Shirley Hill Witt

Shirley Hill Witt (born April 17, 1934) She obtained her Ph.D. in evolutionary anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1969. Witt has published extensively on Native Americans in addition to being a poet and fiction writer. She was a founding member of the National Indian Youth Council and worked with them from 1961 to 1964. She also served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

In 1985, Witt joined the U.S. diplomatic corps. As an employee of the U.S. Information Agency, she worked in South America (Venezuela and Paraguay) and Africa (Somalia and Zambia). She held positions of Foreign Service Officer, Cultural Affairs Officer, Binational Center Director, and deputy director of U.S.I.A.

Activism Witt was active in the Indian rights movement during the 1960s. In 1961, she co-founded the National Indian Youth Council and served as its first vice president. Soon after, she joined protestors in the Puget Sound region in the fight to secure fishing rights guaranteed by treaty. Later that decade, she partnered with Council co-founder Herbert Blatchford to revitalize the Gallup Indian Center in New Mexico, where she was completing her PhD.

While at Colorado College, Dr. Hill, who preferred to be called by her maiden name, organized a protest through her class consisting of a group of CC women students who invaded El Pomar, the sports complex at Colorado College, and occupied one of the men's locker rooms as a protest for the lack of facilities for women. Hill taught the only class offered specifically for women, called "the Women's Course" in CC's anthropology department.

Published works Witt, Shirley Hill and Steiner, Stan, The Way: An Anthology of American Indian Literature, Vintage Books, 1972, Witt, Shirley Hill, The Tuscaroras, Crowell-Collier Press, 1972, Witt, Shirley Hill and Ballejos, Gilberto Chávez, El Indio Jesús: A Novel, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000, Witt, Shirley Hill and Ballejos, Gilberto Chávez, Tomóchic Blood, AuthorHouse, 2006, Shreve, Bradley G., Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism (foreword), University of Oklahoma Press, 2012,