I am currently the President and CEO of the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California, and also serve as the Founding Director and Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Formally trained as an attorney, I was a member of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in its Washington, D.C. office and subsequently a member of Gover, Stetson, Williams & West, P.C. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My professional life always has focused on legal and cultural issues relating to the Native peoples and communities in the United States speficially and across the globe more generally.