FırstAmericanArt MAGAZINE
Art by Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Summer 2014
Sonny Assu Biskakone Greg Johnson Ardina Moore Matika Wilbur
Indigenous Narratives Collective Wixáritari Yarn Painting Bacone College’s Art Program Southeast Alaskan Totem Poles
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The NEW
ALLAN HOUSER GALLERY 125 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 112, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 • (505) 982-4705 www.allanhouser.com e-mail: fineart@allanhouser.com facebook/AllanHouserGallery 2014 is the centenary of Allan Houser’s birth and museums nationwide are presenting major exhibitions. Gilcrease Museum • Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College • Philbrook Museum Downtown Fred Jones Jr. Museum, OU • Oklahoma Arts, State Capitol • Heard Museum • National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum • Oklahoma History Center • Chisholm Trail Heritage Center Oklahoma City Museum In Santa Fe: Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Opens June 21, 2014 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Opens August 3, 2014
Inaugurating the NEW ALLAN HOUSER GALLERY with a special invitational exhibition
Crossing Four Rivers: Linda Lomahaftewa and America Meredith
OPENING FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 Through June 9, 2014
Featuring original artworks by Allan Houser and arranging tours of the Allan Houser Studio and Sculpture Gardens. We are THE SOURCE for Allan Houser.
First American Art Magazine, LLC Issue No. 3, Summer 2014 ISSN 2333-5548 (Print) • ISSN 2333-5556 (Online) Publishing Editor: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) Copy Editor: Meghan Cunningham Proofreaders: Samonia Byford (Cherokee Nation), William Ferguson, Mary Ellen Meredith (Cherokee Nation), Stephen MacMurray Layout and Design: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) Design Consultant: Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa) Advertising Representatives: • Nancy Fields (Lumbee), nancy@firstamericanartmagazine.com • Barbara Harjo, barbara@firstamericanartmagazine.com
F e S T I VA L
Social Media: Jacquie Archambeau (Cherokee Nation), Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation), Staci Golar, America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa) Contributing Writers: Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation), James Fendenheim (Tohono O’odham), Suzanne Newman Fricke (Ashkenazi-American), Bob Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), Franci King Hart, Linley B. Logan (Tonawanda Seneca), Denise Neil-Binion (Delaware Tribe-Cherokee Nation), Steven Quinn, Kevin Simpson (Mexican), Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa), Matthew Ryan Smith (Canadian), Tony A. Tiger (Sac & Fox-MuscogeeSeminole), and Magdalena Velasco (Yaqui-Kickapoo descent) Editorial Advisory Board: • Emily A. Haozous, PhD, RN (Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache) • Maggie Ohnesorgen (Mestiza) • Paula Rivera (Taos Pueblo) • Ken Williams Jr. (Northern Arapaho-Seneca) Thanks to: Jeri Ah-Be-Hill (Kiowa-Comanche), Jacquie Archambeau (Cherokee Nation), Bobby Chew Bigby (Cherokee Nation), Ruthe Blalock Jones (Shawnee-Delaware-Peoria), Manuel Chávez R., Kelly Church (Odawa-Ojibwe), Beck Gusler, Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi-Choctaw), Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee Creek), Tom May, Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache), David Rettig, John Saul (Choctaw-Chickasaw), Terri Saul (Choctaw-Chickasaw), William T. Saul (Choctaw-Chickasaw), Peggy Sheldon (Cherokee Nation), Monty Singer (Navajo Nation), Yvonne N. Tiger (Cherokee Nation-Seminole-Muscogee), Jim Tolbert and Full Circle Bookstore, Victoria Mitchell Vazquez (Cherokee Nation), Mary Jo Watson (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma), and John Yoekel.
“Protectors Waiting” by Raymond Nordwall
June 5-7, 2014 REMINGTON PARK OKlAhOMA CITy
ART • DANCE • FOOD • MusIC
(405) 427-5228 • www.redearth.org
Subscription services, changes of address, and wholesale inquiries: First American Art Magazine 3334 W. Main St. #442 Norman, OK 73072 www.firstamericanartmagazine.com Emails: info@firstamericanartmagazine.com ads@firstamericanartmagazine.com First American Art Magazine welcomes queries about editorial submissions. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork. First American Art Magazine is not responsible for the content of any article or for the statements of any advertiser. Copyright © 2014 by First American Art Magazine, LLC. Cover and contents are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or part by any method without written permission, except those specific images listed with Creative Commons licenses. First American Art Magazine is a Papyrus font–free publication.
