Artist inserts himself in ledger paintings

An odd story about non-Native artist Scott Seekins. Among other things, he does ledger-style paintings and inserts himself into the scenes:

Scott Seekins' Great Sioux Uprising series draws ire from Native community

By Erica RiveraOver the weekend, backlash ignited on the show’s Facebook event page, where the header image, drawn in the style of ledger art, features Seekins in his signature white suit, hands raised. He is standing before a Native man on horseback who wears a headdress and is armed with a bow and arrows. A white soldier lies bleeding from the head on the ground, gun in hand.

In the discussion section of the event page, commenters have accused Seekins of cultural appropriation, calling the exhibition “problematic” and “tone-deaf.” Several people have requested via Facebook, email, and phone that the gallery cancel the show.Gallery under fire over use of Native American imagery

Seekins says his doppelgänger is bearing witness to history. Others say he's glorifying himself at the expense of his subjects.

A couple of weeks later, the criticism continued:

“This is art about genocide” Native community pushes back against Scott Seekins

I agree with the critics. The paintings already "bear witness" to historical events. Seekins's insertion of himself doesn't improve the message or add value. A modern white guy sees a 150-year-old battle...so what?

Review of Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong

Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (Indigenous Americas Series)In this sweeping work of memoir and commentary, leading cultural critic Paul Chaat Smith illustrates with dry wit and brutal honesty the contradictions of life in “the Indian business.”

Raised in suburban Maryland and Oklahoma, Smith dove head first into the political radicalism of the 1970s, working with the American Indian Movement until it dissolved into dysfunction and infighting. Afterward he lived in New York, the city of choice for political exiles, and eventually arrived in Washington, D.C., at the newly minted National Museum of the American Indian (“a bad idea whose time has come”) as a curator. In his journey from fighting activist to federal employee, Smith tells us he has discovered at least two things: there is no one true representation of the American Indian experience, and even the best of intentions sometimes ends in catastrophe. Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong is a highly entertaining and, at times, searing critique of the deeply disputed role of American Indians in the United States. In “A Place Called Irony,” Smith whizzes through his early life, showing us the ironic pop culture signposts that marked this Native American’s coming of age in suburbia: “We would order Chinese food and slap a favorite video into the machine—the Grammy Awards or a Reagan press conference—and argue about Cyndi Lauper or who should coach the Knicks.” In “Lost in Translation,” Smith explores why American Indians are so often misunderstood and misrepresented in today’s media: “We’re lousy television.” In “Every Picture Tells a Story,” Smith remembers his Comanche grandfather as he muses on the images of American Indians as “a half-remembered presence, both comforting and dangerous, lurking just below the surface.”

Smith walks this tightrope between comforting and dangerous, offering unrepentant skepticism and, ultimately, empathy. “This book is called Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong, but it’s a book title, folks, not to be taken literally. Of course I don’t mean everything, just most things. And ‘you’ really means we, as in all of us.”Some glowing reviews:

Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong, by Paul Chaat Smith

Paul Chaat Smith and His Pal Irony Offer a Dose of Indian Reality

A Review of Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong by Paul Chaat Smith

Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (review)



Comments echo my thoughts

Some Goodreads comments give a more realistic picture of the book:Found this weeding the library's collection and its title cried out to be read. Another hidden gem. A collection of disparate essays on being Indian and about their place in the world. I enjoyed the first third of the book more than the remainder which discussed art and Indian artists. Smith is witty, cheeky and is all over issues, debunking stereotypes, endorsing stereotypes. You never quite know what he's thinking or where he stands as his views have evolved over time. We have the Indian as: drunk, noble savage, victim, etc. Great writing and insight from a guy who never graduated from college. A really witty essay on irony. Smith grew up as a suburban Indian, was involved with AIM, and then becomes a curator at the NMAI. Go figure.

I didn't have my mind blown by this book, but it was an interesting look into the mind and identity conflict of modern Native Americans. I especially liked the parts where they talk about within the Indian community, classification by tribe enrollment and blood percentage.

Parts I wanted to enlarge and hang on the wall or send to friends and family, they were so spot-on and funny and provocative. Others I found myself skimming. Maybe because it's a collection of previously released essays so there was some repetition, and also because some were written for museum exhibits. The great parts made it worth it, though.

