FırstAmericanArt MAGAZINE
ANCESTRAL, HISTORICAL & LIVING ARTS by INDIGENOUS PEOPLES of the AMERICAS
NO. 32, FALL 2021
DISPLAY UNTIL JAN. 11, 2022
FIRST AMERICANS MUSEUM
JOHN HITCHCOCK
FLORIDA PATCHWORK
DOROTHY GRANT
WABANAKI BIRCHBARK CANOES
GEORGE LONGFISH
KACHEMAK STONE OIL LAMPS
GWEN WESTERMAN
EXTENDED THROUGH DECEMBER 2021
Shonto Begay
Eyes of the World
This solo exhibition features over forty works of Diné artist Shonto Begay. His paintings narrate his connection to the landscape, personal history, and Diné cosmology.
Wheelwright Museum Shonto Begay, b.1954 (Diné) Tumbleweed Crossing, 2020 Acrylic on canvas (Detail)
OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Santa Fe, NM • wheelwright.org
Rick Bartow, Rick Bartow, Bird Transformation Bird Transformation I – For IJim, – For2007, Jim, monotype 2007, monotype on handmade, on handmade, antiqueantique Japanese Japanese paper,paper, with colored with colored pencil,pencil, 25˝x 20˝ 25˝x photo: 20˝ photo: Rebekah Rebekah Johnson Johnson Rick Bartow, Rick Bartow, Bird Transformation Bird Transformation I – For IJim, – For2007, Jim, monotype 2007, monotype on handmade, on handmade, antiqueantique Japanese Japanese paper,paper, with colored with colored pencil,pencil, 25˝x 20˝ 25˝x photo: 20˝ photo: Rebekah Rebekah Johnson Johnson
RICK RICK BARTOW BARTOW Mad Mad River River Band Band of BARTOW the ofWiyot the Wiyot Indians Indians RICK RICK BARTOW Mad Mad RiverRiver BandBand of the ofWiyot the Wiyot Indians Indians
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________
GAIL GAIL TREMBLAY TREMBLAY Onondaga Onondaga / Mi’kmaq / Mi’kmaq GAIL GAIL TREMBLAY TREMBLAY Onondaga Onondaga / Mi’kmaq / Mi’kmaq
SHATTERING SHATTERING IMAGES IMAGES monograph monograph available available SHATTERING SHATTERING IMAGES IMAGES monograph monograph available available _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________
December December 2021 2021 & January & January 2022 2022 December December 2021 2021 & January & January 2022 2022
Gail Tremblay, Gail Tremblay, Preserving Preserving Indigenous Indigenous Technologies, Technologies, 2013, 16mm 2013, 16mm film (from film “Fishing (from “Fishing at at the Stone the Weir,” Stone Weir,” 1967), 1967), film leader, film leader, metallic metallic thread,thread, 11˝x 8˝x 11˝x 8˝ 8˝x photo: 8˝ photo: Mario Gallucci Mario Gallucci Gail Tremblay, Gail Tremblay, Preserving Preserving Indigenous Indigenous Technologies, Technologies, 2013, 16mm 2013, 16mm film (from film “Fishing (from “Fishing at at the Stone the Weir,” Stone Weir,” 1967), 1967), film leader, film leader, metallic metallic thread,thread, 11˝x 8˝x 11˝x 8˝ 8˝x photo: 8˝ photo: Mario Gallucci Mario Gallucci
FROELICK FROELICK GALLERY GALLERY FROELICK FROELICK Portland, Portland, Oregon GALLERY Oregon GALLERY Portland, Portland, Oregon Oregon
64TH ANNUAL HEARD MUSEUM GUILD
INDIAN FAIR & MARKET PHOENIX, ARIZONA
INDIAN FAIR & MARKET MARCH 5 & 6, 2022 BEST OF SHOW RECEPTION MARCH 4, 2022 YOUTH ART SHOW & SALE MARCH 5 & 6, 2022 HEARD.ORG/FAIR
Announcing the new
virtual art gallery www.dorothygrantartgallery.com
TM
Art Gallery Phone: (778) 776-1822
issue no. 32, fall 2021
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
Dawning of a New Era: 18 First Americans Museum Opens in Oklahoma City By Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke) Photography by Ann Sherman
Recent Developments
10
Seven Directions Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band Cherokee)
14
Art+Lit Richard Van Camp: Tłı̨chǫ Dene Writer By Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD
88
Calendar By James Bland
94
Patchwork: Piecing It Together By Michole Eldred (Catawba/Eastern Cherokee)
26
The Wabanaki Canoe & The Science of Perfection By Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD
34
Connections & Belonging in Stone Oil Lamps By Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi, PhD (Alutiiq)
42
50
REVIEWS
ARTIST PROFILES Dorothy Grant: Haida Fashion Designer By India Rael Young, PhD
50
John Hitchcock: Comanche Printmaker, Musician, and Educator By Dustin Tahmahkera, PhD (Comanche)
56
George Longfish: Seneca/Tuscarora Painter, Printmaker, and Sculptor By Andrea L. Ferber, PhD
62
Gwen Westerman, PhD: Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate/ Cherokee Nation Poet, Educator, Historian & Textile Artist By Staci Golar
68
56
62
68
Exhibition Reviews
74
Music Review
85
Book Reviews
86
IN MEMORIAM Lorene Drywater (Cherokee Nation, 1932–2021) By Pamela Jumper-Thurman, PhD (Cherokee Nation)
90
Jesse Hummingbird (Cherokee Nation, 1952–2021) By Sandy Hummingbird
91
Pitaloosie Saila (Inuk, 1942–2021) By Michole Eldred (Catawba/Eastern Cherokee)
92
William S. Yellow Robe Jr. (Assiniboine, 1960–2021) By America Meredith (Cherokee Nation)
93
cover Winter solstice sun setting behind the earthwork at First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City. Photo: James Pepper Henry (Kaw/Muscogee). Image courtesy of the First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City.
