ANCESTRAL, HISTORICAL & LIVING ARTS by INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of the AMERICAS
FırstAmericanArt MAGAZINE
NO. 49, WINTER 2026
ORIGIN OF THE FORTY-NINE ACORN AESTHETICS
DISPLAY UNTIL APRIL 8, 2026
HEIDI BIGKNIFE TERRANCE GUARDIPEE
FRESCO REVIVAL IN MEXICO CITY
THERESA SECORD
LAND O’LAKES BUTTER MAIDEN
KEVIN SEKAKUKU
burkemuseum.org/woven
WOV E N PLAN YOUR VISIT
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Yellow cedar and mountain goat wool SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle (Muckleshoot) MOUNTAIN PROTECTOR, 2025
RESILIENCE IN COAST SALISH WEAVIN G
BURKE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND CULTURE
OPEN NOW THROUGH AUGUST 30, 2026
OPEN NOW THROUGH AUGUST 30, 2026
WOV E N
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burkemuseum.org/woven
MOUNTAIN PROTECTOR, 2025 SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle (Muckleshoot) Yellow cedar and mountain goat wool
IN
Abstraction and and Symbolism Symbolism ANCESTRAL ANCESTRAL Abstraction in the Works Works of of Nine Nine EDGE Native American American Women WomenArtists Artists
THROUGH THROUGH
APR 12 12 APR
TeresaBaker Baker(Mandan/Hidatsa) (Mandan/Hidatsa) Teresa Natalie NatalieBall Ball(Klamath/Modoc) (Klamath/Modoc) Kiana KianaBell Bell(Seminole) (Seminole) Elisa ElisaHarkins Harkins(Cherokee/Muscogee (Cherokee/Muscogee[Creek]) [Creek]) Erica EricaLord Lord(Iñupiaq/Athabascan) (Iñupiaq/Athabascan) Sarah SarahSense Sense(Chitimacha/Choctaw) (Chitimacha/Choctaw) Sara SaraSiestreem Siestreem(Hanis (HanisCoos) Coos) Marie MarieWatt Watt(Seneca/German-Scot) (Seneca/German-Scot) Dyani DyaniWhite WhiteHawk Hawk(Sičáŋgu (SičáŋguLakota) Lakota)
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Major onon Major lenders lendersto tothe theexhibition exhibitioninclude includethe theAh-Tah-Thi-Ki Ah-Tah-Thi-KiMuseum Museum the Family the Big BigCypress CypressSeminole SeminoleIndian IndianReservation, Reservation,the theGochman Gochman Family Collection, Collection,and andthe theRubell RubellMuseum. Museum. Generous support is provided by the Generous support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and Terra Foundation for American Art and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
Dyani White Hawk, They Gifted (Night) (left), They Gifted (Day) (right), 2024. Screen prints on Lanaquarelle, edition of 24, each 58 x 28 1/2 in. Printed and published by Tandem Dyani White Hawk, They Gifted (Night) (left), They Gifted (Day) (right), 2024. Screen prints on Lanaquarelle, edition of 24, each 58 x 28 1/2 in. Printed and published by Tandem Press. Museum purchase with funds from Drs. George and Sarah Pappas Art Acquisition Fund, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Tandem Press, Madison, WI. © Dyani White Hawk Press. Museum purchase with funds from Drs. George and Sarah Pappas Art Acquisition Fund, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Tandem Press, Madison, WI. © Dyani White Hawk
w Cultural Center is more than a museum, it’s an adventure. Become explorer on a scavenger hunt that takes you through our immersive
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A unique one-day getaway fortraditional thefor whole family! exhibits; learn how to prepare Choctaw foods andare crafts through our possibilities fun and learning endless!