Unfortunately, this book turned out to be a series of essays and lectures from the curator of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Indians. Although parts of it were indeed about the incorrect portrayal of American Indians in history books and movies, much of it was about current Indian artists. I was hoping to be educated about real American Indians but was not.

I was least compelled by the middle of the book, where each chapter was clearly originally written as an introduction to an art show with which Smith was connected (as writer or curator). There's a fair bit of repetition between the essay, and the words would be stronger if they ran alongside more examples of the art Smith's referencing. Still, there are some wonderful gems of insight, mockery, and politics in these essays too--very well worth the read.Comment:  I agree that Everything You Know is too much about the art world to be of general interest. The ideal reader is probably a museum-going, art-loving Indian like Smith.

"Seminole Spirit" = "savage swamp mermaid"

Victoria's Secret Photographer, Model Present 'Seminole Spirit' Imagery in NYCAn exhibit of photography that may elicit a variety of reactions in Indian country opens today at Stephan Weiss Studio in New York City. Called "Seminole Spirit," it consists of highly stylized photos taken in the wetlands and swamps of Florida by Australian shooter Russell James, who is most famous for his photography of Victoria's Secret models. A number of the photos feature Victoria's Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo, while others depict landscapes, alligators, and the Seminole people.

The project was undertaken in cooperation with the Seminole Nation of Florida, under the guidance of Chief James Billie and medicine man Bobby Henry.

"I didn't want [Prinsloo] to be representative of the Seminole, of course," James says, according to Gotham Magazine. "But I went to Seminole land and I shot things like the way they build, the way a man holds his hands—all these things [about] Seminole culture. Then I took Behati and created a fantasy character that I call Seminole Spirit. She represents this thing, this movement that I call relevant, modern, cultural, all of these things combined, and that's how Seminole Spirit came about."The 10 nude photographs of Prinsloo, which represent less than one-third of the material, are bound to grab the most attention. Of the experience, Prinsloo who is currently ranked 15th on the "Money Girls" list at models.com, said that "We painted my body gold as we tried to capture an idea we had of what ‘Seminole Spirit’ is […] I felt like a savage swamp mermaid on Seminole land, crazy."Comment:  A gold-painted savage swamp mermaid? Sounds stereotypical to me.

Talk about your exotic others. Indians as mermaids, fairies, swamp dwellers, savages...this "Seminole Spirit" is a one-woman Peter Pan menagerie. She could star in the next Pirates of the Caribbean as the movie's supernatural monster.

Does photographer Russell James, not to mention Chief Billie, realize that Seminoles are doctors, lawyers, and teachers? Why would you want to reinforce the idea that they're otherworldly creatures who live in a magical world of spirits and demons? That's already what people think, and now they've reinforced the idea.

What Tribe by Douglas Miles

Gathering of the Tribes: Artists Celebrate Indigenous Origins

By Rob SchmidtDouglas Miles, San Carlos Apache, the mastermind behind the company-turned-art-collective known as Apache Skateboards, has another culture-challenging project in the mix: What Tribe. This traveling exhibit features a collection of minority artists who address racism and stereotyping with their work.

The show kicked off at Denver University in Colorado, then appeared in Phoenix, and finally in East Los Angeles, where it was well received. The show at Self Help Graphics in the Boyle Heights neighborhood included a mural on the outside wall of the gallery created by several artists. Miles explains its origin:

“What Tribe kind of came about as an answer to the constant media misrepresentation that I saw.” This came to a head with two egregious examples: the No Doubt video with Gwen Stefani as an Indian temptress, and the Lone Ranger film with Johnny Depp as Tonto.

This cultural misappropriation points to one thing, says Miles: “Institutional racism. Which is a form of racism in America that runs so deep and so constant that people, Native people and non-Native people, almost don’t even know or accept that it exists.

“Institutional racism is very insidious, and it has many forms,” he adds. He sees it in galleries, films, books, museums and the media.Comment:  The article's original title was:‘What Tribe’ Addresses America’s Institutional RacismAn editor changed it for some reason, perhaps because it was too "challenging." Douglas Miles and I agree the original title was much better.

