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Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Program for Native American Studies
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Native American Residency Program

Bringing distinguished Native American leaders to campus

An important part of WVU’s Native American Studies Program is the tradition of bringing distinguished Native American leaders, writers, artists, and activists to campus to lecture and interact with our students and fellow community members (see below, “Legacy of Distinction”).

April 2025 Author-in-Residence

Female wearing a red coat and with chin-length grey hair stands next to an Iditarod road sign.

 Susan Devan Harness (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes) is WVU’s 2025 Native American Studies Author-in-Residence. Her award-winning book Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption has won wide acclaim.  Our guest is an associate producer of the documentary film Daughter of a Lost Bird. It will be screened Wednesday, April 9th, 7:00-9:00pm, as part of the WVU Community Human Rights Film Series and Ms. Harness will present "Racialized: Power Structures in American Indian Transracial Adoption."

‘Making sense of her family, the American Indian history of assimilation, and the very real—but culturally constructed—concept of race have helped Harness answer the often puzzling questions of stereotypes and explore a sense of non-belonging, the meaning of family, and the importance of forgiveness and self-acceptance. Bitterroot provides a deep, rich context in which to experience life.’ Birchbark Books

Legacy of Distinction:

In the past several years, with generous support from the Carolyn Reyer Endowment for Native American Studies, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and others, the NAS program has flourished with the participation of these outstanding individuals:

  • 2025 Susan Devan Harness (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes), "Racialized: Power Structures in American Indian Transracial Adoption"
  • 2024 Jean Whitehorse (Navajo Nation), "Amá - the Navajo Word for Mother"
  • 2022 Joy Harjo (Muscogee, Creek Nation) "An Evening with U.S. Poet Laureate joy Harjo"
  • 2019 William Gollnick (Oneida Nation) "Traveling the Red Roads: Defining the Map"
  • 2018 Margaret Pearce, Ph.D. (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) Cartographer, Visiting Scholar presentation: “Imagination, Memory, and Engagement: Expressing Indigenous Geographies  with Cartographic Language”  
  • 2017 David Archambault, II, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman, "Standing with Standing Rock: Why Justice Looks Different in Indian Country"
  • 2016 Ada Deer (Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin), former Assistant Secretary of the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, former Menominee Chair, social worker, activist, "From Reservation Cabin to the Corridors of Power: Changing our World from Within"
  • 2015 Charlie Soap (Cherokee Nation) filmmaker, photographer, community organizer, "The Cherokee Word for Water"
  • 2014 (Writer-in-Residence) Diane Glancy, author, filmmaker, playright, "The Dream of a Broken Field"
  • 2013 Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee), tribal Supreme Court Judge, Native American Rights Attorney, and author of  In the Courts of the Conqueror: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided, and In the Light of Justice: The Rise of Human Rights in Native America and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  • 2011 Gerard Baker (Mandan, Hidatsa), his lecture, “From Log House to Rushmore,” told story of his rise through the ranks of the National Parks Service and his role as Superintendent of Mt. Rushmore National Monument, as well as Little Bighorn National Battlefield and other important Native American historic sites.
  • 2010 Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne, Hodulgee Muscogee), Native Rights Advocate, writer, poet, artist and curator…Director of the Morningstar Institute, "Protecting and Respecting our Ancestors: the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian"
  • 2009 Leader-in-Residence Tex Hall (Mandan, Hidatsa), former president of the National Congress of American Indians, served multiple terms as Chair of the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation, "Today in Indian Country"
  • 2008 Leslie Marmom Silko (Laguna Pueblo), award-winning author of such works as  The Man to Send Rain Clouds, Laguna Woman, Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes, Ocean Story _(a novella),  and her memoir, The Turquoise Ledge._
  • 2007 John EchoHawk (Pawnee), Executive Director of the Native American Rights Fund, addressed the Cobell case and other important legal issues facing Native Americans.
  • 2006 Dr. Henrietta Mann, Ph.D. (Cheyenne), public lecture, “Is Nothing Sacred? Native American Views on Reverence and Connection”
  • 2005 Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations – Iroquois Confederacy, public lecture, “Cowboys and Indians: Will it Ever End? Ask Mother Earth”
  • 2004 LaDonna Harris, (Comanche), public lecture, “Indigeneity: Indigenous Leadership in the Face of Global Change”
  • 2003 Peterson Zah, former Chairman and Tribal President of the Navajo Nation, public lecture, “Winds of Change in Indian Country”
  • 2002 Angaangaq Lyberth, (Inuk), public lecture, “Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man”