In recognition of Native American Heritage Month in November, MassLive asked readers to identify people who are leaders from the Indigenous community throughout the state, working to make a difference in their own area of interest, be it politics, education, business or the arts.
MassLive will publish profiles of these leaders through November. These are people our readers have identified as inspirational, who may be doing good acts for their communities. They are being recognized for their accomplishments, leadership and commitment to inspire change.
Rhonda Anderson (Submitted photo)Rhonda Anderson
Rhonda Anderson
Age: 53
Community: Works for the Indigenous Community of Massachusetts and resides in Franklin County.
Her story: Rhonda Anderson is Iñupiaq – Athabascan from Fairbanks, Alaska, with her Native enrollment village being Kaktovik. She has lived most of her life in Western Massachusetts and spent the summers in Alaska with her family. Her life has been involved in advocacy and activism work for over 30 years, ranging from the removal of mascots to protecting her traditional homelands in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the extractive industry, among others.
As a Western Massachusetts Commissioner, Anderson works to bridge conversations with federal, state and local governments with her region’s sovereign Tribal Nations as needed, she told MassLive. She is actively pursuing the possibility of a Truth and Healing Commission in Massachusetts to explore the contemporary inequities and historical injustices against Native communities in the Commonwealth.
She is the Western Massachusetts Commissioner on Indian Affairs, co-founder and co-director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center and the Native Youth Empowerment Foundation and a member of the advisory councils for the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
As co-founder and co-director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center, the only Native founded and run cultural center in Central and Western Massachusetts, her and the organizations work has focused on uplifting the voices of Native peoples and dismantling unjust frameworks, replacing them with accessibility, equity, dignity and wellness for Native communities, she added.
There, members share their stories and cultures so that their communities remain strong and others may know our authentic experiences and current issues.
“Ohketeau is a place for Indigenous scholars and educators to undermine harmful narratives, stereotypes and biases about Indigenous cultures. We actively acknowledge and take steps to remove invisibility within mainstream settler society. We strive to illuminate the work of Indigenous artists, ancestors, culture-bearers, and activists, thereby expanding the non-Native audience’s worldviews,” she said.
Anderson tributes her most important life work as being a mother as well as a classically trained herbalist, silversmith and activist. Throughout her time, she has sat on several Indigenous panels and roundtables to discuss how to better educate Native students in Massachusetts, issues regarding Native teen drug and alcohol use, land acknowledgments, land back movement, murdered and missing Indigenous women and reproductive rights.
In 2021, Anderson was recognized for her activism work by the Massachusetts state Senate and The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as a Commonwealth Heroine. She also received the 2022 Berkshire County NAACP Freedom Fund award.
In her words: “My advice is to sit with your elders, listen deeply and ask questions. Begin with volunteering and civil service work and using your voice for the voiceless to create a better world. Doing this work with multigenerational community members will teach you a lot about our Indigenous cultures, how to lift and raise much-needed Native voices and begin to disrupt colonization and racist structures on a reflexive level.”
We’re always open to hear about more inspiring people. If you’d like to suggest someone else who should be recognized, please fill out this form.