The Choctaw Cultural Center is more than a museum, it’s an adventure. Beco Choctaw Cultural Center is more than a museum, it’s an adventure. Become an intrepid explorer on a Whether scavenger hunt thatortakes you through in the Luksi Activity Center. you’re young young at heart, the our immersi • Hands-On Workshops A unique one-day getaway for the whole family! trepid explorer on a scavenger that takes you through our immersive exhibits; learn howhunt to prepare traditional Choctaw possibilities for fun and learning are endless!foods and crafts through o • Interactiveand Exhibits • Living VillageChoctaw bits; learn how to prepare traditional crafts through hands-on workshops; or just takefoods a quiet moment to listen our to our storyteller • Hands-On Workshops Activity Center nds-on workshops; orLuksi just take a one-day quietCenter. moment to to our storytellers A unique getaway forlisten the you’re whole family! in•the Luksi Activity Whether young or young at heart, the • Living Village • you’re Interactive Exhibits the Luksi Activity• Center. young or young at are heart, the HvshiWhether Gift Store possibilities for fun and learning endless! • Luksi Activity Center • Hands-On Workshops possibilities for fun and • Champuli Cafelearning are endless! • Living VillageGift Store • Hvshi A unique one-day getaway for the whole family! Scan code • Luksi Center • Activity Champuli Cafe A unique one-day getaway for whole • the Interactive Exhibits to learn more. • Hvshi Gift Store family! hands-on workshops; or Exhibits just take a quiet moment to listen to our storytellers • Interactive
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octawCulturalCenter.com to plan yourto visit. Visit ChoctawCulturalCenter.com plan your visit Visit ChoctawCulturalCenter.com to plan your visit.
MVSKOKE WATERS GALLERY PRESENTS:
MVSKOKVLKE: ROAD OF STRENGTH Co-curated by Bobby Martin & Carly Treece
12.13.25-02.28.26 500 Riverwalk Terrace, Suite 115 Jenks, OK “LOCV, the Great Transporter” by Randy Kemp
Join us for the GRAND OPENING of the MVSKOKE WATERS GALLERY, the first tribally owned and operated gallery in the greater Tulsa area, featuring our inaugural exhibition of legacy artists exploring what it means to be Mvskoke. For any questions, please contact: MvskokeWaters@gmail.com
Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe Now Open | Washington, D.C.
Plan your visit to see the first major retrospective of acclaimed artist Truman Lowe. Featuring nearly 50 sculptures and drawings, the exhibition reflects on Lowe’s Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) cultural traditions, memory, and relationships with water and place. Leading support provided by Bank of America. Major support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Generous support provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and Ameriprise Financial. Additional support provided by John and Meryl Lavine, Greg and Cathy Tibbles, and Leslie A. Wheelock.
AmericanIndian.si.edu | @SmithsonianNMAI Truman Lowe (Hoocąk, 1944–2019), Feather Canoe (detail), ca. 1993. National Museum of the American Indian 27/607
issue no. 49, winter 2026
DEPARTMENTS
FEATURES
Recent Developments By Staci Golar, Jessica Ma'ilo (Delaware Nation/Kiowa/ Samoan), and America Meredith (Cherokee Nation)
11
Seven Directions By Shyla Spicer (Yakama/ Seneca-Cayuga)
20
Spotlight | Two Photos by Destiny J. Green By Shelley Patrick (Mvskoke)
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Art+Lit | m.s. RedCherries: Northern Cheyenne Writer and Poet By Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD
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Calendar 109
REVIEWS Exhibition Reviews
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Report
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66
107
Everett Pikyavit (Moapa Paiute/Gosiute/ Chemehuevi, 1967–2025) By Christy Hanson (Diné)
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Acorn Aesthetics: Basketry, Stone, and Ceremony in Oak Country By Joseph Shaw, PhD
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Walls That Breathe: The Living Frescoes of Jesús González Gutiérrez By Mark Viales
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The Sudden Disappearance of Mia: The Woman of Land O’Lakes Butter By Tammi J. Hanawalt, PhD
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ARTIST PROFILES
MEMORIALS Jay Carrier (Onondaga/ Tuscarora, 1963–2025) By Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke)
Dancing Until Dawn: The Origin, Song, and Dance of the Oklahoma Forty-Nine By Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa/ Ohkay Owingeh/Isanti Dakota) and Maxwell Yamane, PhD, Artwork by Brent Greenwood (Chickasaw/Ponca)
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Heidi BigKnife: Shawnee Jeweler, Photographer, and Collage Artist By Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke)
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Terrance Guardipee: Blackfeet Ledger Artist and Painter By Tammi J. Hanawalt, PhD
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Theresa Secord: Penobscot Basket Maker By Mandy Yeahpau (Comanche/ Cherokee/Tarahumara descent)
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Kevin Sekakuku: 78 Hopi Carver and Jeweler Biography by Mark Bahti, Dialogue by Christy Hanson (Diné)
cover Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet), Detail of Running Eagle Victory Parade, mixed media on antique ledger papers, 36 × 48 in., private collection. Image courtesy of the artist.
