Christopher Chanate is a 36-year-old native of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. His interest in cosplay began at his first convention in 2010. He has been cosplaying since 2017 with his wife and family. He likes to make props in his spare time and has done this since late 2017. Going to anime conventions has been the biggest influence and inspiration for creating props for himself and his friends. He enjoys making hats and uses cardboard as a base for them. He creates them in a variety of styles, with his favorite being steampunk. In addition to hats, he has also made a Nezuko box from “Demon Slayer” and Frank the Eggboi from “Hazbin Hotel.” Watching anime, cartoons, movies and TV helps him generate new cosplay ideas.

Lisa Rutherford (Cherokee Nation) is a full-time artist specializing in pottery and textiles. Rutherford began making ancestral style pottery in 2005. She then started researching and making historic clothing including feather capes and mantles, twined textiles and 18th-century Cherokee clothing.

She is a 1986 graduate of Northeastern State University (Oklahoma) and in 2009 participated in the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Leadership Arts program. In 2014, Rutherford was selected for the Art Leadership Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, studying twined textiles, historic clothing and beadwork, and feather capes.

In 2018, she was named a Cherokee National Treasure by the Cherokee Nation for her work in preserving and promoting Cherokee pottery and culture. She has won numerous awards, and her work is in museum collections including the National Museum of the American Indian, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma, the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee and the Cherokee National History Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Matt Pallie has been crafting since his early childhood. He has cosplayed at conventions and the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival for more than a decade. His primary expertise is weaving chainmail, bronze casting and painting; he has also dabbled with sewing, leather, EVA foam and 3D printing. Growing up alongside his engineer brother and traditional Cherokee crafter mother, Matt has learned countless other crafts and amassed enough stock of supplies in his garage to qualify as a hoarder. These days, he’s focusing attention towards being a full-time dad, building cosplay armor for his son to wear and starting a career in healthcare. With chainmail armor and advanced EMS certification, Matt isn’t just a warrior-class Pallie, but being capable of healing spells makes him more of a “Pallie-Din.”

Treyton D. Vu Morris is Cherokee (Cherokee Nation), Mississippi Choctaw and Vietnamese. Treyton, an Oklahoma-based actor and voiceover artist, began his career on “Reservation Dogs” season 2. He was drawn to the arts because of the healing that representation had on his community and the lasting impact each work built upon the next. Since then, he’s met so many talented and wonderful creatives across industries and has been enamored by the process of creating. One of his favorite opportunities was being a full-time body double on “Twisters.” Aside from screaming into a microphone or crying on screen, Treyton loves to play stickball (he’s atrocious at it), sketch, read and bedrot.

Elias Gallegos is a multifaceted artist and producer, deeply rooted in the rich artistic traditions of the past. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his fine art paintings have earned acclaim for their masterful technique, drawing inspiration from the Renaissance and the Baroque masters of 17th-century Spain and the Netherlands. His works have been showcased in prestigious galleries in Santa Fe and Los Angeles.

Inclusive of his artistic pursuits, Gallegos works with author George R.R. Martin on a variety of projects. In this capacity, he has served as a producer and advisor, contributing to the successful expansion of Martin’s philanthropic endeavors and interests beyond the world of “Game of Thrones.” “Mary Margaret Road Grader” is one of these projects!

Dallin Maybee is Seneca and enrolled Northern Arapaho. Raised on the Cattaraugus territory of the Seneca Nation of Indians in Western New York, he is an accomplished artist, public speaker and performer. Currently, he is the assistant director of development at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Dallin has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy as well as a law degree from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law with an emphasis in federal Indian law.

As a performer, Dallin appears in “Mary Margaret Road Grader” as Elmo John Deer and has roles in “Spirit: The Seventh Fire” and “Andrew Jackson.”

As an artist, his work can be found in private collections and museums across the country, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Autry Museum, the Heard Museum and the Portland Art Museum. He has won numerous awards including Best of Show at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market (2007), the Cherokee Art Market (2020), the Hodinohso:ni’ Art Show (2021), and Tesoro Indian Market (2021).

Martin Sensmeier is a member of the Tlingit and Koyukon/Athabaskan tribe of Alaska. His upcoming lead roles include the feature films “Wind River: Rising,” “Ice Fall” and “Cottonmouth.”

Martin also had major recurring roles in Taylor Sheridan’s highly acclaimed limited series “1883” as well as “Westworld,” “Alaska Daily,” “Yellowstone” and “La Brea.”

Previously, Martin also starred in “The Magnificent Seven,” “Wind River,” “9 Bullets,” “Ice Road,” Netflix’s “Frybread Face and Me” for producer Taika Waititi and “Beyond The Sky.”

Crystle Lightning (2021 Canadian Screen Award Winner for Best Actress in a Drama Series) is an Indigenous actress from the Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta. Crystle landed her first lead role in the feature “3 Ninjas: Knuckle Up” at the young age of nine and she has been working in the industry ever since.

Lightning trained in the Beverly Hills Playhouse under the great Milton Katselas. Her film and television appearances include: “Outlander” (Starz), “Trickster” (CW), “The Good Doctor” (ABC), “Ghosts” (CBS), “Three Pines” (Amazon Prime TV), “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” (Paramount+) and “Spirit Rangers” (Netflix). Recently, Crystle appeared in the #1 Apple TV Film “Fancy Dance” (starring Oscar-nominated actress Lily Gladstone). This year, Lightning will appear in George R. R. Martin’s “Mary Margaret Road Grader,” directed by Steven Paul Judd.

Lightning is a co-creator of the all-Native hit musical “Bear Grease” (an Indigenous twist on the 1978 classic, “Grease”) — her directorial debut. She will be codirecting her first feature film alongside her mother, Georgina Lightning, in “Salesman of the Year.”

Tom Farris has been deeply connected to American Indian art throughout his life, growing up as the child of passionate collectors and spending time in museums, galleries, and artists’ homes. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Otoe-Missouria tribe, he draws inspiration from his heritage and the rich legacy of American Indian art.

Farris’s professional experience includes roles such as assistant director of the Oscar Jacobson Foundation and Native Art Center, creator of the Cherokee Art Market and director of retail operations at First Americans Museum. He has judged various prestigious art shows, including the Red Earth Festival and Cherokee Heritage Center events.

As a professional artist, Farris has earned awards from renowned art shows with works like his reimagined slot machine, “Tools of the Trade,” which received the Ingenuity Award at the Southwestern Association of Indian Artists Santa Fe Market. His artwork has been exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and is included in major private and institutional collections.