Newsroom Archive

Kevin Gover

Director, National Museum of the American Indian

Kevin Gover is an author, educator, policy specialist, and an administrator in the public, private, and academic realms. Since 2007, Gover has served as director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. He has also been Professor of Law at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Tempe. Kevin Glover is a member of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

Gover received his J.D. degree (cum laude) from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1981, and his A.B. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University in 1978.

After graduation, he clerked for United States District Judge Juan Burciaga. Gover then entered private practice and then started work with a large firm in Washington, DC. In 1986, Kevin Gover formed a firm in New Mexico with two other highly regarded tribal attorneys. The firm grew into one of the largest Indian-owned law firms in the country. In 1997, Kevin Gover was selected by President Clinton to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs under Interior Secretary and former Arizona Governor, Bruce Babbitt. He served as Assistant Secretary until January 2001. His service was notable for his work on upgrading Indian law enforcement, rebuilding decrepit Indian schools, reforming trust services and overhauling the Bureau of Indian Affairs' management systems. Assistant Secretary Gover won wide praise for these reform efforts, but also for the apology he crafted on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the nation's Indian communities for the history of wrongs done to them. (Those remarks can be read in our online Library.)

Since 2007, Professor Gover has served as director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. He also serves as a Judge for the Tonto Apache Tribal Court of Appeals, and the San Carlos Apache Tribal Court of Appeals, as well as on the governing boards of several non-profit educational institutions.