IndigExcellence, LLC is an educational consulting firm founded by Dr. Samantha Benn-Duke to strengthen the people and organizations that serve Indigenous students. We believe Native youth thrive when the adults around them—teachers, tribes, schools, and community programs—are equipped with the right tools, knowledge, and support. That belief shapes everything we do.

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Our work is culturally grounded and rooted in resilience. We develop curriculum that embeds art and movement across content areas, empowers students, and builds problem-solving skills. We provide professional development, classroom management strategies, grant writing, and program support. And through our WISER program—Walking in Strength, Edification, and Resilience—we bring drug abstinence, recovery, and sobriety education to Native middle school students, meeting a need too often left unaddressed.

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At the heart of IndigExcellence is a simple idea: by serving those who serve Indigenous students, we help grow Indigenous youth who are healthy, resilient, and empowered. We partner with educators and communities not as outside experts, but as collaborators who honor Indigenous knowledge, culture, and identity as sources of strength.

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Whether you're a classroom teacher, a tribal program, or a school leader, we're here to support the vital work you do—and the young people you serve. Based in the capital of the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, we are ready to be a resource or help you locate the resources you need.

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About the Founder

Dr. Samantha Sanders Benn-Duke, PhD

“It’s the first day of kindergarten. I had been waiting for what seemed like ages to finally be in a class. Why were so many of these kids crying and saying they wanted to go home, or wanted their mama? Was I the only one who really wanted to be here? Mrs. Kelly and her assistant, Mrs. Terrapin, were so pretty and so nice. I loved the way they made those crying kids feel better about being in school. ‘I think I’ll be a teacher when I grow up.’ Yep, that’s exactly when I decided to be an educator – on the first day of kindergarten – and I have spent my life working as an educator in some quite diverse ways.”

Dr. Samantha Sanders Benn-Duke is the founder of IndigExcellence, LLC, where nearly four decades in Indigenous education converge into a single purpose: growing healthy Native youth by serving the educators and communities who serve them. She is Cherokee and Mvskoke and identifies as Cherokee, and her work is grounded in the culture and lived realities of Native communities.

Samantha began her career in Oklahoma public school classrooms and has taught at nearly every level since—junior highland high school language arts, Cherokee language and culture, elementary and middle school Native American studies, and ultimately university teacher preparation. Her education experiences in numerous roles have ranged from early childhood classrooms through doctoral students. For nine years she served as Assistant and then Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at Northeastern State University, where she designed courses on teaching Indigenous students, trauma-informed practice, classroom management, and culturally responsive strategies, as well as elementary content. There she mentored a generation of Native teacher candidates through programs such as AIPEC, NETSTAR, and Reach to Teach. Her earlier leadership within the Cherokee Nation—as administrator of Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi, the Cherokee Language Immersion School, as Curriculum Director at Sequoyah Schools, and as Senior Director of Culture and Language—grounded her work in language revitalization and the daily realities of tribal schools.

She holds a PhD in Curriculum Studies from Oklahoma State University, with a cognate in oral history and a dissertation examining first-language Cherokee speakers’ perceptions of their school experiences—scholarship that reflects her lifelong commitment to honoring Indigenous voice within education.

Most recently, as an Education Specialist with Tribal Tech, LLC, Dr. Benn-Duke supported the Bureau of Indian Education’s Behavioral Health and Wellness Program, serving Native students and the BIE educators who work with them. There she translated the science of mental health, trauma, and wellness into practical tools for classrooms as well as for all areas in which students live. She helped develop in written form the Student-Led Supportive Behavior System and its accompanying research compendium, and substantially expanded the drug-abstinence curriculum “Culture and Drugs Don’t Mix.” Across dozens of webinars and in-person institutes, she guided educators on suicide prevention, strength-based recovery, de-escalation, self-care, talking circles, and the healing power of traditional art, food, and story—work that sits at the very heart of IndigExcellence today.

This behavioral-health and wellness expertise—rare among educational consultants—is what most distinguishes the firm. It informs WISER (Walking in Strength, Edification, & Resilience), its signature sobriety and wellness program for Native middle-schoolers, and shapes every curriculum, training, and resource she creates.

Samantha’s contributions have been widely recognized. She was named Oklahoma Indian Educator of the Year and nominated for National Indian Educator of the Year, selected as a Gaylord-McCasland Teacher Fellow and for the Fulbright-Hays program, and invited to serve on the College Board’s Academic Assembly Council and as co-chair of its Native American Student Advocacy Institute advisory committee. She currently serves on several national boards advancing Native education and healing. These include the Native American Athletic Foundation (NAAF), for which she also serves as Director of Programs, and Native Americans in Higher Education and Mentorship (NAHEM), for which she serves as chairperson.

Through IndigExcellence, Dr. Benn-Duke brings together the classroom teacher, the curriculum scholar, and the wellness specialist she has always been—offering schools, tribes, and communities a partner who honors Indigenous knowledge as a source of strength and equips those who serve Native students to help them thrive.