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ISSUE NO. 3, SUMMER 2014
FEATURES
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Graphic Natives: 42 The Indigenous Narratives Collective Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation)
Recent Developments
56
Reaching for New Heights: Totem Poles from Southeastern Alaska Steve Quinn
59
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Biskakone Greg Johnson (Lac du Flambeau Chippewa) Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa)
22
Ardina Moore (Quapaw-Osage) Denise Neil-Binion (Delaware Tribe-Cherokee Nation)
28
Matika Wilbur
34
Exploring Native Graphic Design: Ryan Red Corn (Osage Nation) Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa)
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Beginner’s Luck: A Collector’s Point of View Franci King Hart
75
White Nude Bob Haozous (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache)
76
Book Reviews
68
In Memoriam 78 Bill Soza Warsoldier (Soboba Cahuilla-Apache) James Fendenheim (Tohono O’odham) and Magdalena Velasco (Yaqui-Kickapoo descent)
ARTIST PROFILES Sonny Assu (Ligwilda’xw) America Meredith (Cherokee Nation)
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Seven Directions 12 Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache)
Wixáritari Yarn Painting: 48 Dazzling Art from the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains Kevin Simpson Native Soul: The Bacone College Native Art Program, 1932–2014 Tony A. Tiger (Sac & FoxSeminole-Muscogee)
DEPARTMENTS
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(Swinomish-Tulalip) Suzanne Newman Fricke
34
REVIEWS Melanie Yazzie: Geographies of Memory Suzanne Newman Fricke
64
Allan Houser Drawings: The Centennial Exhibition Denise Neil-Binion (Delaware Tribe-Cherokee Nation)
65
Kenojuak Ashevak: In Memoriam Matthew Ryan Smith
66
REPORTS Kokiri Putahi Linley B. Logan (Tonawanda)
67
Cover: Sonny Assu (Ligwilda’xw), Disconnected #7, 2011, acrylic on elk hide drum. Image courtesy of the artist.
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WHERE I FIT Textile works by Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe)
Exploring Native identity, experiences, and authenticity in a period of blood quanta, stereotypes, and appropriation
February 28 – May 31, 2014 Presented by Minnesota’s Only Native Owned and Operated Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery
All My Relations Gallery 1414 E. Franklin Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55404 612-284-1102
www.allmyrelationsarts.com
Editor’s Greetings
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ELCOME TO OUR FOURTH ISSUE. First American Art Magazine is officially one year old. By successfully making it through our first year, FAAM has beat the odds, as an estimated 60% of newly launched magazines do not survive their first year. Not only have we survived, First American Art Magazine was named one of the Ten Best New Magazines Launched in 2013 by Library Journal, based in New York. FAAM received a warm reception at this year’s College Art Association conference. We’ve found many allies in the larger art world who want to see serious writing about Indigenous American art. We are building bridges between our tribal communities and the global art world by communicating our values and perspectives. Several questions repeatedly come up. Why the Americas? We want to define our Indigenous communities by our thousands of years of interconnected histories and cultural exchanges, as opposed to defining ourselves by those who colonized us and their language barriers. This issue welcomes our first writer from Mexico, and next issue will feature writing from our second Chilean author. I’m often asked if the magazine only focuses on contemporary art. While we profile living artists active today, we also honor those artists who have gone before us, and we want to keep providing features about historical and precontact artwork, since our past, present, and future art all inform each other. An art historian asked which methodologies we use in reviews. The answer is we hope writers will experiment with a range of approaches, from established critical methodologies to the newly developing Indigenous methodologies to their own approaches. By experimenting with a range of approaches, we can see our art world from different perspectives to discover new insights into the complex relations among our art, artists, scholars, and great communities. Thank you for being part of our quest for knowledge and reflection in the exciting and ever-changing world of Indigenous art of the Americas! —America Meredith LEFT: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), Point and Shoot: Julia Tuell and Company, 2002, acrylic on hardboard panel, 24 × 18 in., private collection.
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Letters to FAAM
GREAT PLAINS NATIVE ART MARKET & CELEBRATION
C
ONGRATULATIONS on the Spring 2014 edition of First American Art Magazine. I am so pleased to see so many vibrant new artists who have not yet received a substantial national attention. The articles are of great interest, and thanks for your fabulous work.
D enton Fas t Whi rlwi nd S p eaks wi th the Thund erb ei ngs 2 0 1 3 B es t of S how
I am writing to thank America Meredith in particular for her article, “Cuzco School: Andean Vision in Oils and Gold.” Some time ago, searching for Indigenous artists in the Spanish Colonial and Post-Colonial world was tedious. Dawn Ades was one of the few writers who included Native artists her in book Art in Latin America. Meredith’s research and that of Annick Benavides in Peru is most appreciated. I hope that this type of research will spread throughout South America. Please keep up this fine work. Mary Jo Watson, PhD University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History We welcome letters to the editor! Please email info@firstamericanartmagazine.com ormail letters to: First American Art Magazine, Attention: Editor 3334 W. Main St. #442, Norman, OK 73072
JULY 19, 2014
BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA
W W W. N AT I V E A R T S G AT H E R I N G . O R G
Workshops: June 23-July 6 Pottery, Jewelry, Basketry, Weaving, Stone Carving, Flutemaking, Foods and more Registration required
Festival & Lectures: June 29-July 5 “Reimagining Our Stories: Storytelling in the 21st Century” Open to the public
F A C U L T Y
A N D
G U E S T S
Joe Baker • Freddie Bitsoie • Gerald Clarke, Jr. • Mike & Mique’l Dangeli • Deana Dartt • Barbara Drake Ted Garcia • Git Hayetsk Dancers • Rose Ann Hamilton • Ramson Lomatewama • Daniel McCarthy Mt. Cahuilla Bird Singers • Barbara Ornelas • Lynda Pete • Tony Soares • Mark Tahbo • Roy Talahaftewa Ellen Taubman • Lisa Telford • Craig Torres • David Treuer • Richard Tsosie • Nathan Youngblood • Matika Wilbur
Register Now!
summer@idyllwildarts.org
idyllwildarts.org (951) 468.7265
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