Deborah Spears Moorehead

Deborah Spears Moorehead (Kutoo Seepoo) is a direct descendant through his daughter Amie, of the 1620 Supreme Pokanoket Chief Sachem Massasoit who met, befriended, and saved the lives of the Pilgrims. Her ancestry is also from Sassacus of the Pequot Nation, John Sassamin of the Massachussets, Nanawausauk of the Nipmuc and also has ancestry is from the Narragansett and Cattabwa Nations.
Deborah is a Conceptual Fine Artist specializing in Paintings, Murals, and Sculpture, an Entrepreneur, Arthur, a Music Composer and Performer..
She holds a Master's in Arts in Cultural Sustainability from Goucher College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture from the Swain School of Design, now part of the University of Massachusetts. She has also attended RISD and Brown, studying sculpture, jewelry, and creative writing.
She is the Author of "Finding Balance The Oral and Written History and Genealogy of Massasoit's People," published by Blue Hand Books and "Four Directions at Weybosset Crossings, both books available on Amazon and this website.
She owns and operates One Twenty Four Studio-Talking Water Productions, where she creates art and teaches private lessons. She is the founder and owner of Turtle Island Tourism Co.
Deborah is also a founding member of the learning, teaching and performing women's singing group Nettukkusqk Singers . (my sister) who have performed for over thirty years throughout Turtle Island.
All of Deborah's work and performances serve to educate, assert, promote, value, and validate the identity of the past, present and future generations as well as address the historic colonial erasure of Eastern Woodland Native American people.
Her work is homeland-based, and every piece has a unique story. Her interests lie in the values, strength, and beauty of Indigenous people and their ability to thrive in the face of adversity.
Since 2022 to present, Spears- Moorehead is one of the "Distinguished Scholar and Artist in Residency" at Bunker Hill Community College BHCC of Boston where she is creating a large scope of work and was an "Artist in Residency at Brown University " where she created a four panel mural on racial equality titled" Perceptions of Organizational Change through a Kaleidoscope of Color. " This mural was displayed in 2022 at The John Nicholas Brown Nightingale House and also in an exhibit in 2023 called Monatash at the Mary L. Fifeild Art Gallery at BHCC.
Deborah painted two community driven outdoor murals, one for The Collective Musem of Wakefield, R.I. and another for Brown University Community Health Initiative . The Brown outdoor mural is painted on a fourteen foot high cement bridge located on Cypress Street in Providence, R.I.
The Mashantucket Pequot Museum where Deborah worked on and off for over twenty five years also has some of Deborah's earlier paintings in their permanent collection and her piece "Granny Squant at Strawberry Thanksgiving "is presently on display in their museum gallery.
Deborah was honored by the Tomaquag Museum with a "Princess Redwing Arts Award" in 2020. In 2017 her drawing "Whoosh "won the Art Contest Award for the National Congress of the American Indian and her painting "Good Energy" and " Whoosh" were both displayed in Congressman David Ciciline's office. In 2015, the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts honored Spears- Moorehead with a Leadership Award for pioneering, creating, and curating the "first ever state" Native American Art Show in Rhode Island. Another award won in 2005 by Deborah Spears Mooorehead was the "Youth Mural Art Award " by the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of The American Indian, titled "Nu Nechum Nupeashkanash" Our Children Our Future. This mural is displayed in the Tomaquag Musem's permanent collection.