Joe Liles is from North Carolina and has degrees from North Carolina State University's College of Design in Landscape Architecture/Community Organization and the University of Michigan in Environmental Education. Joe has been an art teacher for 35 years, first teaching at the American Indian Movement's Red School House in Minnesota and later at the NC School of Science and Mathematics. Joe has illustrated several books over the years, starting in 1979 with The Mishomis Book, a book about Ojibwe history. Joe continues his involvement with American Indian communities by singing with the powwow