JESSICA MATTEN
CLAIM TO FAME Costar with Jason Momoa in Frontier, associate producer and star of Tribal, star in the Indigenous-centric television series Dark Winds, the Lebron James-produced Netflix movie Rez Ball, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, this actress, activist, and producer is paving the way for young and emerging Indigenous talent.
WHY SHE INSPIRES US Beautiful and extremely talented, Matten devotes herself to a higher purpose. Recently Matten cofounded the Counting Coup Indigenous Film Academy in partnership with Old Sun Community College at Siksika Nation, Blackfoot territory in Canada. “My goal with the film institute is to continue to create direct employment opportunities and innovative first-of-its-kind mental health and wellness programs integrated into the program,” she says. “Our program saved 15 lives on a Native reserve last summer, and [it] will save more lives on a larger scale.”
IN HER OWN WORDS “My entire life’s purpose is to empower Indigenous youth and create true impact in the healing of Indigenous peoples.” —W.W.
AMBER-DAWN BEAR
CLAIM TO FAME The fashion curator of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market is giving Native designers a one-of-a-kind platform.
WHY SHE INSPIRES US Hailing from Canada’s Siksika Nation, she created the fan-favorite SWAIA Indigenous Fashion Show back in 2014. Today, it’s one of the most prestigious runways for notable Native designers like Orlando Dugi, Loren Aragon, and Jamie Okuma—the first Indigenous designer named to the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
“Native American artists were really pivotal to having an American fashion that was distinct from European fashion,” she told The Met. “It’s an interesting history that is often not addressed. For it to be erased is really harmful. And so Indigenizing fashion to me is the representation of Native American art designers and their creativity.” —K.N.
CAROLINE LAPORTE
CLAIM TO FAME A legal eagle, she’s associate judge at Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, director of Tribal Safe Housing at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and was previously the senior Native affairs advisor to NIWRC and an attorney and judicial advisor to the tribal court of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
WHY SHE INSPIRES US An immediate descendant of Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, LaPorte
