Rhonda Anderson

Rhonda Anderson is Iñupiaq - Athabascan from Alaska. Her Native enrollment village is Kaktovik. Her life work most importantly is as a Mother, as well as a classically trained Herbalist, Silversmith, and activist. She works as an educator within area schools and the 5 colleges near her home in Massachusetts. Rhonda has sat on several Indigenous panels and roundtables to discuss how to implement the Hyde Amendment within all IHS institutions across the United States, how to better educate Native students in Massachusetts, issues regarding Native teen drug and alcohol use, land acknowledgments, land back movement, Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, and reproductive rights. Her activism ranges from removal of mascots, Water Protector, Indigenous identity, and protecting her traditional homelands in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from extractive industry.

“Vital. Vibrant. Visible: Indigenous Identity Through Portraiture” is an ongoing collection and exhibit of portraits of native peoples of New England, curated by Rhonda, to bring awareness to contemporary Indigenous identity.

Rhonda has been recognized for her work by the Massachusetts State Senate and The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as a 2021 Commonwealth Heroine and is the recipient of the 2022 Berkshire County NAACP Freedom Fund award.

Rhonda is Western Massachusetts Commissioner on Indian Affairs, founder and Co-Director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center and the Native Youth Empowerment Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Council for the New England Foundation for the Arts. Rhonda is also representing Ohketeau as a Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts Board Member, and has been appointed by the governor to sit on the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Governing Board.

Larry Spotted Crow Mann

Larry Spotted Crow Mann is a nationally acclaimed author, and citizen of the Nipmuc Tribe of Massachusetts. He is an award winning writer, poet, cultural educator, Traditional Story Teller, tribal drummer/dancer and motivational speaker involving youth sobriety, cultural and environmental awareness. He has served as a board member of the Nipmuk Cultural Preservation, which is an organization set up to promote the cultural, social and spiritual needs of Nipmuc people as well as an educational resource of Native American studies. Mann also serves as a Review Committee Member, at The Native American Poets Project at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.

He travels throughout the United States, Canada and parts of Europe to schools, colleges, pow wows and other organizations sharing the music, culture and history of Nipmuc people. He has also given lectures at universities throughout New England on issues ranging from Native American Sovereignty to Identity.

Larry is a founder and Co-Director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center and the Native Youth Empowerment Foundation. He is also the first Native American to sing the opening honor song and land acknowledgement at the 2021 Boston Marathon starting line, and the recipient of the 2021 Indigenous Peoples Award of the Berkshire County Branch of the NAACP.

Tomantha Sylvester
Resident Artist, Community Advocacy & Native Youth Outreach

Tomantha is a multidisciplinary storyteller (actor, musician, songwriter, playwright, beader) residing in Massachusetts. She believes that storytelling is a practical foundation to healing, joy, and knowledge. “Language and stories play a significant role in our world, and have the power to shift and change our realities. We are constantly surrounded by images and language. The type of language we’re using, the stories we are being told, and who they are being told by are critical when shaping a world of truth and connection”. She draws together traditional Ojibwe knowledge systems, along with scientific and philosophical inquiry in her work as an Art and Survival Fellow through Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative and Double Edge Theatre. Through her roles as Co- Director of the Anishinaabe Theater Exchange, Resident Artist through the Ohketeau Cultural Center and Ensemble Member of Double Edge Theatre, she works to illuminate the past, present, and future from the perspective of an Indigenous (Ojibwe) woman.

Tomantha holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lake Superior State University where she was also the recipient of the 2018 Female Leader in the Arts award. Her works Now You See Me and Something Else have had readings through the Anishinaabe Theater Exchange and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Her original solo piece, Something Else, has been performed at the Art of Acting Studio (CA) Double Edge Theatre (MA), and at Georgetown University (DC). She is a Miranda Family Fellow through the National Theater Institute.

Tracy Loving Medicine Eyes Ramos

Tracy is a citizen of the Nipmuc Tribe, the original People of Central Massachusetts, and acts as Community Outreach Associate for Ohketeau. A wife and mother of three adult daughters, she was born in Putnam, CT, and lived on her family’s homestead in Woodstock, CT in her early years. Raised in New York City, Tracy returned to Massachusetts in 1990 and currently resides on ancestral Nipmuc land. Tracy has always made a conscious effort to be involved in the Indigenous community including powwows, regalia making, beading, being a member of the Nipmuc women’s group, and continuing to preserve our traditional language. She believes there is nothing else like being in community with other Indigenous People and contributing to the preservation of our culture and traditions.

