Indigenous Peoples Heritage Month: MA Tribal Maps, Community Resources, Podcasts, Websites, and more

itkála-Šá was a Yankton Dakota (Sioux) writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and political activist. She's best known for creating The Sun Dance Opera with William F. Hanson, the first Native American work on the operatic stage, featuring Dakota (Sioux) and Ute cultural themes, as well as the Sun Dance, which had been banned by the American government along with all other Native American religious practices.

Jock Soto is a Navajo-Puerto Rican dancer, renowned for his career in the New York City Ballet. He began studying ballet at the age of five, after being inspired by Edward Villella's performance in a television special of George Balanchine’s Jewels.

Born in Anchorage, AK, and raised in the small, majority-Indigenous village of Unalakleet, Kira Apaachuaq Eckenweiler grew up surrounded by the musical pursuits of her mother, aunts, and uncles. Following in her family's footsteps, she performed in regional and state music festivals through her childhood and adolescence, and then went on to study music at the University of Alaska at Anchorage and the Berklee College of Music, and perform with Anchorage Opera, the Boston Conservatory, and Intermountain Opera Bozeman.