The Santa Fe-based Institute of American Indian Arts recently named Shelly Lowe as the tribal college’s next president. She’s a Navajo from Ganado, Arizona, and made history as the first Indigenous chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Joe Biden.
“So when the position opened, I thought this would be a wonderful time to get back into the work that I love doing,” said Lowe, “and back home to, you know, where I love being, the Southwest.”
She’s been away for 18 years and has missed higher education. Lowe stepped into her latest role in August, amid calls by the Trump administration to slash the prestigious Southwestern arts school’s federal funding entirely by about $14 million.
“We still have an uphill battle,” added Lowe, saying her new home remains financially afloat for now. “We still need to get it across the line and approved. We have been forward funded for this year, which is great, but we’re going to keep working on it.”
Three-fourths of the institute’s annual operating budget comes from Congress.
The administration has also done away with grants by Lowe’s former federal agency to document boarding schools through oral history projects in Arizona and across Indian Country.
“But that work is not going to stop,” added Lowe, “and I think that there are organizations now that know this is an important task and are going to step up to the plate and repair that past.”
Those now-cancelled awards were announced a few months before Biden formally apologized in Arizona – while visiting the Gila River Indian Community – for that U.S. boarding school history.
Hear the full conversation with Shelly Lowe, president of Institute of American Indian Arts
KJZZ senior broadcast field correspondent Gabriel Pietrorazio caught up with Institute of American Indian Arts President Shelly Lowe in August at the annual Santa Fe Indian Arts Market.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: I really appreciate your time. Dr. Lowe, and just wondering [if] you could talk a bit about what decided for you to come here and be part of the Institute of American Indian Arts.
SHELLY LOWE: Thanks for that. It’s a good question. I’ve been outside of the Southwest for about 18 years. My work has always been in higher education. I did the NEH gig for three years, absolutely amazing, wonderful learning opportunity, but my heart has always been in working in higher education. So when the position opened, I thought this would be a wonderful time to get back into the work that I love doing, and back home to, you know, where I love being.
I love being in the Southwest. I’m super excited to work with the students. I’ve seen the alum that come out of [IAIA], the work that they have done, and I just think they make waves globally. And it's amazing to be able to come and support them in the work they’re going to do.
PIETRORAZIO: You know, I was curious, was there any lesson you learned working in Washington at the federal level, and then bringing that here now, with your focus on the arts humanities, with what you’re doing now as president?
LOWE: So I think there were two things that I really learned. Part of my experience was constantly trying to remind our agency, but also the federal agencies and partners that I worked with that Indian Country, Indigenous people – tend to be very underfunded. They don’t get as many resources, particularly federal funding, and in many cases, getting tribal communities to be aware of what’s out there and what kind of funds are available is one part of the problem.
The other part is getting federal agencies to know how to have relationships and how to present themselves and their opportunities to tribal communities. The second thing I learned is how important relationships are, how important it is to be on the ground, to be talking to the people who are doing the work, the really important work in their communities, maintaining those relationships.
It’s not just about getting to know them and letting them know what you can offer and what your opportunities are, but making sure that you maintain those relationships, because they’re the people that are doing the work and are reaching in ways that the federal government often isn’t able to do.
PIETRORAZIO: You’re stepping into this role at a very tumultuous time with the federal funding issues. I understand that some of that has been resolved. I imagine [it’s] a very interesting onboarding experience for you with the cuts facing tribal education.
LOWE: You are correct. [IAIA] is congressionally chartered, so we get our bulk of our operational funds through Congress, through congressional appropriations. We are one of three higher ed institutions, so Gallaudet [University] is the other, and Howard University. But all higher education institutions right now are really kind of nervous about how things are going to move forward right.
Funding for research is going to be something that we’re going to have to look closely at, just operations and how we do our work. But I think, and I always try to tell people, it doesn’t seem like it, but it’s also an exciting time, because there are many opportunities now to kind of step back, to look at how we have been operating higher education, how we’ve been administering it, and think, what are the things that we can do now to make some changes?