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FIRST AMERICAN ART MAGAZINE NO. 49, WINTER 2026 | 7
issue no. 49, winter 2026 ISSN 2333-5548 (Print) • ISSN 2333-5556 (Digital) Publishing Editor: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) Operations Manager: Jessica Ma'ilo (Delaware Nation/Kiowa/ Samoan) Literary Editor: Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD (Euro-Canadian) Contributing Editor: Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke) Advertising Representative: Barbara Harjo Circulation Manager: Amy D. Bergseth, PhD Copy Editors: Rosa Cays (Chicana), Christy Hanson (Diné), and Angela C. Villa (Chicana) Proofreaders: Rosa Cays (Chicana), Staci Golar, Christy Hanson (Diné), Jessica Ma'ilo (Delaware Nation/Kiowa/Samoan), and Angela C. Villa (Chicana) Layout and Design: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) and Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa) Social Media Director: Staci Golar Intern: Liam Hart
Regional Representatives Great Basin: Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute/Modoc) Great Plains: Jackie Sevier (Northern Arapaho) Northeast: Kelly Church (Gun Lake Pottawatomi/Ottawa/Ojibwe) Northwest: Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi, PhD (Alutiiq) Southeast: Michole Eldred (Catawba/Eastern Cherokee descent) Southwest: Holly Coonsis (Zuni) and RoseMary Diaz (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Advisory Council
Miranda Belarde-Lewis, PhD (Zuni/Tlingit) Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation) Emily Haozous, PhD, RN (Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache) Linda Lomahaftewa, Hon. DHum (Hopi/Choctaw) Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer (Hopi/Choctaw) Leah Mata Fragua (yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Chumash) Anya Montiel, PhD (Mestiza/Tohono O'odham descent) Denise Neil, PhD (Delaware Tribe/Cherokee Nation) Neebinnaukzhik Southall (Rama Chippewa) India Rael Young, PhD
Advertising Representative
Barbara Harjo, barbara@firstamerican.art Internationally distributed by Disticor Magazine Distribution Services. First American Art Magazine, LLC, is not responsible for the content of any article or for the statements of any advertiser. First American Art Magazine welcomes queries about editorial submissions.
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EDITOR’S GREETING
A
T THE American Indian Contemporary Art Gallery in San Francisco, I got to hear Sage LaPeña (Nomtipom Wintu) speak. An ethnobotanist and herbalist, LaPeña’s insights into Indigenous Environmental Knowledge were inspiring. She talked about her work with plants, discussed songs she sang when harvesting, and showed customary Wintu brushes. These soaproot brushes were used for brushing acorn meal or brushing hair; tools for daily life that sparked my imagination. While I can read endless accounts about British and American soldiers burning Cherokee villages, I know so little about daily life before colonization. Learning about other tribes helps heighten my knowledge of my own tribe, since I can create placeholders for the many gaps in my knowledge. Learning about different tribes, one sees similarities and contrasts, including schismogenesis,1 in which two adjacent groups increase their differences in opposition to one another. Even under a broad definition of art, one could argue that soaproot brushes fall under design or material culture, not art. However, these elegant tools provide context for Native Californian acorn gathering and processing baskets, which not only are art but are also considered some of the world’s finest basketry. Learning more about the tools and processes that surround items we often encounter in museums helps us better appreciate their ingenuity and elegance, not only aesthetic but also utilitarian. These art objects had lives. Joseph Shaw provides rich context to the exquisite California burden, sifter, hopper, and other baskets connected to harvesting, preparing, and enjoying acorns in his article, “Acorn Aesthetics: Basketry, Stone, and Ceremony in Oak Country.” He also discusses the bedrock mortars that still mark village sites across California. Affectionately known as “gossip stones,” these public sites for food processing brought people together in
above America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), ᎠᏗᏍᎦᎶᏗ Adisgalodi (To Hide), from the Medicinal Formulae series, 2002, acrylic on masonite panel, 24 × 31 in., collection of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
