George Longfish retrospective

Defining culture:  Prominent Native artist shares his life's work at UMOne of his works of art depicts a photo of Longfish standing below Chicago skyscrapers. The black-and-white image is imprinted with stacked red-lettered words that read: “Tribal. Seneca. Warrior. Artist. Healer.”

The image is meant to remind people that Natives are very much a part of contemporary culture. Too often, he said, people look at an Indian and fall into a stereotypical greeting. They want to call him “chief,” he said. “It's hard for them to say hello to you in the present time. It's like the only way they can connect to you is to go into the past.”

They grapple with reality: “You survived?”