REMEMBRANCE compels us to strengthen our minds, open our hearts, and remember things. You will find records of people and events, careful examinations of the visual world, and investigations into issues that matter to Haskell students, such as beauty, humor, mental health, and the sudden death of Cole Brings Plenty.
You will also find ledger art, a spooky collaboration between one end of history and another, in which Indigenous stories overwrite the colonial records used to erase them. This uniquely North American Native art form started in the boarding schools and prison camps, and thrives today as artists superimpose colorful new narratives onto rare 140-year- old ledger papers.
The images can speak for themselves, but the artist statements are also illuminating.
This is just a sample of artwork HINU students created this semester! For more, please visit our Instagram @hinuarts. Onward Haskell!
Cover image: Seqouya Bettelyoun (Oglala Lakota Sioux), Ride For The Ancestors (detail), colored pencil on antique ledger paper from 1880.
Morgan Pargeets Northern Ute
Where to go
Colored pencils
Kansas Clifford Braveboy Oglala and Sicangu Lakota Patriot
Acrylic markers on antique ledger paper
Unci with a Conch Earring Oil on Canvas
I made a painting of my grandmother as “The Girl with a Pearl Earring”. She sits with her red shawl wrapped around her. I wanted to represent Native people in the same light as the young beautiful white girls from classical paintings. I wanted to showcase the ‘opposite’ of them, in a sense — the old Native people who are also beautiful.
Seqouya Bettelyoun Oglala Lakota Sioux Ride For The Ancestors
Mixed media on ledger paper, transmotion
This ledger art represents the annual Wounded Knee Memorial Ride. In the illustration, you can see that the riders arrived at the destination of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre site in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Three of the riders are depicted with an eagle staff and riding on horses galloping towards the massacre site. The rider clothed in all red represents Cole Brings Plenty and other MMIWM. Cole often participated in this ride.
Frank Henderson's (Arapaho) artwork inspires me, as does the idea of “transmotion,” a spiritual kind of motion that takes place within ledger drawings.
I’ve been inspired by Melissa Cody's beautiful weaving called “Dopamine Dream.” It reflects her unique style, incorporating bold colors, distorted patterns, and geometric shapes. This drawing is meant to give you a sense of rush in colors. It’s all about the vibrant patterns and colors that can make you feel different emotions.
Savannah Vega Cherokee Nation/Pascua Yaqui
Written in Blood
Ink and blood on parchment
Written In Blood is a mixed media piece that contains the first three words of the US Constitution and my Tribal identification number written in a solution of ink and my own blood. I wrote the letters with a quill in the same way it was originally written, and then I accidentally spilled ink over the parchment, right over the word “people”. We are not “the people” the Constitution was written for. I think - with the theme of this year’s art show being “Remembrance”- it is also important to remember that the oldest written law of the United States is written in Indian blood. Writing those same words in my own blood is an act of defiance, and to make people aware that the document we base all current laws on is inherently exclusive.
Connie Hunter Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe
Void
Sumi ink on paper
Charon Hill Prairie Band Potawatomi
Those We Have Lost Acrylic on canvas
The red fingerprints represent Indigenous people who are missing or murdered.
This painting represents and honors all missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) to bring awareness to this crisis. Thousands of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people have been reported across North America, and many ca ses do not receive the proper amount of attention from law enforcement, and cases remain unsolved. I drew inspiration from Cannupa Hanska Luger's "Every One” ceramic bead project, where he uses multiple clay beads to represent actual individuals our community has lost.
Angelina Giago Oglala Lakota
Legacy of Resilience: A Tribute to Lakota Strength Materials:
Photos, gold paint, and lettering.
In this collage, I focused on embodying the strength and resilience that defines my Lakota identity. I aim to share the struggles and victories that have shaped history, each photo telling a part of our journey through difficult times. Those golden symbols are the heartbeat, carrying their stories and giving the images a vibrant energy. As you look at the canvas, you'll see it come alive, and tell us how we've faced intergenerational trauma, found our way back to our culture, and stood up for what we believe in through political activism.
This piece serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of the Lakota people, celebrating our resilience and honoring the ongoing struggle for justice and cultural revitalization.
Destiny Hunter Delaware Nation
Brown Crane
Ledger paper, paper, dry erase marker, glue
I really like Jason Lujan’s artwork of a fancy dancer wearing origami cranes in his regalia. Birds are a fundamental representation of many Indigenous communities, and the brown wings of this crane embodies the melanin of our skin.
