Richard Thornton is an architect and city planner, with a very broad range of professional experiences. His practice is concentrated in the Southern Highlands of the United States, but also has included projects in other parts of the nation and in Sweden. He has been the architect for a broad range of institutional, commercial and residential projects. Richard is particular noted for his work in downtown revitalization, historic preservation and architectural history. and won several historic preservation and urban design awards. He was the first recipent of the Barrett Fellowship, which enabled him to spend several months in Mesoamerica studing its pre-European civilizations under the auspices of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. In 2004 he was approached by some members of the Muscogee (Creek) National Council about carrying out research into Native American architectural history and writing books for Native American students from these studies. He is a Creek Indian himself. Since that time he has written seven books on Native American history, and also built 16 large models of Native American towns for archaeological museums around the United States. The focus of Richard's career since 2004 has increasing been focused toward research, education, public speaking and professional writing. He has been a guest lecturer at several universities and colleges in the Southeast. In 2009, he was the architect for the construction of Oklahoma's first state-funded memorial for the Trail of Tears, at Council Oak Park in Tulsa.