Past

Mildred Bailey (Coeur d’Alene, 1907-1951). Born in Tekoa, Washington, Bailey was a celebrated blues and jazz singer who had her heyday in the 1930s. She helped Bing Crosby break into the business, and after marrying Red Norvo, “Mr. and Mrs. Swing” became fixtures of NYC’s “Swing Alley.” In 1944 Time magazine called her “just about the greatest popular songbird in the U.S.”

Irene Bedard (Inupiat/Métis). Bedard struggled to pay rent her first months in NYC after moving from Anchorage, Alaska, according to friends. Her modeling and acting career took off after an ad campaign landed her a billboard in Times Square. She then lent her voice to the animated Disney movie “Pocahontas,” and has appeared in numerous films and TV shows since. She now lives in California.

Ely S. Parker (Seneca, 1828-1895). Parker was an Iroquois of the Seneca nation who was born at Indian Falls, New York. He served with distinction in the Civil War, rising to the rank of Brigadier General in Ulysses S. Grant’s staff, and personally wrote out the surrender document that ended the bloody conflict. Later, he became the first native commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, served in the NYPD and made and lost a fortune on Wall Street.

Allie Reynolds (Muscogee Creek, 1917-1944). Known as the “Super Chief,” Reynolds was a star pro baseball player who was one-quarter Muscogee Creek. He was born and raised in Oklahoma. Reynolds had a long and highly successful career pitching for the New York Yankees, leading the team to five consecutive league championships. In 1951 he became the first American League pitcher to throw two no-hitters in one season.

Will Rogers (Cherokee, 1879-1935). Rogers is best known as a comic genius and radio personality, but he was also an actor, columnist and social commentator. He got his start as a Wild West performer and vaudeville showman, and had a long career on Broadway. He became the most popular newspaper columnist in America, with exposure in the New York Times Magazine and many other outlets. Rogers was born on the Dog Iron Ranch in Indian Territory, which later became the state of Oklahoma, and lived in New York for years.

Rosebud Yellow Robe (Lakota Sioux, 1907-1992). The great-niece of Sitting Bull, Yellow Robe was an actor and storyteller who spent most of her life in New York. She was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, but moved to NYC to become a popular cabaret performer. She was hired by the Parks Department to run an educational Indian Village at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island, where she shared indigenous culture with schoolchildren and adults from the region. She was also a writer and frequent radio guest.

Buffy Sainte-Marie (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, Cree). Sainte-Marie is a folk singer, Academy Award-winning songwriter, visual artist and political activist. Born on the Piapot Cree reserve in the Qu’Appelle valley, Saskatchewan, she moved to Greenwich Village in 1963. She penned the 1964 anti-war anthem “Universal Soldier” and American Indian protest songs “Starwalker” and “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.”

Maria Tallchief (Osage). Tallchief is best known for her time with the New York City Ballet (1947 to 1965), where she was its first ever prima ballerina and an international superstar in the field. She was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma to an Osage Nation father and a Scotch-Irish mother. President Eisenhower declared her Woman of the Year in 1953.

Jacobus Franciscus “Jim” Thorpe (Sac and Fox Nation/ Potawatomi/Kickapoo, 1888-1953). Thorpe was named “the greatest athlete of the 20th Century” by ESPN in 2000. He won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon and starred in professional football, baseball and basketball. He had a ticker tape parade in his honor in 1912 and joined the New York Giants a year later.

Red Wing (or Princess Red Wing, born Lillian St. Cyr, Winnebago, 1883-1974). Red Wing was one of the most popular actresses in the early 20th century, and with her actor/director/writer husband, James Young Deer, made up the first American Indian “power couple” in Hollywood. In 1913 she starred in Cecil B. DeMille’s technically groundbreaking (though racist) “The Squaw Man.” Red Wing was born on Nebraska’s Winnebago Reservation to a white father and Winnebago mother, but lived many years in NYC, where she also worked as an educator and advocate.

Present

Dawn Dumont (Plains Cree). Dumont is a beloved stand up comedian, actor and comedy writer who splits her time between NYC and Edmonton in Canada. Among other projects, she has worked on ABC’s “One Life to Live.” A Canadian of Plains Cree heritage, Dumont is currently developing a one-woman show about violence against American Indian women.

Alli Joseph (Shinnecock). Joseph is a journalist, TV personality, writer, producer and model who grew up and currently lives in NYC, although she has also spent a great deal of time on her mother’s reservation on Long Island. Her work has appeared on USA Networks, the Food Network, CBS News, TNT, VH1 and AOL, and she has written for Playboy, George, People and The New York Daily News. She has been co-producing a documentary, “The Last Piece,” on the Shinnecock people. See video of Alli here.

Timothy Long (Muskogee Creek/Choctaw). Oklahoma-born Long is a classical musician and renown conductor who currently lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He has conducted the Boston Lyric Opera and the New York City Opera and is on the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has taught at Yale and Juilliard.

Howard Lyons (Mohawk). A member of the Wolf Clan of Akwesasne, Lyons has been an innovative folk singer/songwriter for nearly two decades. He performs the traditional songs of his people as well as his own material, which is a fusion of many influences, from world beats to pop. Lyons also incorporates teachings about his people in his performances. Lyons currently lives in Syracuse but spends a lot of time in NYC, especially for performances.

Soni Moreno (real name Carmen Carbonello, Mayan/Apache/Yaci). Actor and singer Moreno was born in Sacramento, California to parents who were fruit pickers. She was in the original cast of “Hair” and has had a long career on the stage. She is also part of the celebrated a cappella group Ulali, and manages the gift shop at the American Indian Community House.

Ted Nolan (Ojibwe). Nolan is the head coach for the New York Islanders hockey team, and played for the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. Nolan is from the Garden River Ojibwa First Nation Reserve outside of Sault Ste. Marie in Canada but now lives in the New York metro area. He hopes to parlay his hockey experience into coaching gold in New York.

Elizabeth A. Slocum (Cherokee). The former marketing director of Goodwill Industries, Slocum is an MBA professional with more than 15 years’ experience in business development, fundraising and marketing. Through her company Econsults, she specializes in assisting museums, arts organizations, nonprofits and American Indian tribes. Slocum was raised in the Southwest and is a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Jock Soto (Navajo [Dine]). Soto, who is half Navajo and half Puerto Rican, was born in Gallup, New Mexico but raised in Phoenix. A brilliantly talented dancer, Soto became the youngest principal dancer in the history of the New York City Ballet in 1985. When he retired in 2005, he was considered by many to be the best ballet partner in the world. Today, he continues to teach dance in New York City.

Spiderwoman Theater—Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel and Muriel Miguel (Kuna/Rappahannock). The three sisters founded Spiderwoman Theater in 1975 in New York City. The women grew up in Brooklyn; their father was a Kuna Indian from the San Blas Islands off Panama. The woman were classically trained, and Spiderwoman Theater has become the longest-running feminist performance group in the country. The sisters weave storytelling, drama and progressive themes into dynamic experiences.

Laurah Winder (Seneca). A member of the Seneca Bear Clan, Winder is a model who grew up spending time in both Santa Fe and Oneida, New York. After finishing high school, Winder launched a successful career with Elite Model Management in New York City, and appeared in a range of media. She is active in mentoring work and had been president of the advocacy group UNITY (United National Indian Tribal Youth). Also part Oneida and German, Winder has lived in downtown Manhattan since 2004.