award for Environmental and social activism and receiving Sweden’s prestigious Friends of the Children Award with his colleague the late Nelson Mandela, Also included in his list of acknowledgments are the UN World Peace Prize, Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, Native American Hall of Fame
Lyons is a constantly sought after speaker, a subject of several documentaries, films and a tireless advocate for American Indian causes and Indigenous rights.
Oren is a founding member of One Bowl Productions and serves as a constant reminder of humanities responsibilities to the earth and our future generations.
Ernie Stevens, Jr.
Chairman, Indian Gaming Association | WEBE | Film Producer | Educator | Developer
Oneida Nation
Ernie Stevens, Jr. (Oneida) is an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Stevens also serves as the Chairman and national spokesman for the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington, DC. Stevens is currently serving as the organization’s leader. NIGA, established in 1985, is a non-profit organization of 184 Indian Nations with other non-voting associate members representing tribes and businesses engaged in tribal gaming enterprises from around the country.
From 1993 to 1999 Stevens served as an elected councilman for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. He is a former First Vice-President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). As a respected leader in Indian Country, Stevens also serves as a long-standing board member on the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development Board, on the Nike N7 Foundation Board and is Vice Chairman of the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) Foundation, he also serves on the Native American Advisory Board for the Boys and Girls Club of America. In 2012, Stevens was inducted into the prestigious Boys & Girls Club of American Alumni Hall of Fame.
Stevens has earned an Associate’s degree from Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence, Kansas and a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Mount Senario College in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.
in memoriam
sacheen littlefeather
Native Elder | Activist | Icon | Writer | Mentor to Indian Youth | Public Speaker on Suicide, Mental Health and Wellness Advocate for Native Women to Walk with Courage
Apache & Yaqui
Sacheen Littlefeather is the first woman of color, and first Native American Indian woman to ever refuse an Academy Award for political purposes. She declined the 1973 Oscar on behalf of Best Actor Marlon Brando in the movie The Godfather.
In her 60-second speech at the Oscars, before millions of people – the first time the Oscars was broadcast via satellite – Sacheen spoke out against the stereotyping of Indians in film and the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
As a result, she was blacklisted from the entertainment industry by J. Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. Sacheen then focused her life on addressing Native suicide and mental health and Native nutrition. She became an advocate for Missing and Murdered Native Women, and a founding Board member of The San Francisco Indian AIDS Institute. Sacheen is active in Native American culture and dance events, as well as Women with Breast Cancer.
Sacheen treasures the time she spent working with Mother Teresa of Calcutta in Hospice work, while facing her own terminal illness.
Sacheen has led her life with courage and conviction, addressing racial discrimination and injustice. She walks a fine line between life and the spirit world. This is Sacheen.
“I want my legacy here on earth to be that I spoke the truth. As women, we have been used to being silenced, and we are silenced no more. When I look at other women, I look at them as bonding together. Different nationalities of women need to support other nationalities of women as one unit together.” – Sacheen Littlefeather
in memoriam
alf jacques
Legendary Haudenosaunee Wooden Stick Maker | Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Player and CoachCultural Educator and Lecturer
Onondaga Nation
Alf Jacques of the Onondaga Turtle Clan is recognized as the world’s foremost traditional lacrosse stick carver. A decorated lacrosse player and coach, Alf learned how to make wooden lacrosse sticks at age 12 from his father, Lou. Together, they used to produce over ten thousand sticks a year, all made from hickory trees and hand-carved using traditional methods. Today, Alf is one of a select few traditional stick-makers still actively producing custom-made lacrosse sticks. In 2014, Alf joined his father in the US Lacrosse Upstate New York Chapter Hall of Fame, and he frequently attends lacrosse events to showcase his talents and methods and teach others about the Native American traditions of lacrosse and stick-making.