Because we have this opportunity, if you know things are going to kind of be dismantled a little bit, what is it going to look like when we build it back up again? And how do we ensure that we do it in ways that fit our needs, with more Indigenous knowledge, with more Indigenous practices, thinking about culture first, and that’s particularly true for tribal colleges and for IAIA, right?
We have strong support from the Senate in terms of our funding. You know, we still have an uphill battle. We still need to get it across the line and approved. We have been forward funded for this year, which is great, but we’re going to keep working on it. We’re going to keep talking to our supporters, and you know, we encourage everyone who loves [IAIA] and the work that we do, call up your congressional members and let them know, because we’re doing great work. And our alumni are all over the country.
PIETRORAZIO: And speaking of your alumni, we’re here in Santa Fe at the Indian Market. Been here last two days, walking around, we see a lot of the red and white flags here, a lot of proud alum representing their alma mater.
LOWE: Right? It’s a little overwhelming, but like I was saying, the really exciting thing is our alum, they’re potters – they’re jewelers – they’re painters – they’re sculptors – they’re making films and documentaries, and they’re making fashion.
And they’re everywhere.
Right now, we have our students here at their little pop-up tables in front of MoCNA, the Museum of Contemporary Native American Art, and it’s just amazing to think how much art and how much talent comes through [IAIA], and then you see it all here as you walk around.
PIETRORAZIO: I have to ask, is there anything that’s your favorite that you’ve seen this weekend? I know you’ve been out and about running around to all your obligations, but anything stand out to you?
LOWE: There’s always favorites. I’m a little partial. Sometimes there’s a Navajo woman who’s got a lot of Navajo dresses and skirts, and I was like, “Oh, I need to get some of those.” But she said she’s coming to our market in December, so I’ll wait and get something there. I’m a big fan of pumpkins, and so I saw one of our students had a pair of beaded pumpkin earrings.
PIETRORAZIO: Very cool.
Shifting gears a bit, the last time I spoke to you was before the Biden boarding school apology. I know that you did a lot of work there, in helping guide Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and getting a lot of that across the finish line right in our backyard, Gila River Indian Community, just south of Phoenix. So it seems to me that work is not done yet?
LOWE: Well, I think that work, it was so important to get started, and I do attribute Deb Haaland, secretary at the time, for getting it started and providing us, NEH, an opportunity to be able to support it. Telling the story is one thing, right, and getting the history out there, acknowledging the past, and that’s what we do with humanities, right?
We look at difficult history, we tell the stories and we make it known to people. The next step really is and this is going to be ongoing, and it was some of the work that we were starting both with the Interior and NEH, and some of our partners, like Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, the repair part comes next, right, and the healing.
Communities are still trying to just grapple with this history, and they’re trying to help the elders who were in boarding schools. They’re trying to help their children, their grandchildren, right? And it’s going to be a long process. You know, we were at a point where we were trying to encourage communities to think about what they needed in terms of trying to start reparative work.
A lot of that has ended and is not available at the moment, but that work is not going to stop, and I think that there are organizations now that know this is an important task, and are going to step up to the plate and repair that past.
PIETRORAZIO: It seems institutions like yours are really going to be leaned on to fill in the gap, as you said, because the Trump administration is not moving forward with all the funding, from my understanding, relating to the NEH, the boarding school oral history projects when it came to those grants that were under your tenure. So I imagine that your students, your alum, will continue telling the story, and it will become even more important now than ever before.
LOWE: I think most definitely. You know, art and culture, those are our healing tools. Those are the things that we need to turn to and rely on. Our students are going to tell the stories in their own ways. But the important thing, too, is that our artists and our cultural keepers, our language keepers, they’re the ones that are going to tell the story of what’s happening right now and in the future.
They’re going to be able to say, you know, in 2025 things really shifted, and this was kind of a difficult time, and their stories are going to tell how we have gotten through it, right, and how we have moved forward and made things better. These young people are going to be the ones that are taking care of the future, and I’m excited to be here working with.
PIETRORAZIO: Dr. Shelly Lowe, president of IAIA, thank you so much for your time. Ahéhee’.
LOWE: Yeah, thank you. Ahéhee’.
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