Tracy has a Master's degree in Public Health and continues to work on research pertaining to the connection of intergenerational trauma and health disparities of the Indigenous population. She will use her knowledge of structural bias, social inequities, and racism to assist in improving the health equity of the Indigenous communities she serves.

Tracy is a Board of Director of The Women of Color Health Equity Collective where she serves on various committees as well as co-facilitate cultural humility and race equity training. The Collective works with local organizations to help bring awareness to systemic and institutional racism. This work is helping to change the narrative of how organizations approach, in particular, marginalized populations in the work they do.

Tracy pledges to continue to support and serve the Indigenous population at large and vows to always apply a public health approach in the work she does.

Anoki Matoonas Mann

Anoki Matoonas Mann is an enrolled citizen of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe in Massachusetts.

Anoki was born into his tribal culture and grew up singing on the family tribal drum, the Quabbin Lake Singers.  His photo is on the cover of the award-winning novel The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving.

He is also a two-time New England Junior Olympic Boxing Champion. In addition to singing on the tribal drum, Anoki enjoys writing his music and playing acoustic guitar. As a graduate of Bartlett High School, he values education and culture and looks to continue to expand in both.  One of the premiere and exclusive projects he is working on at Ohketeau is part of his own Docu- film entitled “Anoki.”

This thought-provoking film explores the life and experiences of a Native child growing up in Southern New England with all its complexities and contradictions.

Reina Antunez Mercado

Reina Antunez Mercado looks forward to the array of possibilities to serve and support as she continues to learn from her Elders and Indigenous relatives through her work with the Ohketeau Cultural Center. She is currently a co-facilitator of the Ohketeau Cultural Center’s monthly Women’s Gathering and took part in co-creating the Indigenous Youth Talent Exposition in the Summer of 2023. 

She is a member of Higuayagua Taino of the Caribbean and proudly represents her Taino community, and works diligently to provide opportunities for learning and connection. She is an Ehibu’no (guide) and co-founder of a weekly Book Club focusing on Taino subject matter that has been meeting since 2020. Additionally, since 2021, Reina is the co-founder and co-facilitator for the monthly Higuayagua Women’s Circle, which focuses on all the nuances of being a Taino woman in today’s colonial society. Reina serves as one of two Matunhero (advisors) to the Kasike of her Yukayeke for the Massachusetts region. 

Reina is attending a graduate program to achieve her master’s in social work to become a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW). Reina’s volunteer efforts, community relationships, and her over twenty years of extensive training in trauma-informed care, domestic violence, reflective practice, lifelong development, group work, youth work, and an array of evidence-based programming are a testament to her dedication and passion for her work. As a mother of four, from toddler to young adult, she understands the need to create a more culturally humble and inclusive society that will benefit future generations.

Gabrielle "Willow" Daly

Gabrielle "Willow" Daly is a Nipmuc Tribal citizen. She has strong ties to her ancestors and continues to walk the path they laid before her to revive the traditions of her people. She is a member of the Nipmuc Women’s Group. Together, they organize and attend community events and pow-wows, and meet monthly to collect medicines and other herbs and exchange recipes that revolve around traditional foods. She is learning the Nipmuc language to deepen her understanding of her people’s ways and keep the language alive culturally as part of the language resurgence.

A coordinator for the Eastern Woodlands Rematriation, Willow administrates the local food purchase assistance (LFPA), food share project. This project broadens access to fresh, nutritional, and culturally relevant foods for tribal families in Massachusetts by actively engaging producers and consumers in conversations and solutions for sustainable and equitable food systems. Through this project, Willow participates in the harvest and processing of food that goes to solve food instability in our Native communities.

Additionally, Willow attends pow-wows and workshops, vends for Native-led company Four Winds One Breath, and works with other indigenous organizations, representing them at community events.

Devoted to her People, she has pledged to continue walking the Red Road for those who have passed, those who are present, and those who are yet to come.

Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed

Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed [She/They](Nipmuc) is a Massachusetts-based actor, singer/songwriter, playwright, and director. Before the pandemic, she produced free Shakespeare in the Park at Look Park for five years under the name “Billy Shakes Free Shakespeare.” She graduated from Umass Amherst with degrees in Theatre and English and a certificate from the five colleges in Native Studies. Most notably, Jasmine has written, produced, and acted in a musical about her tribe, the Nipmuc people of Massachusetts. This musical was titled 1675 and told the story of King Philip’s War and the tragedy of Deer Island. Recently, Jasmine has performed in collaboration with the Wampanoag Nation and Theatre Royal Plymouth in the UK. In the past, she has done work with Double Edge Theatre, Safe Harbors, Silverthorne, and WAM, and is currently working with Plays in Place, writing as a “Pulling at the Roots” playwright with Historic Northampton.