Commissioners Biographical Information

Chairperson Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne Arapaho) is an accomplished and self-taught master artist who uses a variety of media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, metal, clay, and wood. He is also an award winning artist, including being named The Honored One in 2005 by the Red Earth Festival, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His paintings and sculpture include themes of tradition, warriors, the Cheyenne people, and tribulation and humanity's essence. He has served as a consultant on Native American art and culture to many organizations in the State of Oklahoma, and has been inducted in the Southern Cheyenne Chief's Lodge as one of their traditional Peace Chiefs. With over 42 years in law enforcement experience, his is currently employed as the police forensic artist by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and has served as the Assistant Director and Interim Director for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in Oklahoma City.

Chairperson Harvey Pratt received a degree in police science from Oklahoma State University.

Commissioner Rose Fosdick is an enrolled member of the Nome Eskimo Community, the local tribal government. She is Vice President of Kawerak, Inc.'s Natural Resources Division, which has seven programs that emphasize resources unique to the Bering Strait region: the Eskimo Heritage Program, Eskimo Walrus Commission, Fisheries Program, Subsistence Resources Program, Land Management Services, Social Science and Reindeer Herders Association. She serves on the board of the Bering Strait Inuit Council, a grassroots organization which sells Alaska Native art at venues. She also enjoys learning how to sew using traditional Inuit clothing patterns.

Commissioner Fosdick received her B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1990.

Charles Harwood is Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, in Washington, D.C., and formerly the Director of the FTC's Northwest Regional Office, in Seattle. The Bureau of Consumer Protection oversees the FTC's national efforts to prevent unfair and deceptive advertising and marketing practices through law enforcement and through consumer and business education. While Director of the Northwest Regional Office, Mr. Harwood oversaw the FTC's consumer protection and antitrust law enforcement and public education activities in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and the northern Rocky Mountain states. For over ten years, the Northwest Regional Office has worked on campaigns to educate consumers and businesses about laws and practices that help ensure truthful and accurate marketing and sale of Indian and Alaska Native arts and crafts.

Mr. Harwood is an attorney and a member of the Oregon State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Whitman College in 1980 and his J.D. from Willamette University in 1983.

Commissioner Ruthe Blalock Jones (Shawnee/Delaware/Peoria) is Director Emeritus at Bacone College, Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she has been an Associate Professor of Art since 1979. Ms. Blalock Jones works in a variety of media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pen and ink. She generally adheres to a traditional two-dimensional "flat" style, and the subjects of her paintings derive from her personal experiences. Her professional and artistic accomplishments include serving on the Oklahoma Governor's Advisory Committee on the Status of Women, receiving the Oklahoma Governor's Arts and Education Award in 1993, induction into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1995, receiving the Dick West Award in 2000 from Bacone College, and being honored with the Spirit of the Heard Award in 2008 at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.

Ms. Blalock Jones was recently named the Honored One for the 2011 Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, a prestigious award given to master Native American artists.

Commissioner Ruthe Blalock Jones received an A.A. from Bacone College in 1970, a B.A. in fine arts from the University of Tulsa in 1972, and a M.A. from Northeastern State University in 1989.

Commissioner Vi Colombe (Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma) is an accomplished and award winning self-taught quilt maker who has lived in Mission, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation for the past 45 years. Her master of design and appreciation of textiles is evident in each of her quilts which incorporates a traditional "Lone Star", brilliant colors, and unusual fabrics and patterns. Her quilts have been featured in a wide range of exhibitions and competitions, such as the National Quilt Museum, Paduca, Kentucky, The South Dakota Governor's Fourth and Third Biennial Art Exhibits, Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, Gallup, New Mexico. She has also taught the art of paper piecing and "Lone Star" quilt designs through various venues, including the American Quilters Society. In 2006 she was a recipient of the highly regarded Bush Foundation Artist Grant.

Commissioner Colombe attended the Gloria Lavone Fashion Design School in San Francisco, California.

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