For more on the subject, see A Decade of Douglas Miles.

New Zealand PM's daughter in a headdress

PM's daughter releases more raunchy artwork

By Kirsty WynnPrime Minister John Key is backing his daughter over her latest series of artworks, which has attracted controversy because of its reference to native North American customs.

Stephanie Key posted the pictures online as she prepared to submit her portfolio at the Paris College of Art—an American private university with four campuses in Paris.

One of the pop-art style self-portraits, showing Key wearing an elaborate pink, feathered, war headdress, lacy pink knickers and a pink modesty star over her nipple, has been criticised for being culturally inappropriate.And:The war headdress of Native Americans and Canadian First Nations was used only for important occasions. Each eagle feather told a story and the wearer earned each feather in his or her headdress.

Desi Rodriguez Lonebear, a Native American Indian from the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Montana now based in New Zealand, said Key owes an apology to Native Americans and the tangata whenua of her own country.

"I think it's incredibly offensive and distasteful."

Hamilton-based Lonebear said it was even more shocking that the work was by the prime minister's daughter, and called for the photo to be removed from the collection.

"I see a nearly nude woman posing in a war bonnet headdress and holding a peace pipe — the most sacred of objects. It's totally mocking.

"It's very offensive that it's Prime Minister John Key's daughter. [It's] is a huge slap in the face for race relations and ultimately the cultural competency that I have been privileged to witness in New Zealand."

PM backs daughter after art cops flak

By Kirsty WynnMr Key was questioned over his daughter's controversial art while speaking to media after his address at the National Party conference in Queenstown today.

He said he and his wife Bronagh were "proud of her."

"You've got to remember these pictures were taken off Facebook and [that's] probably something that wouldn't happen to any other art student studying in Paris.

"She's going to make her way in the world ... I hope she does well and I'm incredibly proud of her.

"She's going to have her own view of what art is.

"I hope she's happy and she's healthy and she pursues her dream."John Key defends daughter's 'art'Prime Minister John Key has defended a raunchy photo of his daughter Stephanie wearing a pink traditional Native American headpiece saying the picture was not culturally insensitive.

Key responded to questions by the media at the National Party conference in Queenstown today about the latest pictures of his daughter Stephanie, 21, emerging online.Comment:  Actually, Key didn't say anything about cultural appropriation--at least in the quotes given above. Let's examine what he said:

He's "proud of her"--but not for any particular piece of "art."

People took the photos off Facebook, which presumably has a lower standard of quality. He implies they did something wrong--exposing her "art" to a more critical audience that would judge the racism and sexism.

She has her own view of what art--which presumably doesn't match his or anyone else's. What she considers art, others may consider cultural appropriation and racist stereotyping.

That's his defense of her? Okay, if you say so. To me, it sounds more like someone trying to subtly distance himself from her antics.

For more on hipsters in headdresses, see Coyne Apologizes for Dog Headdress and Little Mix Salutes Stereotypical "Warriors."

A decade of Douglas Miles

Another article by me:

An Unquiet Indian: 10 Years of Decks, Guns and Geronimo With Douglas Miles

By Rob SchmidtDouglas Miles, the founder of Apache Skateboards from the San Carlos reservation in Arizona, didn’t set out to be a professional artist. In fact, he started in social work.

“I’ve been making art ever since I can remember,” he says—around 25 years. But professionally, he spent his first 10 or 15 years in the social field.About his Apache X retrospective:The reactions have been positive, says Miles. The people who supported Apache Skateboards at the beginning continue to support it. Only one criticism has been a constant. “I like the art, they’ll say, but I don’t like the gun imagery. It kind of throws people off.”

He doesn’t apologize for that, and people aren’t saying it as much anymore. They got used to it, he explains, or they see “it’s part of the story.” That is, the story of Apache Skateboards, American history, and the history of the Apache people. “It’s not something that I’m trying to sugar-coat or whitewash.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Artist Who Plays Lozen and Apacheria: The Art of Douglas Miles.

