Meet Our Founding Authors
When we first started on this journey, we weren't sure if we'd get authors to join us, but to our joy, we have some incredible, talented, compassionate authors who stood up to put their talent to work for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.
We'd like to take a moment and thank them for their generosity, their faith in us, and their determination to see all Indigenous people lifted up. Please take a moment to read their bios and learn about these wonderful people.
Weyodi OldBear was born on the shores of Long Island Sound among her father’s people but raised among her mother’s people, The Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, where she is a voting citizen. After the death of her grandparents in 2013 and 2014 she left Oklahoma for other parts of traditional Comanche territory. Partially blind and subject to seizures she has 5 novels currently under contract and has written hundreds of poems, speculative fiction and science fiction short stories, and comics, in addition to a historical play about her great great grandparents Weckeah OldBear and Quanah Parker.
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Weyodi is also one of the principal writers for the groundbreaking Indigenous Futurist tabletop Role Playing Game Coyote & Crow, which earned her a 2021 Nebula nomination. Her novel “As Many Ships As Stars” is slated to be released Oct 8 2024 from Android Press, The first book in her three book series from Greasy Grass Press “The Root and The Seed” is available for pre-order as of October 16. Issue #1 of The Clock comic will be coming in September/October 2024 from Green Archer Press. “Chunky Atakwasi; Finder of Lost Loves” a graphic novel from Native Realities Press is slated to be released in 2025 Her comic credits include the “A Howl” anthology edited by Beth laPensee, the Lakota Legal Collective’s Guide for Water Protectors published by Stanford University Press, and several upcoming comics by Warpaint Studios. In 2018 she was awarded the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms prize for her story “Red Lessons”
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Dandan Hansen was raised on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. He grew up listening to stories told over the fire, and those stories have shaped his life and his writing. He is an enrolled member of the Village of Kotzebue Indigenous Nation as well as a NANA Shareholder. Through his career as a gaming consultant and casino executive he has strived to make a positive impact on the Nations in which he works. He has lived and worked alongside numerous Indigenous Nations around the United States.
Dandan Hansen was raised on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. He grew up listening to stories told over the fire, and those stories have shaped his life and his writing. He is an enrolled member of the Village of Kotzebue Indigenous Nation as well as a NANA Shareholder. Through his career as a gaming consultant and casino executive he has strived to make a positive impact on the Nations in which he works. He has lived and worked alongside numerous Indigenous Nations around the United States.
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Dandan has an MBA, a JD, a bachelor’s in philosophy, and has extensive speaking experience through his consulting and work. He loves gardening and thru hiking as well as writing. Dandan’s non-fiction titles include Becoming a Trust Based Manager and Slot Machine Analytics Simplified, while his fiction includes This Life as Told by an Old Indian, and the Trickster War series of novels as well as a host of short fiction which can be found on his www.ourorchard.co.
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Wapshkankwet S. Perrote is a part-time poet and visual artist. She is currently a full-time student, where she studies Sociology, emphasis on death studies reclaiming traditional death care practices. She has a background as a Qualified Mental Health Care Provider, who specialized in Grief and Loss work and is currently working towards becoming a Funeral Director who specializes in closed- death care practices working towards reviving non-traditional burials (Americanized burials). Wapshkankwet is an active citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. She is committed to making information on grief & loss work and end of life planning easily accessible and available to all.
Her published works include: Speaking Silently and Ant Hills: Stories of Girls in a Group
Her published works include: Speaking Silently and Ant Hills: Stories of Girls in a Group
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Nick Vary is an Indigenous (Diné) Intersex activist who also happens to be non-binary, transgender and gay. He is a published author who writes on the intricacies of how the Doctrine of Discovery and colonization orchestrate today's gender disaster. Nick is currently writing a series of "Intersex survival guides" to help intersex folks and their parents navigate healthcare, travel, and other situations in today's world. Nick is currently the board president of InterConnect, one of the largest Intersex community-based organizations in the US, and the founder of PIE (Project for Intersex Ethnographies) which will help drive medical progress for our community, as well as creating community projects and resources for Intersex people.
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Nick has also recently written for the UN, detailing how colonization has impacted not only his life, but entire cultures, helping to create understanding of how to break harmful colonial systems from the inside out. His other works can be found in Otherwise Christian volumes 1, 2, and 3, and The Spectrum of Sex.
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M Barrett is a mixed race Cherokee and Muskogee retired educator and museum director now working as a full time artist and writer. She is the great grand niece and final student of Cherokee traditional farmer and heritage speaker of all four Tsalagi languages, Bernice Barrett.
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Her first art show was a collection of paintings and mixed media photography at William Colburn's Iron-Age Gallery in 1996, since then her art has been shown on three continents. Working as a metal-smith, painter, graphic designer, print maker, animator, textile, multimedia and new media artist she continues to create fine art while also working as a graphic designer with organizations, like NCOA, PWT and NTVTWT, that help move the greater Indigenous community forward. She has won an American Library of Poets Editor's Choice Award, as well as the Marcia Lewis Scholarship for American Craft as a fine-art metalsmith. She also volunteers as a state chapter admin for Native Cry as well as volunteering for InterConnect creating PSA's, digital art, and awareness campaigns.