Suzan Shown Harjo

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Suzan Shown Harjo on C-Span.

Suzan Shown Harjo (b. 1945) is a Hodulgee Muscogee Creek/Cheyenne Native American and well-known Native American activist. She is a poet, writer and lecturer.

1 Early Years
2 Activist
3 Published by Suzan shown Harjo
4 External links

[edit] Early Years

She was born on a reservation in Oklahoma and spent the first eleven years of her life there living on a modest farm.^[1] Her great-grandfather was the Cheyenne Chief Bull Bear.^[2] Between the ages of 12 and 16 she lived in Naples Italy where her father was stationed while in the U.S Army.^[3] Upon her return to the States, Harjo moved to New York City, where she worked in radio and the theatre.^[4]

[edit] Activist

The roots of her activism date from the mid-1960's, when she produced "Seeing Red", a bi-weekly radio program on New York's WBAI FM station which was the first Indian news show in the United States.^[5] Harjo moved to Washington D.C. in 1974. In 1978 President Jimmy Carter appointed her a congressional liason for Indian Affairs. She was the lead party in Pro-Football, Inc. v. Harjo, 284 F.Supp.2d 96 (D.D.C. 2003), a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the decision of the Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) to cancel the registration of the Washington Redskins football team, based on the claim by Harjo and six others that the name was disparging to Native Americans. She has also spoken out against the negative portrayals of Native Americans in movies and television.^[6] One of Harjo's biggest concerns is the decline in health clinics on reservations and the subsequent higher mortality rate amongst Native Americans.^[7]

Another public controversy involving Harjo has been the claim by author Ward Churchill that he, Churchill, has Native American ancestry. Harjo has publicly disputed Churchill's claim. [1] She has appeared on many television programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show,C-Span and Larry King Live. She has been the president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington D.C. since 1984. She is the mother of a son and daughter by her late husband Frank Ray Harjo.^[8]