Wrongheaded obsession with "vanishing" tribes

The wrongheaded obsession with “vanishing” indigenous peoples

Photographer Jimmy Nelson is just the latest artist to act like indigenous groups are about to die out

By Elissa WashutaNelson’s website presents a portrayal of an explorer who “found the last tribesmen and observed them” and an artist who serves as “the last visual witness of flawless human beauty.” While these words have a romantic resonance, Nelson’s mission is built on a horrifying assumption: that these indigenous peoples are on the brink of destruction. He couldn’t be more wrong.

The Māori people, featured in Nelson’s book, make up 15 percent of New Zealand’s total population, and the 2012 census estimate of 682,100 Māori residents is part of a consistent upward trend. Seven seats of the Parliament of New Zealand are designated as Māori. Their communities have been impacted by colonization and the resulting warfare, disease, land loss and assimilation. But, although contact brought changes, far from being erased, the Māori people continue to thrive.

Nelson approached his subjects with a predefined notion of indigenous authenticity, which doesn’t align with the realities that have faced indigenous communities since time immemorial. In an interview with CNN.com, Nelson says that he grew up in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Cameroon, and feels that Africa “has lost the majority of its ethnicity and authenticity. … [W]hat I saw in my childhood is not there anymore.” Similarly, Nelson told Time that he chose to leave out North American tribes because they haven’t retained their heritage. To critique the “authenticity” of another culture from the outside is a dangerous practice, and Nelson’s evaluation of communities during his lifetime fails to account for the flux experienced over thousands of years. Too often, onlookers expect indigenous peoples to remain static for the entirety of their existence, failing to consider their long histories of change before contact with outsiders.

The questioning and judgment of indigenous authenticity often have their roots in appearance. By treating people as art, Nelson plays into this notion. In his photos of the Kalam people of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, headdresses, necklaces and body ornamentation serve as visual representations of identity. Besides Nelson’s written descriptions of each group he photographs, visual cues are all we can use to form our understanding. He calls himself a “collector of truth,” but how much truth can fit into a work rendered in two dimensions, telling visual stories curated by an outsider? Personal strongholds of identity are often invisible.

Nelson’s publication of “Before They Pass Away” is reminiscent of Edward S. Curtis and his series “The North American Indian.” Beginning in the 1890s, Curtis took more than 40,000 photographs of North American Native peoples. While Curtis has been celebrated for his visual documentation of peoples and ways of life that are said to be gone, he is criticized for his manipulation of shots and subjects. Around 1910, he retouched a photo of Little Plume and his son Yellow Kidney, two Blackfoot men, to remove an alarm clock Curtis thought to be inconsistent with the otherwise traditional image.

In interviews, Nelson frequently cites Curtis as an inspiration for his work. Curtis’s posing of his subjects is treated as a scandal, but Nelson freely admits to the New York Times, “I directed the majority of the pictures, which Curtis also did.” While the people Curtis photographed often appear in their finest ceremonial attire, Nelson continues, “And 80 percent of the people I photographed are dressed as they do daily. About 20 percent are in their Sunday best.”

Curtis made significant contributions to the tribes he photographed by documenting points in their histories. In 1910, he photographed my great-great-grandmother’s half-sister, Virginia Miller, or Whylick Quiuck, with her canoe. He also recorded her account of the hanging of her father, Tumalth of the Cascades, by the U.S. government. Just a year earlier, the young Cascade chief added his signature to the Kalapuya Treaty of 1855. Virginia’s story of false accusations that led to her father’s death would have been lost without Curtis’s documentation. This is an important piece of the history of the Cascade people and of my family.

Although Curtis’s body of work stands as a contribution to tribal histories, he may have done just as much to further the notion of Native peoples as a vanishing race. According to Timothy Egan’s recent Curtis biography “Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher,” in 1907, Curtis wrote in a photo caption, “The thought which this picture is meant to convey is that the Indians as a race, already shorn of their tribal strength and stripped of their primitive dress, are passing into the darkness of an unknown future.” Of the Hopi, he wrote, “There won’t be anything left of them in a few generations and it’s a tragedy.” More than a hundred years later, the Hopi people continue to live in Hopituskwa, where they have retained their culture, religion and language.Comment:  For more on "vanishing Indians," see Adrienne Keene Reviews Lone Ranger and Vanishing Cultures Photography Project.

