Gloria Emerson (Diné) BA, University of Denver, 1962; MA Education, Harvard, 1972; Institute of American Indian Arts, 1987-1990. Served with many non-profit arts and education organizations including IAIA. Appointed to New Mexico State Commission of Arts, 2003.

Gloria Emerson's painting Bird Woman in 1806 and in 1811 is a juxtaposition of two portraits of Sacagawea, whose Hidatsa name was Bird Woman. On the left side she is depicted as a valued member of the Corps of Discovery in 1806, the last year of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The right side shows her in 1811, after she had begun living among white people. The painting alludes to the fate of many Native American women whose cultural identity was subsumed by consumer culture.