Harper-Bellis
Mary Harper-Bellis has served as the President of the National American Metis Association for the past three years. She is the second person to serve in this capacity since NAMA was originally formed in 1978 and she spearheaded the re-organization of NAMA with Executive Director, Billy
Brady.
Mary has worked in the fields of education and psychology for thirty
years and has based all of her work on the Earth science and spiritual
philosophy of the Medicine Wheels. She has a Master of Science degree
in Rehabilitation Counseling and is working on her Ph. D. in Educational
Psychology. She was a founding member and has served on the Board of Directors
of The Institute for Human Development, Comin' Home Residence for
Homeless Veterans, Project Success, VisionQuest, Inc., Chiricahua Health
Center, the Ramsey Canyon Foundation, and Wolfsong
Ranch Foundation.
As a teenager in the 1960s, Mary was a Civil Rights activist.
Today she would be called a transracially adopted Metis person but these
descriptions were not a part of her world as a young adult. After
earning degrees in psychology and special education, she worked directly
with children and their families for more than 20 years striving to help
people develop their own identities and their own voices. She is now dedicated
to working for the rights of all of Earth's People - especially our Metis
children. Mary lives with her husband, Art, and their 160 rescued wolves
and wolfdogs in the Dos Cabezas mountains of
southern Arizona.