Artist defends Scout billboard

More on the billboard of a cowboy shooting an Indian:

Scout sculpture billboards taken down amid racism accusations

By Tony RizzoBillboards depicting a rifleman taking aim at the iconic Kansas City sculpture “The Scout” were taken down Monday after drawing a whirlwind of spirited reaction.

Artist A. Bitterman had rented the twin billboards near 19th Street and Baltimore Avenue in the Crossroads Arts District after Missouri Bank had accepted, but then rejected, the work for its Crossroads “Artboards” program.And:Bitterman did not respond to an email seeking comment, but in a post on his website dated Sunday, he sought to explain his intention:

“The one thing that can not be disputed in my image is the fact that the Scout is not an indian at all, it is a depiction of an Indian, a sculpture, created by and for white culture, and it carries a historical narrative of what white people at the turn of the 20th century wanted the indian to be. The artist on the scaffolding is confronting that narrative.”Comment:  I was wondering if this billboard might be some sort of artistic statement. It seemed a little bizarre that a city would allow a billboard perceived as racist hate message.

If I understand Bitterman, he's the rifleman on the billboard. And he's confronting the statue's stereotypical image of an Indian.

The statue supposedly is a metaphor for how mainstream culture has misrepresented, appropriated, and commodified Native cultures. And as a progressive artist, he wants to challenge the mainstream view of Indians by shooting and metaphorically destroying the stereotypes.

Okay, but there's one problem. It's a freakin' white man shooting an Indian. Few people are thoughtful enough to guess Bitterman's message, which is counterintuitive. Indeed, it's basically the opposite of what's on the surface.

And even if they glean a hint of Bitterman's message, as I did, it's ambiguous at best. It uses a racist act of hatred to allegedly counter racist acts of hatred. That's like destroying a village to save it.

This is the same problem faced by the German artist who displayed Chief Wahoo as an "ironic" commentary on mascots. And by hipsters in headdresses who are clever enough to say they're mocking racist stereotypes. Racism isn't a critique of racism just because you say or think it is.

As I've said in such cases, if a typical viewer can't tell the difference between racism and a satire of racism, there is no difference. We can't guess the instigator's intent, or read it on some placard. If the satire or commentary on racism isn't obvious, it might as well not exist.

70,000 march for reconciliation

Reconciliation walk turnout amazes organizers, as an estimated 70,000 brave downpour in VancouverA sea of people that organizers estimated at 70,000 braved pouring rain and chanted their way through downtown Vancouver on Sunday in Canada’s first reconciliation walk.Thousands walk for reconciliation in B.C.Thousands of people braved a pouring rain in Vancouver Sunday to take part in a reconciliation walk marking the sad history of residential schools in Canada, erupting in a raucous cheer as the daughter of American civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. urged all Canadians to move forward and heal.Dr. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., calls on Canada to "truly empower First Nations"She was shocked to hear about the pain and suffering Aboriginal people have gone through in Canada's Indian residential school system, Dr. Bernice King, Martin Luther King’s youngest child, told a group of media yesterday at the Marriott Hotel.Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. calls for end of economic injustice against First NationsThe daughter of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. says economic injustice must be addressed as part of the reconciliation process with Canada's First Nations.Works of art at PNE give expression to Indian residential school tragediesInstead of the usual popcorn and cotton candy sold during the annual summer fair at the PNE, First Nations offer handcrafted jewelry and clothing and art installations with historical and political messages in the Agrodome.Comment:  For more on boarding schools, see End Experiments, Honor Apology and Native American Boarding School Project.

Ceramic stereotypes and Native erotica

Two recent art exhibits worth noting:

A Portrait of Gwen Stefani as a Boom Box: Sly Ceramic Stereotypes

'RezErect' Reveals Secret World of Native Erotica

Below:  "'Stereotype: The Stefani,' a ceramic sculpture by Cannupa Hanska Luger."

The Last American Indian on Earth

Performance Artist Explores Stereotypes In 'The Last American Indian On Earth'

By Katherine BrooksImagine a man dressed in stereotypically "traditional" Native American garb, donning a massive white feathered headdress, an ornamental tunic, and face paint. Now imagine that man performing mundane tasks in Washington, DC, like grocery shopping, riding an escalator or having lunch at a local restaurant.

What is your reaction?

