A Dogrib (Tlicho) Dene from Fort Smith, NWT, Richard Van Camp is an internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author. He is the author of the novel, The Lesser Blessed, a collection of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern, and two children's books with Cree artist, George Littlechild. His new baby book: Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns is the official selection of the Books for BC Babies program and is being given to every newborn baby in British Columbia in 2008. His new novel, Blessing Wendy, will be released in the fall of 2009 through Orca Book Publishers. Richard was awarded Storyteller of the Year for both Canada and the US by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.

Pablita Velarde is from Santa Clara Pueblo. Velarde learned much about the traditional ways from her grandmother, a medicine woman, and her father, a respected story teller. In 1924 she attended St. Catherine's Indian School in Santa Fe and in 1932, the Santa Fe Indian School where she developed her painting skills. She has painted many murals representing the Pueblo way of life. Her art work can be seen in the Museum of New York's Hall of Ethnology, the De Young Museum of Dan Francisco, and many southwestern galleries.

Sharon Helen Venne (Old woman Bear) is Cree but, through marriage, a citizen of the Blood Tribe in Treaty Seven. She has played an active role in the national and international struggles of many Indigenous Peoples, including the Lubicon Cree and Dineh Nation. Sharon has a Masters of Law degree from the University of Alberta, and is presently a doctorial candidate, writing a thesis on treaty rights of Indigenous Peoples and international law.

David Villaseñor was part Otomi Indian and part Mexican and was educated at Cruz Galvez, an Industrial and Graphic Arts School in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. He moved to the United States at age 16 and, for the first time, witnessed a Navajo medicine man create a sand painting. Villaseñor became an expert sand painter, artist, and sculptor and led a successful career lecturing on the explanation and exposition of Indian sandpainting. He had one-man shows in 1951-52 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Judith Volborth, Mountain Leaf born in 1955, in an Apache/Comanche poet born in New York City.  She studied at the University of California at Los Angeles, where she honed her skills in prose, poetry and particularly, haiku, a Japanese form of impressionistic free verse.  Tribal themes dominate her work, and the trickster figure of Coyote is a frequent subject.  Though traditional motifs are common in her work, so are images of strong, modern Native women and their unique struggles.