Mary Kathryn Nagle
Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is an attorney and playwright who specializes in federal Indian issues in her legal and dramatic work.
She works to secure the rights and sovereignty of Native nations through legal and advocacy efforts in support of restoration of tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination, Indian civil and constitutional rights, and safety of Native Women. She has drafted numerous appellate briefs in federal courts, including federal appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. Her expertise includes the Violence Against Women Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). As counsel to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, she has drafted and filed numerous briefs in the United States Supreme Court articulating the connection between preserving tribal sovereignty and ensuring safety for Native women and children.
Nagle participated in the Public Theater Emerging Writers Program before serving, from 2015 to 2019, as the first Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. Her accomplishments as a playwright include Miss Lead (Amerinda, 59E59), Fairly Traceable (Native Voices at the Autry), Sovereignty (Arena Stage), Manahatta (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Return to Niobrara (Rose Theater), and Crossing Mnisose (Portland Center Stage), Sovereignty (Marin Theatre Company), Manahatta (Yale Repertory Theatre), On the Far End (Round House Theater). She has received commissions from Arena Stage, the Rose Theater (Omaha, Nebraska), Portland Center Stage, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Repertory Theatre, Round House Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Theater, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and the Santa Fe Opera.