The bizarre quandary is put forth by performance artist Gregg Deal, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe originally based in northwestern Nevada. In a striking film project titled "The Last American Indian on Earth," Deal dresses himself in purposefully questionable attire and goes about his daily business, daring passersby to confront their own preexisting ideas about the modern Native American person.

"The purpose of this project is to raise questions about Native people, often viewed as a relic, and how they're perceived in the modern age," Deal explains in a press statement about the work. "How will [people] react if they saw me, a Native dressed in buckskin and a headdress, doing something as mundane as shopping for cereal at the grocery store? How will they react if they saw me eating Chinese food in China Town or taking pictures of buffalo at the National Zoo?"Comment:  In a video, Deal questions a black man who made a "yi-yi-yi" sound when he saw Deal. The man says he can't be a racist because the Washington Redskins are his team. *headdesk*

Another Native artist else did something similar to this, I think. He stood somewhere, alternated between traditional and modern clothes, and observed how people posed with him for pictures. Inevitably they wanted to pose with the traditional Indian, not the modern one.

For more on challenging Native art, see Vanishing Cultures Photography Project and Make It Pop Skewers Misappropriation.

Trickster skateboards and playing cards

Ravens on Decks: The Art of Trickster Skateboards

By Cristina OldsA couple of innovative young artists are melding the ancient tradition of formline drawing with the hip canvas of skateboard decks. "The demand for Native art skateboards was made very clear by the popularity of my early hand-painted decks," Rico Lanáat’ Worl (Tlingit/Athabascan) of Trickster Company said in a recent interview.

Worl painted decks for himself and his family first, but soon saw the need for an affordable line of manufactured boards sporting his digitized designs. He also paints custom artboards, and says his clientele are split fairly evenly between skaters who actually ride the boards and collectors who hang them on their walls.

"I started painting on decks just for fun, just for myself," Worl said. "It continues to be my canvas of choice while I study the old masters and the new masters of formline design, in the rich history of Tlingit and Athabascan art." Flowing two dimensional formline designs featuring northwestern coastal sea creatures and other symbols have adorned totem poles and house posts for thousands of years.

Formline Playing Cards from Ace Artist Rico Worl

By Sara ShahriariArtist Rico Lanáat’ Worl, Tlingit/Athabascan, designs skateboards and snowboards, but often branches out to other products. His newest design is playing cards that rethink the classic figures through formline, the graphic indigenous art style native to the Pacific Northwest. The only problem was that Worl needed an order of 2500 cards to get printing underway. In search of money to fund that order he turned to Kickstarter, the online fundraiser. "I made these cards to represent our living art of the Northwest coast: its adaptability, resilience, and quality," Worl, who is based in Juneau, Alaska, wrote on his Kickstarter page.

Adding a touch of Native artistry to an everyday item like a deck of cards is a natural step for Worl. "Growing up in a family that is close to the culture ensured the arts would be close by," he says.

Comment:  For more on the subject, see Tlingit Artists Designs Skateboards.

Andy Warhol: Cowboys & Indians

Warhol exhibit to open at E. Ore. reservation

By Associated PressAndy Warhol's work will be featured at a museum on the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton.

The exhibit--Andy Warhol: Cowboys & Indians--opens Friday at the Tamßstslikt Cultural Institute. It coincides with the museum's 15th anniversary.

Museum curator Randall Melton says Warhol's work is rarely seen in places like Eastern Oregon, and the exhibit will enhance the tribal museum's reputation.

"Cowboys and Indians" is a suite of prints published a year before Warhol's 1987 death.

Warhol drew from familiar icons of popular western culture, such as Annie Oakley and John Wayne, and set them against American Indian images and artifacts.Comment:  For more on Andy Warhol, see Warhol Respected Indians and Warhol and Lichtenstein on Display.

Pac-Man meets pueblo

Tradition meets cartoons

By Kathaleen RobertsNatay’s stairsteps-meet-street-art approach fuses Mimbres abstraction and graffiti techniques, tablitas and Japanese anime. It’s a hybrid of traditional motifs infused with the vibrant colors and minimalist forms of cartoons and comic books. Think Pac-Man meets pueblo.

His “Kiva Head” design combines an Angry Birds scowl with the traditional tablita headdress used in ceremonial dances.

