Indigenous Art and Activism

Seth Thomas Sutton is an Emmy-nominated Métis artist, scholar, author, and activist. He holds Masters degrees in Visual and Critical Studies from Kendall College of Art and Design and is currently chair of the Arts and Humanities Department at Montcalm Community College. Sutton is a member of the Native American Advisory Council at Grand Valley State University and is also the head of the Sugar Council for Montcalm Community College.

Sutton has contributed to two collaborative documentary film projects for WGVU. In 2017, the full-length film wiinwaa niizhaasing (We the 7th) was nominated for an Emmy Award, and in 2021, the documentary series Shaping Narratives was nominated for two. These projects highlight West Michigan’s vibrant Indigenous communities, along with their artwork, lifeways, social and cultural activism, and food reclamation. Sutton was among the first Indigenous-based journalists to document and report on the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in Standing Rock. His first full-length publication, The Deconstruction of Chief Blackhawk: A Critical Analysis of Mascots & the Visual Rhetoric of the Indian, was published in 2021.