Logan Quigley Cherokee Nation
Red Money
Acrylic on U.S. dollar bill
The aim of this work was to explore the intersection of commerce, power, and culture. I invite viewers to consider the long and complex relationship between Native Americans and the dominant United States economic systems. I was inspired by Brian Jungen's People's Flag and Steven Paul Judd's dollar bill art, and the way that they indigenize typical American symbols to help them become potent visual statements. I want my art to challenge notions of value and ownership, while asserting the resilience and presence of Native American voices within contemporary art.
Reece Chitwood Lenape
Addiction as Armor
Zyn cans, Jute twine, painted wooden beads
My piece is a bone armor breastplate with empty Zyn cans in place of the bone. I used a picture of a Sioux bone breastplate as a design template for this piece. Bone armor is used to protect both our physical selves and our spiritual selves. To make the armor, I used a soldering iron to melt holes into the plastic cans and threaded twine through the cans and the beads. My artistic inspirations for this piece were Cannupa Hanska Luger's "Future Ancestral Technologies" and Brian Jungen's sneaker masks. Both of these artists use contemporary materials to create traditional pieces of clothing, a practice known as "indigenizing." The Zyn cans represent a modern Indigenous identity, as both Indigenous identities and the way in which nicotine is consumed have been undeniably warped and changed by Western influences . My intention with the piece overall was to represent how people use drugs and addiction as an armor against physical, mental and spiritual pain.
Looking Back
Ledger paper, Tribal newspaper, acrylic paint, thread, canvas
This piece was inspired by George Longfish, known for his creative collages. The ledger paper is held to the canvas by glue and sewn on with thread. One half of the canvas is the bright and colorful woodland applique design, meant to be symmetrical. The other half contains photos of Menominee women and children dating back to the early and mid-1900s. I wanted to incorporate women and children to represent the bond between mother and child, and to also represent memories and childhood.
Jamie Howard Navajo
Readymade Childhood
Photographs on child’s bulletin board
Sunny Wakayuta Hualapai
Ja bay you ma'yu
Ledger paper, colored pencils
Yima'k ba jiya': mal, we dance to send the spirit on their journey.
Rayfield
Appenay Jr. Shoshone/Ute
Is your Pendleton even real?...
String, Wax, Glass beads, lanyard, Canvas, graphite, Scotch tape, and red pen
The lanyard contains an assortment of random colored beads juxtaposed with a fire pattern—a reference to many artworks done by Jeffry Gibson, who possessed my creativity with his amazing patterns and colors. Tribal patterns mix with mine, the red lines and greyish polka dots, something I’ve been drawing since middle school.
Kaydence Platero
Fleeting Beauty
Mixed media mobile
I was inspired by Nicholas Galanin’s “The Good Book Vol.15” made from a Bible. This baby mobile is made from the very pages of Roe V Wade, adorned with tampon and birth control warning labels. The ornaments are modeled after the fading beauty that lies within flowers, often overlooked. We recognize the dullness within these lines of paper that were once taken for granted. 'My body, my choice' has died.
Holly Bedell Ojibwe
Universal Love
Glass beads
I made a beaded portrait of the legendary musician Bob Marley using a loom method, which has been a part of Ojibwe (Chippewa) culture for many years. Universal Love is more extensive than a typical loom piece. I had to special order a loom big enough to complete my project, along with extralong needles. It is 95 rows long by 94 columns wide. I worked on the pattern for just over a year between work and school.
Sitsahkoom (Thunder) Smith Blackfeet
Pouch
Rawhide, red felt, sinew, buckskin, paint
I made a pouch to keep my iniskiim (buffalo stone) in for good luck and to keep me safe. I learned to make this pouch from my grandma, Honey. Historically, Blackfeet used rawhide to make things like the pouch, cylinders, and bags. Like me keeping my iniskiim in my rawhide pouch, they can be made bigger to keep other things like ceremonial items to make up a ceremonial bundle. My pouch is painted with a buffalo design. They can have other designs painted on them or they can be kept blank. Oscar Howe influenced me because of “Howe” perfect he is with his drawings.
