20 Notable alumni of Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development
Updated: June 16, 2026 EliteDegrees
Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development is ranked #3,781 in the world and #999 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 20 notable alumni from Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Jackie Larson Bread
artist
Jackie Larson Bread is a Native American beadwork artist from the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. Her interest in bead work was sparked from looking at her late-grandmother's beaded pieces. In awe of these objects, Bread self-taught herself how to bead when she was younger and now, she has been beading for more than 20 years. Continuing through trial and...
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2. Benjamin Harjo, Jr
1945-2023 (aged 78)
painter
Benjamin Harjo Jr. was a Native American painter and printmaker based in Oklahoma.
3. Alfred Young Man
1948-. (aged 78)
painter
Alfred Young Man, Ph.D. or Kiyugimah is a Cree artist, writer, educator, and an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree tribe located on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation, Montana, US. His Montana birth certificate lists him as being 13/16th Cree by blood-quantum, his full sister, Shirley, is listed as 16/16ths. He is a former Department Head (2007–2010) of Indian Fine Arts...
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4. Linda Lomahaftewa
1947-. (aged 79)
printmaker
painter
Linda Lomahaftewa is a Native American printmaker, painter, and educator living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a citizen of the Hopi Tribe and a descendant of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
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5. Karita Coffey
1947-. (aged 79)
ceramicist
Karita Coffey is a Comanche ceramist, noted especially for producing ceramic versions of cultural items from her tribe, in addition to ceramic vessels. She also works in lost-wax cast metals.
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6. Richard Aitson
1953-2022 (aged 69)
painter
beadworker
Richard Aitson was a Kiowa- Ná'ishą Apache bead artist, curator, and poet from Oklahoma.
7. Sherwin Bitsui
1975-. (aged 51)
poet
painter
Sherwin Bitsui is a Navajo writer and poet. His book of poems, Flood Song, won the American Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award.
8. Dan Namingha
1950-. (aged 76)
painter
sculptor
Dan Namingha is a Hopi painter and sculptor. He is Dextra Quotskuyva's son, and a great-great-grandson of Nampeyo. He is a member of the Hopi-Tewa member of the Hopi Tribe. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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9. Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
1952-. (aged 74)
photographer
video artist
Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie is a Navajo Nation photographer, museum director, curator, and professor. She is living in Davis, California. She serves as the director of the Gorman Museum of Native American Art and teaches at University of California, Davis.
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10. Charlene Teters
1952-. (aged 74)
painter
Charlene Teters is a Native American artist, educator, and lecturer. Her paintings and art installations have been featured in over 21 major exhibitions, commissions, and collections. She is a member of the Spokane Tribe, and her Spokane name is Slum Tah. She was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, near the Spokane Indian Reservation.
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11. Kelly Church
1967-. (aged 59)
basket weaver
artist
Kelly Jean Church is a black ash basket maker, Woodlands style painter, birchbark biter, and educator. She lives in Michigan.
12. Joy Harjo
1951-. (aged 75)
musician
children's writer
teacher
climate activist
poet
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms (after Robert Pinsky). Harjo is a seventh-generation Monahwee daughter (also known as "Menawa")....
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13. Tommy Orange
1982-. (aged 44)
writer
Tommy Orange is an American novelist and writer from Oakland, California. His first book, There There (2018), was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received the 2019 American Book Award. In October 2025, Orange was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
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14. Layli Long Soldier
poet
Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota writer, poet, visual artist, and educator. She is best known for her poetry collection Whereas, which references the 2009 United States Congressional Apology to Native peoples. Her work uses visual poetics and often covers Indigenous history.
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15. Sandy Fife Wilson
1950-. (aged 76)
fashion designer
teacher
artist
Sandy Fife Wilson is a Muscogee (Creek) art educator, fashion designer and artist. After graduating from the Institute of American Indian Arts and Northeastern Oklahoma State University, she became an art teacher, first working in the public schools of Dewey, Oklahoma. When Josephine Wapp retired as the textile instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Wilson was hired to...
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16. Rose B. Simpson
1983-. (aged 43)
artist
Rose B. Simpson is a Tewa of Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh (Santa Clara Pueblo) mixed-media artist and sculptor who works in ceramic, metal, fashion, painting, music, performance, and installation. Simpson is the daughter of renowned Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell. She lives in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited at SITE Santa Fe (2008, 2015); the Heard...
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17. Kevin Locke
1954-2022 (aged 68)
teacher
musician
Kevin Edward Locke was of Lakota descent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Anishinaabe of White Earth. He was a preeminent player of the North American Indigenous Flute, a traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist and educator. He was best-known for his hoop dance, The Hoop of Life.
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18. Marcus Amerman
1959-. (aged 67)
painter
beadworker
Marcus Amerman is a Native American (Choctaw Nation) beadwork artist, glass artist, painter, fashion designer, and performance artist, living in Idaho. He is known for his highly realistic beadwork portraits.
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19. Heidi Bigknife
1967-. (aged 59)
artist
Heidi BigKnife is a Native American artist living in Oklahoma. She is well known for her unique jewelry, a talent she developed at the Institute of American Indian Art.
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20. Gerald McMaster
1953-. (aged 73)
painter
draftsperson
writer
video artist
exhibition curator
Gerald Raymond McMaster CM is a curator, artist, and author and a Plains Cree member of the Siksika Nation. McMaster is Professor Emeritus of Critical Curatorial Studies and Indigenous Visual Culture Studies. He is a former Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and was director of the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCAD University. He was formerly the adjunct...
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