2024 Honorees

She is an accomplished traditional painter, painting such items as: cradleboards, pipe bags, flute bags, fan handles and pouches. Julia created a line of dolls called Eninuog, which translates to (the people) based on 17th century Wampanoag people. Julia paid close attention to detail; even the beads they wear are miniatures of trade beads of the time. Julia's art has been featured at the Atrium Gallery at One Capitol Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, at the State House in Boston, Massachusetts, and in several museums throughout New England including; Mashantucket Pequet Museum and Research Center, Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum in Connecticut, Plymouth Plantation, The Robin's Museum, National Heritage Museum, Cahoon Museum, in Massachusetts, the Fairbanks Museum, Clan of the Hawk Museum, Chandler Music Hall Gallery in Vermont, Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in New Hampshire.

Later in 2020, she began doing photoshoots & runway modeling. Through modeling, Autumn met a young girl named Victoria Colón, who also has Spina Bifida. Autumn then realized the impact she can make on younger generations with different abilities, & began focusing on how she can use her social media platforms to spread awareness about Spina Bifida, as well as, empower the disabled community. By 2022, Autumn became a board member of the Rhode Island Parent Information Network, a nonprofit organization that helps provide resources to the disability community. During this time she became a student at College Unbound, working towards a bachelor's degree in Organizational Leadership and Change.

In 2016, the New York Times called Tom Ahern "one of America’s most sought-after creators of fund-raising messages." In 2021, UK guru Richard Radcliffe, added: "Tom Ahern is possibly the greatest non-profit copywriter on the planet." Tom consults with charities tiny and large ... from a bustling orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico ... to a children's hospital at one of the world's great universities (Stanford) ... to brand-name international charities like Save the Children ... to the amazing Indigenous-led Tomaquag Museum, now about to grow again. He has authored a half-dozen popular how-to books on donor communications and speaks internationally. He specializes in applying the discoveries of psychology and neuroscience to the day-to-day business of attracting and retaining donors.

Stone masonry is a Spears family tradition - an art, craft, and science handed down from generation to generation for over 60 years. This tradition was passed to Craig at the early age of fifteen. He now has more than 30 years of experience working with natural stone masonry. He is a skilled craftsmen who works with brick, cobblestone, pavers, and fieldstone to build stone walls, brick veneers, patios, walkways, fireplaces, and restore masonry in both residential and commercial settings. One of his most recent accomplishments was the Intertribal stone monument he built with his nephews, at the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery, honoring the legacy of Indigenous Veterans, who have been serving since the American Revolution. Craig is happy to have had the opportunity to be a part of this well deserved and long overdue recognition and honoring of our Indigenous Veterans.

For years, she has been a cultural guide and culture educator at the Tribe’s Indian Museum in Mashpee, and in 2004, led the art of making Wampanoag regalia as her educational part of a six-day festival celebrating the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, the newest Smithsonian Institution presence on the mall. In 2005, Mother Bear served as a master artist in a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program after which she began on a full-time basis creating traditional eastern woodlands regalia for hundreds of tribal members, both from Mashpee and from other tribes as well. Mother Bear is known for her giving. Her generosity shows up in many ways. One day she’s at your door with a native fleece blanket, or the next time she’s gifting you with pine tree oil. She comes by her nature to serve honestly as her entire family’s legacy has been one of spiritual, cultural, and civic duty both within the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal community and politically with the Town of Mashpee as well. She speaks often of her great grandmother, Mabel Pocknett Avant, who influenced her traditional ways and occasionally will share thoughts like “The most important lessons she taught me were it is better to give than receive and as long as you do the right thing and give thanks for what you have, the Creator and Ancestors will take care of you.

Allyson LaForge is a PhD candidate in American Studies at Brown University. She has spent the past five years as a volunteer at the Tomaquag Museum, where she facilitated an inventory of over 10,000 Indigenous cultural Belongings. These Belongings are now under intellectual control for the first time in the museum’s history, meaning the museum can steward knowledge about them – descriptions, creators, locations, photographs, nomenclature, and more – through Indigenous data sovereignty. Her dissertation project, “Materializing Futurity: Networks of Native Organizing in the Northeast,” examines the role Indigenous material culture played during transnational Native Northeast movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, led by coalitions of Native leaders, activists, artists, craftspeople, and writers who worked to resist settler colonialism and ensure Indigenous futurity. Weaving together material culture histories, “Materializing Futurity” features the stories of Passamaquoddy birchbark artist and leader Tomah Joseph, Odawa quillwork artist and leader Margaret Blackbird Boyd, and Narragansett and Wampanoag knowledge-keeper and educator Princess Red Wing. Their resurgent work sustained Indigenous homelands, sovereignty, and knowledge. Allyson’s current exhibit at Mystic Seaport Museum, “Restor(y)ing Indigenous Collections,” features the art and knowledge of artists Brittney Peauwe Wunnepog Walley (Nipmuc) and Julia Marden (Aquinnah Wampanoag).