Elders from the Yavapai-Apache Tribe

Don Decker is a respected elder, historian, author, and multimedia artist of the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Arizona, widely recognized for his lifelong dedication to preserving Apache history, culture, and language.

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Born in July 1944, he was given the Apache name Inosi (“Red White Man”) by his grandparents. Raised largely away from the reservation, Decker’s early life shaped a profound personal mission to reconnect with his ancestral roots and to document Apache identity through storytelling, media, and visual art.

 

Throughout his career, Decker has served in key cultural and communications roles for his Nation, including as Public Relations Director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation and editor of the Yavapai-Apache Nation News. His work has consistently focused on ensuring that Apache voices, histories, and perspectives are preserved and shared accurately, both within Indigenous communities and with wider audiences. In the early 1990s, he produced the television series Indian Country USA (1992–1994), one of the first programs to highlight contemporary Indigenous life and issues through Native-led storytelling.

 

As a visual artist, Don Decker works in acrylics, graphite, and scratchboard, creating evocative images that depict Apache landscapes, cultural memory, and lived experience. He is also the author of Don Decker’s Apache Odyssey, a work that blends autobiography, history, and narrative tradition to explore identity, displacement, and cultural survival within Indigenous contexts.

 

In recent years, Decker has continued to be recognized for his cultural leadership. In April 2025, he appeared on the podcast series Grand Canyon Speaks, where he shared Apache creation stories and discussed the urgent importance of language preservation. In December 2025, he was featured as the subject of the premiere episode of Keepers of the West, a documentary series honoring individuals who play a vital role in safeguarding Western and Indigenous cultural heritage.