Mia Feroleto is a well-known art advisor, activist and artist who divides her time between Vermont and South Dakota. In this interview, we discuss her process of negotiating the return of 131 artifacts stolen from the dead at Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 to the Oglala Sioux tribe of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 2022. This process reflects her deep commitment to the people of the Pine Ridge reservation and to truth and justice.

She was also the creator of A SHELTER FROM THE STORM: ARTISTS FOR THE HOMELESS OF NEW YORK and ARTWALK NY, an annual event for Coalition for the Homeless that has been copied all around the country since beginning in 1995. Feroleto has organized numerous benefit auctions and large-scale special events at major auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the Women’s Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Harvard Club in New York City.

Feroleto has served on the board of directors of such organizations as Dance Theater Workshop and Sculpture Center. More performing artists who went on to receive a Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation got their start at Dance Theater Workshop than any other organization in America. She served on the board of directors of the Tatanka Ska Institute, the Indigenous school being founded by Paula Looking Horse, wife of Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman Pipe.

She is the publisher of New Observations Magazine, the producer/creator of HEMP NY CITY, a partner in the founding of the Thunderheart Center for the Arts in Wasta, South Dakota and the creator and producer of the Consciousness and Contact conferences that have received world-wide recognition.

Mia Feroleto is the host of the New Observations podcast on Unknown Country, the channel for all things Whitley Strieber. She is a committed animal rights and animal welfare activist. She is determined to maximize visibility for the arts and our cultural world and is currently developing the Adopt an Artist Program to send artists to destinations around the globe in order to create and develop their art. She can be reached at [email protected]

Other links: https://cfae.media/podcast/spirit-jou... (interview with Mia about her spiritual journey)

New Observations magazine: https://www.newobservations.org/about

Heather's website: https://www.risingmoonhealingcenter.com/