NO. 32, FALL 2021 | 5
COLLECTIONS SPOTLIGHT a free interactive monthly online experience Native artists bringing us together to experience the Coe’s collection.
issue no. 32, fall 2021 ISSN 2333-5548 (Print) • ISSN 2333-5556 (Online) Publishing Editor: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) Literary Editor: Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD (Euro-Canadian) Contributing Editor: Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke) Marketing Director: Barbara Harjo (Cherokee descent) Circulation Manager: James Bland Copy Editors: Jo Ann Reece and Rosa Cays (Chicana) Proofreaders: Staci Golar, Kerrie Monahan-Peterson, Jo Ann Reece, and Angela C. Villa (Chicana) Layout & Design: America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) and Corey Yazzie (Navajo) Social Media: Staci Golar, America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), Jackie Sevier (Northern Arapaho), and Stacy Pratt, PhD (Mvskoke)
Regional Representatives Great Basin: Melissa Melero-Moose (Northern Paiute/Modoc) Great Plains: Jackie Sevier (Northern Arapaho) Northeast: Kelly Church (Pottawatomi/Ottawa/Ojibwe) Northwest: Miranda Belarde-Lewis, PhD (Zuni/Tlingit) Southeast: Michole Eldred (Catawba/Eastern Band Cherokee) Southwest: Holly Coonsis (Zuni) and RoseMary Diaz (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Editorial Advisory Board heather ahtone, PhD (Choctaw/Chickasaw) Roy Boney Jr. (Cherokee Nation) James T. Bialac, JD Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo) Teri Greeves (Kiowa) Emily Haozous, PhD, RN (Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache) Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi, PhD (Sugpiaq) Linda Lomahaftewa, Hon. DHum (Hopi/Choctaw) Leah Mata Fragua (Coastal Chumash) Anya Montiel, PhD (Mestiza/Tohono O'odham descent) Jami Powell, PhD (Osage Nation) Mary Jo Watson, PhD (Seminole) India Rael Young, PhD
Advertising Representative Barbara Harjo (Cherokee descent), barbara@firstamericanartmagazine.com International distribution is 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. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork.
Lena Adam (Dene and Metis (attrib.)) Moccasins, 1992. Smoke tanned moose hide, red felt, flannel pajamas, and beads. NA0438
Visit coeartscenter.org for more information A partnership with First American Art Magazine
Coe Center
coeartscenter.org 1590B Pacheco Street Santa Fe, NM 87505 • (505) 983-6372 6 | FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM
Copyright ©2022 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. Any errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions. First American Art Magazine® is registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Questions About Subscriptions? For subscription services, changes of address, and wholesale inquiries: email circulation@firstamericanartmagazine.com or visit www.firstamericanartmagazine.com/subscriptions
Contact You can reach us at info@firstamericanartmagazine.com or: FAAM, 3334 W. Main St. #442, Norman, OK 73072
firstamericanartmagazine.com Facebook: FirstAmericanArt info@firstamericanartmagazine.com Instagram: FirstAmArt ads@firstamericanartmagazine.com Twitter: FirstAmArt circulation@firstamericanartmagazine.com First American Art Magazine has been Papyrus font–free since 2013.
