CRF Advisory Board
Staff + Consultants

Ohkay Owingeh/Pueblo
Former Deputy Director and Interim Director
State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)
New Mexico  (Retired)

Attorney
Author
Of Counsel, Crowe & Dunlevy
Chief Justice, Supreme Court, Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma

Walter Echo-Hawk, J.D. (Pawnee) is a committed culture bearer, attorney, tribal judge, activist, educator and author. He served as staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) for thirty-five years and represented tribes and Native Americans on significant issues in modern federal Indian law. He was the Founding Board Chair for the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. He has also made major contributions to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and federal religious freedom legislation. Echo-Hawk is a prolific writer whose books include In the Courts of the Conqueror and In the Light of Justice.

Valorie Johnson (Seneca-Cayuga-Eastern Cherokee) began her career as a human rights executive with the National Education Association in Washington, D.C.  After earning her doctorate in educational administration, her career encompassed leading roles in public service including as director of Native American Affairs for the State of Michigan’s department of social services, and counseling at the Institute of American Indians Arts in Santa Fe and the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii. For almost 24 years, she was a program officer at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, where she focused on grassroots community organizations and educational institutions across the nation as well as leadership development in the Native American Higher Education and Minority-Serving Institutions. Johnson is a previous board member of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Chairman Emeritus, Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation

California Native American Heritage Commission

Marshall McKay (Yocha Dehe Wintun) has served the Yocha Dehe tribal government for 30 years as Treasurer, Secretary and Chairman. He is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Native arts and culture, the affirmation of sovereign tribal governance, and is an active spokesperson for the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. McKay has served on the boards of the UC Davis Foundation and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is a founding member of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, acting board chair of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, and founder and chair of the Mabel McKay Foundation, dedicated to the creation and preservation of Native American cultural expression. He is a gubernatorial appointee to the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) and the State Historical Preservation Commission. In 2014 McKay was awarded the National Indian Gaming Commission’s prestigious Wendell Chino Humanitarian Award, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums Leadership Award for his work in preservation of indigenous cultures and tribal sovereignty.

Katherine Slick was selected to be the Executive Director of the United States Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites in Washington, DC in 2009. She coordinated and oversaw National Park Service grant consulting with NPS Associate Director for Cultural Resources and staff to determine direction and programmatic initiatives. Ms. Slick served as the Director and State Historic Preservation Officer in the State Historic Preservation Office, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural Affairs from 2003-2009. She was appointed by Governor Richardson to lead the senior policy agency advising the state of New Mexico, federal agencies, local and tribal governments and the public on historic preservation matters.

Principal, Blue Stone Strategy Group
Founder and Former Executive Director of the American Indian Lawyer Training Program

Richard Trudell, J.D. (Santee Sioux) is the founder and former executive director of the American Indian Lawyer Training Program.  AILTP created the first fellowship program to assist Native American lawyers in setting up private practices on or near reservations. Mr. Trudell established the first tribal court advocate training program and an internship program for Native American law students. He founded the American Indian Law Reporter and the American Indian Research Institute. He has served on the boards of the Legal Services Corporation, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, and the Native American Rights Fund. Mr. Trudell is a principal in Blue Stone Strategy Group.

Director, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Former Chairperson and CEO, Otoe-Missouria Tribe

Della Warrior, M.Ed. (Otoe/Missouria) is the Director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, N.M.  Ms. Warrior was the first (and to-date, only) woman to serve as Chairperson and CEO of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe. For eight years, she was president of the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she raised over $100 million and established the first permanent campus for the institution. Prior to that, Ms. Warrior served as Director of Indian Education for the Albuquerque Public Schools, serving 117 schools with 3,300 Native American students from over 100 tribes. She is a former board member of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the American Indian College Fund. In 2007, Ms. Warrior was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame.

President and CEO, Autry National Center of the American West
Founding Director and Director Emeritus, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institute

Richard West, Jr., A.M., J.D. (Southern Cheyenne) is the President and CEO of the Autry National Center of the American West and has devoted much of his personal and professional life to working in the national and international museum communities, and with Native Americans on cultural, educational, legal, and governmental issues. He practiced law at Gover, Stetson, Williams & West, Albuquerque, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Washington, D.C. and served as general counsel and special counsel to numerous Native American tribes, communities, and organizations. His board affiliations include the Kaiser Family Foundation, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Native American Rights Fund, American Indian Resources Institute, American Association of Museums and the International Council of Museums. West received a master’s degree from Harvard University and graduated from the Stanford University School of Law where he was the recipient of the Hilmer Oehlmann Jr. Prize for excellence in legal writing and served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review.