Suzan Shown Harjo has been at the center of almost every legislative, legal, and cultural issue of import to Native Peoples in the last half-century, including protection of cultural rights and sacred places and the return of over one million acres of Native lands. She is President of The Morning Star Institute, past Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians, and a Founding Trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She holds Honorary Doctorates from the Institute on American Indian Arts (2011) and Princeton University (2023). Honors and memberships include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020), National Native American Hall of Fame (2022), and American Philosophical Society (2022). She also is the recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.