“It’s actually the symbol for clouds in pueblo culture,” Natay explained. “It’s also the steps of the kiva.”

“You see so much Native American cartoon imagery that’s so stereotypical,” he continued. “I wanted to get away from that. I wanted to create cartoon characters.”Comment:  For more on Native pop art, see Veregge's Superhero Totems and Birch Bark and Skateboards in Mni Sota.

Below:  "Ehren Kee Natay (Kewa Pueblo/Diné) poses with a T-shirt he designed for the upcoming Santa Fe Indian Market." (Jim Thompson/Journal)

Stereotypical Whistling Warrior statue

Wedel creates sculpture to honor American Indian

By Tim HoranIt stands 10-feet tall.

It weighs about 500 pounds.

It is designed to whistle in the wind, thus the name Whistling Warrior.

It is a sculpture made by Steve Wedel of Abilene.

It's a freakin' chief throwing an arrow-like spear. So Plains chief stereotype? Check. Savage warrior stereotype? Check.

It's already a failure in terms of representation, but let's hear Wedel explain his tribute:Wedel said he has always had this great empathy for the Indian Nation.

“At one time historians say there were three to 18 million Indians living in America,” he said. “Over 90 percent of those died from the diseases brought in by the European immigrants. On our farm (25 miles south of Abilene) we have some residential artifacts. So this Indian is made to go to our cabin to honor those Indians.

“My goal was to make somebody that was proud and strong and athletic,” he added.

“One thing about the Indians, they lived in harmony with the land,” he said. “They had a great society. It’s not our fault that it happened but it did happen. They were part of the land like the animals. They didn’t dominate the land like we have done. They didn’t cut down the trees. They lived with what was there in a really pretty great society."The Indian Nation"...singular. As if all Indians were the same. That could be writer Horan's choice of words, but still.

"Proud and strong and athletic." I.e., primitive and animal-like, not modern and intelligent.

"Part of the land like the animals." Or just "like animals," period.

Everything about this sculpture suggests Indians as wolves in human form--kind of like the beast-men in Twilight. Thanks for the millionth example of this stereotypical and arguably racist "honor," but no thanks.

For more on Indian monuments, see Avon Buys Generic "Brave" Statue and Indian Statue for Staten Island.

Potawatomi painted Titanic mural

The Native American Artist Behind a Titanic Mural Gets His Due

By Vincent Schilling“We sent the Titanic Historical Society a letter asking for permission if we could use this mural, and we used this as the backdrop of our entire gala. We knew the mural was signed, and there was talk of a second person but no one knew who it was.”

Wanting to get to the bottom of the matter, Pulling decided to do some research to learn more about the second signature.

"I spent 34 years in law enforcement, and I can find people if I need to find them," said Pulling. "It is a whole lot easier today that was 30 some odd years ago. I am retired now but it didn't take me five minutes to get something on James' Facebook page and another five minutes to get a phone number."

Wahwassuck, meanwhile, had caught wind of the omission from an inaccurate April 16 story at DelawareOnline.com: "Titanic tribute honors special connection with First State."

Pulling reached Wahwassuck at his home on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation in northeastern Kansas at 3:30 PM, and their conversation quickly established that Wahwassuck was indeed the artist. An hour and a half later, Pulling was telling gala attendees the story about Perry and Wahwassuck.Comment:  For more on Native murals, see Native Murals at Jazz Fest and

First painting of Natives ever?

Images of Native Americans Revealed During Vatican Fresco CleaningDuring meticulous cleaning of a fresco titled “Resurrection” painted by Italian artist Pinturicchio on a wall in the Hall of Mysteries in the Borgia apartments, the Vatican declared in its newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, that they may have uncovered the first painted images of Native Americans.

“Just behind the Resurrection, behind a soldier who is enthralled by the incredible event he is seeing, you are able to discern nude men wearing feathers who appear to be dancing,” says Vatican Museums Director Antonio Paolucci, according to a report in the Gazzetta del Sud, about the revealed images. The images were painted in 1494 shortly after Christopher Columbus returned from what he had dubbed the “New World” and handed over his diary describing what he saw.

