President Biden celebrates Native winners of National Humanities Medal

Indianz.Com Video: Shelly Lowe of National Endowment for the Humanities at White House

As his time in the White House winds down, President Joe Biden continues to celebrate and champion Native artists and Native cultures.

During a reception on Monday, Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, welcomed recipients of the National Humanities Medal. Four of the recent winners are Native: poet and musician Joy Harjo (Muscogee), educator Robert Martin (Cherokee), author Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi) and culture leader Rosita Worl (Tlingit).

“This administration supports the arts and humanities as essential pieces of America’s might and dynamism — whether it’s helping local venues and theaters get through the pandemic or opening the White House for a range of groundbreaking concerts and exhibits,” Biden said in the East Room of the building that serves as the president’s residence.

From left: National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly Lowe, National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson and President Joe Biden listen to Dr. Jill Biden, standing at podium, deliver remarks at the White House on October 21, 2024. Photo by Adam Schultz / White House

Biden’s support for the arts and humanities dates to his tenure as vice president during the Barack Obama administration. Nearly a decade ago, he showcased contemporary Native artists by installing their works at U.S. diplomatic outposts around the globe in a first of its kind initiative.

As president, Biden has expanded on his legacy even further, said Shelly Lowe, the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she’s the first Native person to lead the federal agency that supports artists and their endeavors.

In introducing Biden at the reception, Lowe noted that the Democratic president has appointed Native people like her to leadership positions across the U.S. government, from executive agencies to boards and commissions to the federal bench. Advocates have put the number at more than 80, a record number for any administration.

Indianz.Com Audio: National Arts and Humanities Reception at White House

By nominating her to lead the NEH, Lowe said that Biden “ensured that when I came into my position, there were others who looked like me, other Native voices, other Native individuals who were leading us and who are making the administration do what we needed to do.”

“He gave us all a space,” Lowe said to sustained applause from a White House audience gathered for National Arts and Humanities Month. “He gave us all a place. He gave us all the opportunity to have a voice.”

The 2023 recipients of the National Humanities Medal include Robin Wall Kimmerer, who is from the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, headquartered in Oklahoma. She is the author of several books about tribal knowledge systems, a movement that has been embraced by the Biden administration through the incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge in policy- and decision-making.

“Dr. Kimmerer’s writings have ignited a global movement to rethink our relationship with the natural world,” said Joanie Mahoney, the president of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York, where the tribal scholar serves as a professor. “Through Robin’s storytelling, she bridges Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western science, fostering a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and each other.”

Another 2023 recipient is Rosita Ḵaaháni Worl, a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes in Alaska. For more than two decades, she has served as president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which promotes and preserves Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian ways of life, and has long been a leader in enforcement of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the federal law that requires the return of ancestors and artifacts to their rightful owners.

“I am honored to receive this award, but I owe a debt of gratitude to my mother, Bessie Quinto, who instilled in me that I have a responsibility to work for our people. She devoted her whole life as a union organizer to secure economic equity for our people, among many other things,” Worl said in sharing where her dedication to service originates.

Going back to 2022, Joy Harjo of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is among the winners of the National Humanities Medal. The award-winning poet and musician made history as the first Native person to serve as Poet Laureate for the U.S., a position she held for a historic three terms.

Robert Martin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, also received the 2022 award. He has served as president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico since 2007, leading the tribal college that has educated generations of prominent American Indian and Alaska Native artists.

But amid the celebration, President Biden warned of threats facing people like Kimmerer, Worl and the other medal recipients.

“This is a very consequential time for the arts and humanities in America,” Biden said. “Extreme forces are banning books, trying to erase history, spreading misinformation.”

Chair Lowe of the NEH echoed the importance of arts and culture-bearers in U.S. society. She quoted from Harjo’s “Eagle Poem,” which the then-U.S. Poet Laureate delivered during the White House Tribal Nations Summit that Biden revived after becoming president.

“The poem is a reminder to each and every one of us about the vastness of our individual experiences, how within this circle of motion that encompasses us, there is still so much more to hear, there is still much more to see,” Lowe said.

“And that’s where poets and historians, philanthropists and filmmakers, songwriters and artists — that’s where each and every one of you comes in,” Lowe continued.

The National Humanities Medals are seen in the Oval Office at the White House on October 21, 2024. Photo by Adam Schultz / White House

In total, 19 people, including one posthumously, were presented with National Humanities Medals by Biden during a private ceremony at the White House.
Another 20 people received National Medals of Arts, including three posthumous awards.

The reception followed the presentation of the medals.