Diane Fraher (Osage/Cherokee) is an enrolled member of Osage Nation with documented Cherokee heritage as well. She is one of artists who migrated to New York City and formed the New York Movement in Contemporary Native Arts.   

Ms. Fraher has received numerous fellowships and individual artist grant awards for her filmmaking including a NYFA 2013 Fellow in Screenwriting and a Made in New York Women’s Film Fund Fellowship in 2019.  Her feature film THE HEART STAYS (2024) is the first feature film written and directed by a Native American woman to receive distribution in the United States.   

In 1987 Diane Fraher founded American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA), which is the only Native multidisciplinary arts organization of its kind in the United States.  Located in New York, Amerinda has supported the emergence and/or the revitalization of over one-hundred individual Native American artists.  

Ms. Fraher was honored with a Citation from the New York State Assembly on June 5, 2025, for her pioneering work in Native American Arts, providing support and ensuring that Native voices and stories are represented and celebrated in the broader cultural landscape.