Search
Close this search box.
The Jim Pepper Native Arts Council
Jim Pepper
Our mission is to improve access to culturally relevant music education for K-12 students in Jim Pepper’s name, and reflecting the educational legacy of his mother, Floy C. Pepper. In the absence of a culturally relevant music curriculum, it is our mission to create and deliver one, which we have named Speak/Sing NativeTM. James Gilbert (Jim) Pepper (Kaw/Creek) (1941-1992) is recognized as one of the greatest Native American musicians and composers in recorded history. He is the only Oregon-born musician whose instrument resides in a glass case in a Smithsonian Institution museum, the National Museum of the American Indian. Floy C. Pepper (Creek) (1917-2010) is credited with being the Writer of Indians in Oregon Today, Oregon Middle School – High School Curriculum for the Oregon Department of Education. She authored several books and monographs and received the U.S. Department of Education Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 “for her dedication and outstanding contributions to improving education for all children.”