WES STUDI, Featured actor for National Native American Heritage Month

Studi at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, December 7, 2008 by
DragonflyDC at en.wikipedia

Wesley "Wes" Studi was born on December 17, 1947 in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma.  He is an American actor of Cherokee ancestry, who has earned notability for his portrayal of Native Americans in film.  In addition to being an actor, he is an activist, a musician, an author and translator, and a sculptor.

^{Studi began acting in Tulsa in the 1980s:}

"Well, I got into community theatre sort of on a lark. I was looking for something else to do. I had been divorced back in the Tahlequah area and I went back to the Tulsa area and some friends had established a theatre company and asked if I wanted to go to some workshops. I had nothing to do so I did." (1)

He has appeared in several Academy Award®-winning films, such as Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans, the award-winning Geronimo: An American Legend and the Academy Award®-nominated film The New World. He portrayed General Linus Abner in the NBC series Kings, Major Ridge in the PBS series We Shall Remain, and Eytukan in James Cameron's box office blockbuster Avatar.  Seventy-six titles are listed in his actor profile on imdb.com .

Studi has had many narration roles in documentary films and animated features.  Fluent in Cherokee and committed to the preservation of endangered Native American languages, he is sought for roles requiring speech in Cherokee and other American Indian languages.  He is an honorary board member of the Indigenous Language Institute, located on the same campus as the Santa Fe Indian School, just up Cerrillos from SFUAD.

He is the bass player in a local Santa Fe band, Firecat of Discord .  
 He lives in Santa Fe with his family...stay alert, you might see him around!
 
For his contributions to his community, Wes Studi is a 2004 recipient of The New Mexican's "10 Who Made A Difference."(2)   The Actor is using his star power to keep Native languages from dying.

Studi has received many honors and awards for his performances.  You can see a list of them on his website.  



(1) Meeting Magua: A Wes Studi Interview.  http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo06018.html
(2) "10 Who Made a Difference," The Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved November 13, 2012. http://www.santafenewmexican.com/the10/ .