In 1970, Harris founded AIO,
an organization that grew from the
grassroots group Oklahomans for
Indian Opportunity, which started
in the 1960s. “One day we’d meet
on integration issues and another
day we’d meet with our Indian
families, then with other tribes
statewide,” she says. “There are
37 tribes in Oklahoma between
the Plains and Eastern tribes, and
you could pretty much draw a line
down the middle of the state with
the diversity between the two—
the Easterns were forced into
Oklahoma by the U.S. government
while the Plains were accustomed
to being nomadic tribes. It was
difficult at first and was met with
some resistance.”
With time, however, the tribes
realized they could benefit from
mutual knowledge, Harris says.
“With the five tribes [the Cherokees, Chickasaw, Choctaws, Creeks
and Seminoles, who had been relocated by the U.S. government], the
government appointed their chiefs,
and here we had been electing ours
for a while,” she notes. “As soon
as the local tribal people found
out we were electing our chiefs
and they weren’t, they changed it.
Left: Harris with
an American
Indian girl
in 1973.
Bottom: Harris,
right, stands
with Chilean indigenous leader
Clara Bulnes
at a ceremony
celebrating the
approval of the
UN Declaration
on the Rights
of Indigenous
Peoples.
In fact, AIO has
branched to include the
Maori people of New
Zealand, who in 2002
created their own organization, the Advancement of Maori Opportunity, based on AIO’s
mission. “We recognize
that the problems we
were confronted with
in the ’60s are now
totally different, and
globalization is part of
our knowledge base that
we have to recognize,”
Harris says.
To that end,
AIO has taken its
acclaimed American
Indian Ambassadors
“I was raised by my Comanche grandparents in the Comanche culture.”
Now they’re some of the wealthiest
tribes in the states.”
Today, AIO works with tribal
governments, organizations and
community groups to address areas
including energy policy, economic
development, housing, the environment, education, tribal governance,
arts and culture. The organization
also seeks to create new avenues for
international indigenous interaction and to explore ways indigenous
peoples can influence globalization.
Program global, traveling to
different countries to help gain
new perspectives and expand
their knowledge of all indigenous
cultures. The program, which
has been operating since 1993,
is designed to help early- to
mid-career American Indian
professionals strengthen, within an
indigenous cultural context, their
ability to improve the well-being
and growth of their communities.
“We feel Indian values have a lot
to contribute to the global discussion, especially those of economics and resources,” she says. “The
‘browning’ of America is occurring.
There are so many things happening
in the world but no one is talking about what societies we want
with this globalization. How do we
formalize our social injustices rather
than gain dominance through
economic control? We don’t have
all the answers but we do have parts
that need to be considered.”
