James Pepper Henry is a Native American museum director and vice-chairman of the Kaw Nation.
Five days later, The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma City newspaper, revealed on 22 April 2017, that the AICCM had hired the former Gilcrease executive director as "director of the Indian Cultural Center (ICC) and chief executive officer of its foundation," starting June 19.
His maternal grandfather—Gilbert Pepper, a member of the Kaw tribe—had met his grandmother, Floy Childers, a Muscogee Creek, while both were attending Haskell Indian School in Lawrence, Kansas.
[5] Gilbert Pepper had attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School and had come to Lawrence, where he also worked as a baker.
The couple married in Lawrence, then transferred to Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon.
When World War II began, Gilbert was recruited to work as a welder in a shipyard in Portland, Oregon, where their daughter was born.
"[8] The museum is Alaska-centered, with static exhibits and artifacts interspersed among dynamic, interactive displays designed, for example, to show the impacts of earthquakes and tsunamis.
[8] Henry's most memorable achievement during his two-year tenure at the Heard Museum in Phoenix was the exhibit "BUILD!
[11] The Oklahoma City newspaper The Oklahoman revealed on April 22, 2017, that the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum in Oklahoma City had hired the former Gilcrease Executive Director as "... director of the Indian Cultural Center (ICC) and chief executive officer of its foundation," starting June 19.