"Sonny Skyhawk, Sicangu Lakota, is a veteran Hollywood actor and now author of “Ask N NDN,” a new feature on this site, in which he will attempt to answer questions great and small about Indian culture and current issues. He tells us that the decision to become an advocate and an ambassador for Indian country, as he has been for decades, was “a no brainer.” Representing his people “is what I was taught as a young man,” he says. “My mother always made sure I stayed grounded, and she insisted that whatever career I chose, that I give back to my people in some way. I am not a doctor, a scholar, or an expert on anything; I don’t hold any professional degrees, but I do possess a degree in the experience of life, and from that I have learned humility, a good deal of wisdom and a whole lot of courage, and that is what I have to offer my people.”

Skyhawk has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild for the last thirty-five years. He was instrumental in forming the first American Indian Committee at the Guild, and later, after years and countless meetings, was honored to served as the first Chairman of the President’s Task Force for American Indians. He started similar committees at the Writers’ Guild of America and the Directors’ Guild of America, all for the purpose of addressing concerns about portrayals of the American Indian in film and television. He is the Founder of American Indians in Film & Television (AIFT), which has secured Memorandums of Understanding with the four major networks, ABC, NBC FOX and CBS."

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Sonny Skyhawk on His New Column, ‘Ask N NDN’ (Indian Country Today 11/16)