Founding Director, Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, W. Richard West Jr. has one-word for efforts to shackle the Smithsonian – RESIST

Though home for him is now Los Angeles, Rick and his brother Jim grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as citizens of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Rick is also considered a favorite son of New Hampshire, where he and his brother Jim and their father W. Richard West Sr. (Wah Pah Nah Yah) were campers and staff at Camp Mowglis, School of the Open on Newfound Lake.