Barbara Poley (Laguna/Hopi) has seeded the Hopi way of life over decades of community minded dedication. She instills the ancestral values formed on the mesas through ceremonial cycles, clan relationships, and dry farming into daily contemporary life so that culture remains vibrant and central. Dry farming corn teaches that living in a traditional way may be difficult, “but with patience, care, and tending to the needs of these plants, we receive the abundance of new life with our corn which can be grown over and over for many years to come.” Indeed, the next generation of leaders is rising throughout Hopi, growing and strong with Barbara’s guidance. Barbara’s 18 year long leadership at the Hopi Foundation brings forward the educational ethics of her ancestor, Chief Loloma. She now seeks to move into the next phase of her eldership and expand the fundamental idea of caring for one another across generations.

Dr. Henrietta Mann, Southern Cheyenne, has brilliantly and energetically bridged Western educational settings with traditional, spiritual ways of being. She extends the roots of who she is and where she comes from no matter where she is in the world, creating loving and encouraging spaces of strength for people around her. Henri points out, in her reflection on elders’ Spirit Aligned Leadership: “we still possess our abilities to lead, to love humankind, to yet carry out our peoples’ wealth of traditional knowledge, to have a respect for all life, to maintain a compassionate view of the world, and to be concerned about the desecration of Mother Earth, all of which did not stop at the door to the spare bedroom or forgotten wings of the assisted care facility.” Dr. Henri relates to White Buffalo Woman and is strong in Sun Dance – she served as the spiritual compass during the formation of NMAI, as she did as a professor in Montana and centering work in the academy, in government, in tribal affairs. She views her legacy as a giveaway to the next generation.

Jan Kahehti:io Longboat (Turtle Clan, Mohawk) draws in the love of Mother Earth to heal trauma. She inherited a deep sense of peace and cultured skills from her grandmother that form her philosophy that “the circle (Tekaneren) just keeps going round and round, tying all our words, actions, expressions, purposes, and stages of life together.” Kahehti:io works with plant medicine, story, language, and song to encourage women – especially those who carry suffering from generations of residential school abuse - to take their rightful place as the center pole of the home. Through teaching and gathering community at health centers, universities and at her Earth Healing Herb Gardens and Retreat Centre at Six Nations, she guides indigenous individuals, families, and nations back to sharing in the spirit of unity.

Lenora Naranjo-Morse, Kha Po Tewa [Santa Clara Pueblo], was deeply influenced by her mother, Rose, in the Tewa view of life that brings a sense of wholeness. She has been immersed in the spiritual practices that bring life through the womb into being a complete human being. Nora is a contemporary artist who energizes an ancestral sensibility into her art. She uses many earth based materials such as glittering micaceous clay and adobe - in addition to other media, especially “trash” that can be worked into art. Nora is literally a hands on learner and educator. Her public art piece at the National Museum of the American Indian, Always Becoming, in many ways exemplifies Nora’s leadership. Always Becoming is interactive, collaborative, and needs yearly, collective tending. She involves public and brings in artists from Sonora, Mexico to work with her. She widens the circle, sends her art into other hands for caretaking and renewal. Her art and life process, contemporary but with deep grounding in her homeland, exemplifies Spirit Alignment and the standard bearing of a Legacy Leader.

Sarah Agnes James, Neetsa’ii Gwich’in, sings a caribou welcome song to educate the world. She encourages all of us to “learn from each other and go forward for the Earth, so we can live.” Sarah is inseparable from the far northern world of interior Alaska. Her mother, father, and grandparents lovingly taught her to protect the “Sacred Place Where All Life Begins”, Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodiit. The land is her teacher, her medicine, her sustainer and her way to the Creator. She grew up living off the land and knows the hardships of surviving in the cold northcountry. Sarah dedicates herself to protecting necessary lifeways, amplifying the voices of her people and beings – especially the caribou. A strong spokesperson and powerful activist, Sarah travels globally to mobilize many into empathy to protect the Porcupine Caribou herd and, defend their calving grounds from oil development and climate catastrophe. She educates and learns from diverse people, bringing her teachings and also receiving theirs. Sarah works from her village and remains devoted to passing on the ancestral teaching to younger generations. She celebrates her opportunity as a Legacy Leader as a time to take care of herself and others as she works on a biography to contain her story. Her life exemplifies all that a Legacy Leader is.