Matoaka Little Eagle is Native singer, dancer, storyteller, and educator who has introduced Native American culture to thousands of students, teachers, event goers, and professionals in a wide array of venues from schools, colleges, and museums, to prestigious cultural institutions like Symphony Space and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She is a lifetime member of the acclaimed Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, based in NYC and has collaborated with numerous arts and educational organizations. Her many collaborations with fellow performers and musicians include Pete Seeger, David Amram, and Ulali. Matoaka plays the role of Grandma Jingle Dress in the contemporary Native musical, Distant Thunder, through the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma City, which premiered in March, 2022 at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. She currently resides in New Paltz, NY. matoaka.e@gmail.com. (845) 977-6146.

With ancestral roots in the South, Sally Avery Bermanzohn grew up in New York. She headed to North Carolina for college in the 1960s, actively participating in the movements for civil rights, women's equality, and ending the Vietnam War. Graduating from Duke University, she became a community organizer and later a union organizer. She was present at the Greensboro Massacre in 1979, where Ku Klux Klan attacked the demonstrators and killed five people. Her husband barely survived a bullet wound to the head, and remains partially paralyzed. Sally, her husband, and their two little daughters relocated to New York City. She went to graduate school at the City University of New York, and earned a doctorate in political science. Sally’s dissertation evolved into the book, THROUGH SURVIVORS' EYES: FROM THE SIXTIES TO THE GREENSBORO MASSACRE (Vanderbilt University Press, 2003). She also co-authored the book, VIOLENCE AND POLITICS: GLOBALIZATION'S PARADOX (Routledge, 2002). Sally taught at Brooklyn College for twenty years. Now retired, she lives in Hudson Valley with her husband, two cats, and writes historical fiction. She self-published INDIAN ANNIE, A GRANDMOTHER'S STORY, and WILLOW’S SECRETS in 2919