ANITA FIELDS
SONNY ASSU
CATHERINE BLACKBURN
(Osage / Muscogee) Invited Artist Stillwater, Oklahoma
(Ligwiłda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nations) Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada
(English River Dene First Nation) Thornhill, British Columbia, Canada
ATHENA LATOCHA
STEVEN YAZZIE
(Húnjkpapȟa Lakota / Keweenaw Bay Ojibwe) Peekskill, New York
(Diné / Laguna Pueblo) Denver, Colorado
Catherine Blackburn (English River Dene First Nation) Trapline II, 2020, rabbit fur, beads, sinew, paint, traps, wood beam, nails Loan from the artist
Introducing the 2021 Eiteljorg Fellows PRESENTED BY
NOV 13, 2021–FEB 6, 2022 Eiteljorg.org/ContemporaryArtFellowship #EJShiftingBoundaries
SPONSORED BY
David H. and Barbara M. Jacobs Foundation David H. Jacobs
Fritz Scholder Beyond Stereotypes Through January 2, 2022.
Fritz Scholder, American Landscape (First State) (detail), 1976. Lithograph, 22 1/4 x 30 in. Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Bequest of Carl I. Singer, 2021.002 © Estate of Fritz Scholder
EDITOR'S GREETING
A
DESIRE TO DEVELOP a better picture of sustainability led me to read Jacqueline Novogratz’s brilliant Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World, in which she discusses how her desire to change the world led her to found Acumen, a nonprofit impact-investment fund that supports social entrepreneurs who create jobs and lift the poorest of the poor out of poverty through environmentally sustainable businesses. She describes businesses that sell affordable solar lights and manufacture antimalarial mosquito nets in Sub-Saharan Africa, eye surgery clinics and ambulance services in South Asia, and even a chocolate producer who works with the Arhuaco people in Colombia. With such worthy, pragmatic goals, I was surprised that Novogratz devoted her penultimate chapter to the concept of beauty. “To paraphrase Dr. King, there is beauty in the struggle,” Novogratz writes, and she continues, “Beauty inspires and motivates. Beauty sustains. The key for each of us is to define what beauty means for us, to think of it not as superfluous or indulgent but as an essential part of what it means to be human.”1 Not all Indigenous art of the Americas may immediately be held up as beauty. I would love, for example, if an Andean scholar wrote about the grotesque in Nazca ceramics. However, beauty does lie in truth telling, in acknowledging trauma, in healing, and insisting upon remaining Indigenous despite all the external pressures to assimilate into the global mainstream. I’m often glad that the role of Indigenous American art within the art world permits us to be earnest. We can state the truth, even if it is sometimes obvious: “The Earth is our mother. Water is life. We are here.” We can also unabashedly pursue beauty. I believe this is, in part, due to the widespread Indigenous perspective that artists are responsible for their creations. This is what they
America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), ᎠᏙᏚᎯᏐᏗᏱ ᏌᎪᏂᎨ ᎤᎩᏥᏍᎬ, Adoduhisodiyi Sakonige Ugitsisgv (Remaking Blue Dawn), 2012, acrylic on hardboard panel, 40 × 30 in., collection of the Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina. Image courtesy of the artist.
manifest into the universe. To express prayers and hope for the safety of one’s family or community often supersedes a Native artist’s concerns about art world expectations. Sasha Sarago (Wadjanbarra Yidinji and Jirrbal clans), founding editor of Ascension Magazine in Australia, says, “If we indigenize beauty, the meaning is transformed from ‘aesthetically pleasing’ to a state of divinity. Beauty now becomes spirit manifested.”2 She goes on to say, “You cannot appreciate beauty if you cannot recognize it in yourself. So how
do we change our perceptions of beauty? We have to get real with ourselves and start by asking, ‘Who am I? Where do I come from? The world that I live in—how did it come to be? And more importantly, Where to from here?’” The challenge of self-understanding, self-acceptance, and seeing the beauty from within can be facilitated by art. Art is often more a catalyst for questions than answers, and this dialogue between you and the art can help lead you to beauty within and without. —America Meredith (Cherokee Nation)
1. Jacqueline Novogratz’s Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2020), 221. 2. Sasha Sarago, “Pretty Hurts: It’s time to decolonise beauty,” TEDxSydney, YouTube video, Dec. 16, 2020, 11:12, web. 8 | FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM
THE SPACE BETWEEN ANITA FIELDS & MOLLY MURPHY ADAMS October 1 – November 21, 2021
Winter Tracks, by Molly Murphy Adams
www.108contemporary.org 108 East Reconciliation Way Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103 918.895.6302
Move Forward #2, by Anita Fields
FREE ADMISSION
This project is generously funded by Osage Nation Foundation, Flint Family Foundation, Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
NO. 32, FALL 2021 | 9