James Pepper Henry

James Pepper Henry is a Native American museum director and vice-chairman of the Kaw Nation.^[1] He was the executive director of the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which opened on 18 September 2021.^[2]

On 17 April 2017, the Tulsa World reported that Henry had resigned from his position as executive director of Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum, effective 14 April 2017. Five days later, The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma City newspaper, revealed on 22 April 2017, that the AICCM had hired the former Gilcrease executive director as "director of the Indian Cultural Center (ICC) and chief executive officer of its foundation," starting June 19.^{[citation needed]}

Tulsa University announced that it had hired Henry as the executive director of Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, effective 1 March 2015. Henry had previously served as director and CEO of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, since 2013. Before going to the Heard, he had served for six years at the Anchorage Museum and ten years as an associate director for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). He was the founding director of the Kanza Museum in Kaw City, Oklahoma.^{[citation needed]}

He was the first enrolled Native American to head the Heard Museum and is the first Native American, other than Thomas Gilcrease (Muscogee Creek) himself, to head the Gilcrease Museum.^[3]