Reaves Fred Nahwooksy was a cultural liaison for Native American communities and museums. Throughout his life, Fred (as he was known) worked tirelessly to find ways to engage Native Americans in the research, organization, and presentation of their own traditions in regional and national programs, exhibitions, and publications. He was also instrumental in establishing organizations and creating forums dedicated to cultural sustainability throughout Indian Country. 

Nahwooksy was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Cherokee cultural activist and specialist on American Indian affairs Clydia Nahwooksy and the Rev. Dr. Reaves Fred Nahwooks (Comanche-Kiowa). He attended the University of Oklahoma and the University of Maryland, graduating with a BS in government and politics in 1988. Nahwooksy’s earliest encounter with folklife research and presentation in a museum was at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife (now called Smithsonian Folklife Festival). At the 1976 Festival celebrating the Nation’s Bicentennial, he presented Comanche tradition bearers, an experience that led him to a rich career dedicated to promoting cultural formats for Native Americans to represent themselves. He later joined the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs (now the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage) as Festival technical director providing a unique perspective on the importance of field research for presenting traditions in their physical context. 

As Senior Advisor to the Associate Director of Museum Programs for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Nahwooksy applied the Folklife Festival’s principles and practices to his work in developing cultural exchanges, revitalization and sustainability projects, exhibits, and public programs with Native Americans across the continent. He contributed to developing a widely traveled Code Talker exhibit and a short film honoring the use of Native languages by soldiers from over two dozen Native American tribes during the world wars, and the legacy of Native warriors’ heroic use of their languages.  Nahwooksy was the heart and soul behind the Smithsonian IndiVisible project, celebrating African & Indian heritage in the Americas.
After he left NMAI, Nahwooksy founded and served as executive director of the nonprofit Indian Country Development Corporation. He continued to share his museum expertise as a development consultant for numerous tribal museums and as an economic development planner and grant writer. Among his publications, exhibitions, and public programs are:

Native American Code Talkers Exhibition, National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Air and Space (2009)

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas Exhibition: National Museum of the American Indian and National Museum of African American History and Culture (2009)

Who Stole the Tee Pee, edited by Richard Hill, Sr. and Fred Nahwooksy. Oklahoma: Atlatl, Inc. (2000)

Olivia Cadaval