the shared work of providing sustenance for their families. A very different foodstuff sends curator and art historian Tammi J. Hanawalt on an iconographic journey in her feature “Missing Mia.” The Land O’Lakes butter maiden, Mia, was an iconic Native American symbol throughout the 20th century until the company removed her from its packaging. Seen as a problematic stereotype, the image has a surprisingly complex history, and Native artists have riffed off the design to create biting social commentary. Hanawalt explores her history, her role, and the conflicting reactions Native artists have to her removal. Just as Native visual artists indigenize pop culture, so do Native singers. Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa/Ohkay Owingeh/ Isanti Dakota) and Maxwell Yamane explore Forty-Nine songs in celebration of FAAM’s 49th issue. Forty-Nines can be funny, raunchy, or silly, but they originate
from a song protocol that was deadly serious. Today, these social dances bring Native people together to laugh, cry, and share their life experiences through song. Likewise, artist and teacher Jesús González Gutiérrez (Mestizo/Purépecha/ Rarámuri descent) brings together students his workshop in Mexico to teach art fresco, practiced for centuries before colonization in Mesoamerica and continuing into the present. Frescoes have incredible lasting power, and their preparation is complex and labor-intensive. The artists need to prepare a limestone surface and paint it before it dries, creating urgency and demanding endurance. Writer Mark Viales discusses the materials, tools, and processes behind this extraordinary art medium, and the connections created between teachers and students. There’s so much beyond the surface of any meaningful artwork. Join us in diving in! —America Meredith (Cherokee Nation)
1. I heartily recommend David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (Picador, 2021) for an excellent discussion of schismogenesis in Native American and other world cultures.
FIRST AMERICAN ART MAGAZINE NO. 49, WINTER 2026 | 9
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS MUSEUMS The GARDINER MUSEUM in Toronto reopened in November 2025 after a Can$15.5 million renovation that includes the “Indigenous Immemorial: Ceramics of the Great Lakes Region” gallery, curated by inaugural curator of Indigenous ceramics, Franchesca Hebert-Spence (Sagkeeng Ojibwe). Architect Chris Cornelius (Oneida Nation) of studio:indigenous designed the gallery space. The museum commissioned Nadia Myre (Kitigan Zibi Algonquian) to create A Line Through Time (2025), an installation of giant ceramic beads with clay she harvested from the River Thames. The newly renovated Native North America Gallery has reopened at the PENN MUSEUM in Philadelphia. The museum partnered with consulting curators Joseph “Woody” Aguilar (San Ildefonso), RaeLynn Butler (Muscogee), Beau Carroll (Eastern Band Cherokee), Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi (Alutiiq), Jeremy Johnson (Delaware Tribe/Shawnee/ Peoria), Christopher Lewis (Zuni), Darlene See (Tlingit/Unangax̂), and Mary Weahkee (Santa Clara Pueblo/ Comanche). Henrietta Lidchi will be leaving the WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN in mid-2026 to assume a director role at the Ethnologisches Museum, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and Humboldt Forum Collections in Berlin. Lidchi has served as the Wheelwright’s executive director since late 2022 and will continue to work on exhibitions and building developments until the trustees hire their next director. Patricia Marroquin Norby resigned from the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART on December 1, 2025, due to health concerns, and moved to Wisconsin. Norby served as the Met’s inaugural associate curator of Native American art since 2018.
above “Indigenous Immemorial: Ceramics of the Great Lakes Region” gallery at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Ontario. Image courtesy of the Gardiner Museum. below Holly Wilson (Delaware Nation/Delaware Tribe), I'm More than Fluff, 2022, bronze, brass, glass, feathers, collection of the Penn Museum. Image courtesy of the Penn Museum.
The new MONTANA HERITAGE CENTER opened in Helena on December 3, 2025, marking the completion of a 20-year project and $107 million investment in preserving Montana’s cultural heritage. The center hired Nina Sanders (Apsáalooke) as its first curator of Indigenous collections. The OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART in Stillwater is the latest institution to receive works from the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts’ rehoming program. The Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe donated works by three contemporary Native artists. Long known as The Hubble-Joe Rug, Hubbell’s Rug, or The Hubbell Rug, the 33-by-21-foot Diné weaving at the AFFELDT MION MUSEUM in Winslow, Arizona, has been officially relabeled to reflect its Diné bizaad name Diyogí Tsoh (The Big Rug). Julia Bah Joe and her daughter Lillie Joe Hill (both Diné) completed the textile in 1937 after five years of weaving.
FIRST AMERICAN ART MAGAZINE NO. 49, WINTER 2026 | 11