10/01/2026 with Rebecca Lee Kunz and Jen Loren

Two Cherokee Nation sisters join me today to honor their Great-Great Aunt, poet and Native American Rights activist Ruth Muskrat. Together they have written and illustrated a gorgeous book, Ruth Muskrat and The So-Called Indian Problem. Jen Loren’s gifted storytelling and Rebecca Lee Kunz’ superb illustrations accurately detail their Aunt’s lifelong courage and passion during the time that Native peoples all across the country were being marched off their own land and forced to assimilate. Muskrat’s most well-known poem, The Trail of Tears, chronicles this wretched time. Her tireless work resulted in meeting with President Calvin Coolidge and his wife, beginning the push to give Native peoples the vote, though that did not complete until 1965.

Rebecca Lee Kunz and Jen Loren will be launching Ruth Muskrat and The So-Called Indian Problem at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts on Cathedral Place at 3:00 pm Saturday November 14.