Shirley Sneve
ICT
Susan Davis Feller, the President and CEO of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (ATALM) died June 18, 2026 in Oklahoma. She was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and was a founding director of ATALM.
Her family said she passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of June 18, less than two weeks after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer, complicated by strokes. She was 71.
The ATALM Board of Directors issued this statement June 22: “It is with heavy hearts that we share the unexpected passing of our Founding President and CEO, Susan Feller.”
“For more than two decades, Susan dedicated her life to strengthening and supporting Tribal archives, libraries, museums, language programs, and cultural institutions. Through her vision, determination, and unwavering commitment, she founded the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM), transforming a simple but powerful idea into a national organization serving Indigenous communities across the United States and beyond.”
ATALM Chief Operating Officer, Melissa Brodt, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, will serve as Interim President/CEO. Having worked side by side with Susan since ATALM’s founding, Melissa brings a strong understanding of the organization and will guide ATALM forward with the support of the Board and staff, according to the board statement.
Board Chairman Walter Echo-Hawk, Pawnee Nation, founded the organization, along with Feller in 2010. Echo-Hawk said ATALM was Feller’s vision. Echo-Hawk is a past President of the Pawnee Nation Business Council, author, attorney, jurist, and legal scholar. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He authored “The Sea of Grass” (2018); “In The Light Of Justice” (2013); “In the Courts of the Conqueror” (2010); and “Battlefields and Burial Grounds” (1994).
“She guided and was the moving force for that organization down to the present day and her untimely death,” Echo-Hawk said. “That organization has filled an unmet gap in Indian Country by providing a needed place for people in the field of tribal archives, libraries and museums where they could come together and learn from each other and address current issues and professional training, and just a place to network,
Its annual Fall conferences often sold out, with more than 2,000 Tribal leaders in the arts, archives, museums and library fields in attendance. Always held in conjunction with area tribes, it featured numerous field trips to various cultural and historic sites.
(Courtesy photo)
ATALM board member W. Richard West, Jr. said Indian Country has lost a great champion. West is Founding Director and Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and President and CEO Emeritus, Ambassador, Native Communities, of the Autry Museum of the American West. He is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
“She shaped the Association of Tribal, Archives, Libraries and Museums into what I consider to be the most accomplished Native-run organization dealing with art and culture in the United States. It was that intangible essence of Susan Feller that I think we really will always remember her for, and the selflessness of how she operated,” West, Jr. said. “The giving spirit. The spirit of the giveaway that typified how she looked at life in Indian country–that we come to this place and this earth in order to make sure that we always keep that circle of giving going in Indian country. And it was that spirit, I think, that informed what she did professionally with such competency. It leaves a great gap.”
Feller’s more current projects included directing the “Going Home Project”, a Mellon Foundation funded project to help Native communities implement the return of non-NAGPRA items, the “Native Arts & Cultures Project”, a Ford Foundation funded project to build local support for Native artists and culture bearers, the “Archive of Recorded Native American History”, a Doris Duke Foundation funded effort to digitally repatriate recordings held by non-tribal institutions, the “Improving Broadband Access and Digital Inclusion in Native Communities Project”, an Institute of Museum and Library Services effort to build model Maker Spaces and technology labs tailored to the needs of Native communities, the “Culture Builds Communities Project”, an IMLS-funded effort to provide training and resources to Native communities seeking to build cultural facilities, the “Sustaining Humanities in Native Communities Grant Program” a $4.3 million regrant project with the National Endowment of the Humanities, and the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums that annually attracts more than 1,500 attendees.
Feller also worked with the White House International Repatriation Council on an initiative to build bridges between USA-based tribes and international collecting institutions. She recently completed “Sustaining and Advancing Indigenous Cultures,” a three-year study of the needs of cultural institutions and was working with a national advisory group to implement identified action items.
Feller expressed her preference for “no embalming, no funeral”. She would prefer those who wish to honor her memory do something they enjoy…remembering her while doing it. Her exact words were “have a party.”
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