“It would be far-fetched though to believe that the papal court was oblivious to what Colombo saw when he got to the other end of the world,” Paolucci said. “If the impressions of those nude, good, happy men who gave parrots as gifts and painted their bodies red and black are the dancing figures of Pinturicchio’s Resurrection, this would be the first representation of Native Americans.”How native Americans hid in the Vatican for more than 500 years

Native Americans hidden in the Vatican for 509 years

Native American encounters took art into pastures nude

Traditionally the rebirth of nudity in art was traced to classical influence, but long-lost images of the New World in a Pinturicchio fresco hint at a different provenance

Comment:  For more on the subject, see Europeans Hated Indians' Virtues and Stereotypical Thanksgiving Paintings.

Below:  "Nude figures in the background of Pinturiccio's Resurrection."

Native murals at Jazz Fest

New Orleans Jazz Fest displays Native American graffiti-style murals

By Doug MacCashThe New Orleans Jazz Fest will include graffiti-style murals by Arizona artists Douglas Miles and Thomas "Breeze" Marcus. The 2013 fest places an emphasis on the arts, culture and cuisine of Native Americans. Miles is part of the San Carlos Apache Nation, Marcus descends from the Tohono O'odham Nation.

During an eerily quiet visit to the mostly deserted Fair Grounds on Thursday (April 26) afternoon, I met Miles in the ground floor of the grandstand, where the 80- foot mural he and his collaborator painted earlier this week spans an entire wall. The dramatic black on white aerosol painting has the feel of an enormous pen and ink drawing.

At the center of the symbol-laden image is a huge angel, which Miles said represents the Crescent City. People everywhere know that New Orleans is the mother of much of American music, he said, but people also know that the city "has been through a lot."

The face of the angel figure is based on the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell's cultural heritage coordinator, Rachel Ornelas. She posed next to the painting with her hands pressed together in prayer to demonstrate the likeness.Comment:  For more on Native murals, see Native Mural Protests Ethnic Studies Ban and American Indian Mural Krew.

Motorcycle tribute to Little Bighorn

Honorable hog: Motorcycle pays tribute to Little Bighorn

By Kim FundingslandA Minot man has taken his interest in frontier history to a fascinating level. Mark Hamilton has always been intrigued with Native American history and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Now he has brought his enthusiasm and knowledge of a transformational era in U.S. history to life through an imaginative venue a 2004 Sportster Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

"I did a lot of research. I thought for a long time about what I wanted on the bike," said Hamilton. "I knew I'd have Sitting Bull and Custer and also decided on Gaul. Gaul's presence is such a magnificent physical specimen. He has great character in his face."

Gaul was a Sioux chief and one of the leading inspirations for fellow warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Mark Hamilton, of Minot, looks at a motorcycle that has been transformed into a story-telling tribute for participants in the Little Bighorn battle of 1876. Hamilton and Towner artist Andrew Knutson teamed with historians to accurately depict various scenes incorporated into the bike.Comment:  For more on Indians and motorcycles, see Steel Ponies at the Eiteljorg.

NIGA 2013 (Day 3)

As we headed over to the trade show floor, Chad and I were distracted by a spectacle: public art made of tin cans. We inspected that for half an hour before heading to our booth.

Victor and Lucy were there, so Chad and I took a walk around the floor. Chad picked up some insurance literature for his new business venture. We spotted Billy Mills at his booth and chatted with him for a bit. Chad bought some Southwest jewelry for the women in his life.

We returned to the booth and spent the rest of the abbreviated day there. Several gaming celebs and a few entertainment celebs (activist Sonny Skyhawk and filmmaker Steven Lewis Simpson, again) came by. Peter MacDonald the former Navajo chairman and Dennis Banks the AIM activist were nearby, forming a mini-celebrity row in the 1500 aisle.

We were supposed to meet someone for dinner, but everyone took off and so did we. After a long drive to Victor's house and a shorter drive to my house, the trip was over.

Pix of the day:

NIGA (Day 3)--March 27, 2013
Driving home from NIGA--March 27, 2013

And a little about the events and awards we didn't see:

National Indian Gaming Association draws crowd to Arizona

For more on NIGA, see NIGA 2013 (Day 2) and NIGA 2013 (Day 1)