Tiyanna Begay Navajo
Untitled Beads and Vans
I enjoy shopping for clothes and shoes. This is a pair of black vans I have only worn a few times and have not gotten around to donating or selling. I was inspired by Jamie Okuma to bead onto the shoes, as well as by my Nali, who is a huge motivating factor for my decision to go to school. My Nali taught me everything I know about our culture, traditions, and beading. I used small jewelry seed beads approximately size 13, with a beading thread, a needle, and pliers. I had to use the pliers to grip the needle when working through the thick fabric of the shoes.
My grandma used to make rugs all the time. Whenever I used to go over to her house, she would be making rugs or working on one. I made my own rug design, which isn’t really like hers, but I like how it looks.
Elon Grant Omaha
Hé-da Wa-chi (To rejoice)
Gel ink on photos
Inspired by the strong performances from our women, I was reminded of what our ancestors see when they look down on us. I wanted to represent what I would like to think they see.
Mu Roberts Stoney Nakoda/Chahta
Horse Mask
Nike shoe box, old tee shirt, tape, and paint.
I grew up around horses most my life so for this art project I am honoring the horse with this horse mask. I was inspired by Brian Jungen to make this mask with a Nike box. The designs have different meanings for me and my tribe. My family was on the rodeo circuit and they always held these horses with high respect so they made them masks and painted them to show that respect to the horses.
Caleb Johnson Diné and Afro American
The Road Home
Digital photograph
I know I am home when I see San Francisco Peak on the horizon. Seeing the peak on the horizon brings my soul a feeling of safety, warmth, and love like the feeling you get when you share a long embrace with a loved one.
I crafted this image from a picture I took during my nostalgic journey back home. I manipulated this photo because I thought the cloud above San Francisco Peak looked interesting. It looked mysterious and out of place. After creating this image, I wonder if this is what someone would see as they enter the other realm.
Amak Michel-Fuller Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
The Ball Basketball, dreamcatchers, feathers, tape
My inspiration came from Brian Jungen’s Intimidation Mask made from Air Jordans . I wanted to take something that I love, something that is unexpected as art material, and turn it into art by indigenizing it in my own way.
Taryn LittleYellowMan Northern Arapaho
Screaming Native Photography
I wore my jingle dress & a lot of my dad's old regalia that he used when he was a grass dancer to stage Edvard Munch’s famous painting, because I appreciate a lot of his work & look up to him as an artist. Also, The Scream speaks to feeling anxiety & being worried, which is what I’ve been feeling lately.
bed rot photography
I made a digital photograph of me "bed rotting," a term that refers to different habits people tend to do when they aren't in the best mental mindset. I gathered materials from around my room and things I use every day. The intention is to bring more awareness to mental health and also physical health.
Morgan Noisey Cherokee Nation
Untitled Etching, 4” x 6”
I really enjoyed learning how to make prints in the workshop here at Haskell. One of our guest instructors, Kelli Pratte, inspired me to try etching onto plexiglass. It was much harder than I thought, but I liked the challenge!
Tory Grassrope Lower Brule Sioux Fallen tears created great yearsand new fears. Ledger paper, oil pastel, crayon, water color, and pencil.
The main goal of these drawings is to evoke reflection on the opportunities and paths created and opened by our ancestors' resistance. I have incorporated a deconstructed U.S. flag and a medicine wheel made out of hands to show the choice to participate in our culture expressively in this day and age. The drawing on the right was created with Tokeya Waci U at his workshop earlier this semester, and it led to the other one, which is a more personal piece that I wanted to reflect my roots and culture. I added the snake because the Sioux's name originated from the French mistranslation of the Ottawa word Nadouessioux (foreigner) to Nadowessioux (little snakes).
Russell Parker Jr. Confederated Salish and Kootenai
March 6th
Prismacolor colored pencil on paper
Tashina Rose Nizhonii Hafen Navajo
Native history is also queer history
Colored pencil on antique ledger paper
Learning about my culture, and uncovering queer history, has helped me find my own identity.
Kansas Clifford Braveboy Oglala na Sicangu Lakota
Ancestors Embrace
Mixed media
I gathered materials from the classroom as well as from my home to create a collage is in memory of lost loved ones. My aim is to illustrate the journey of a departed loved one guided by ancestors to the spirit world. Here, among our ancestors, we will find true safety, transcending the physical realm and returning to the embrace of the universe. It offers solace knowing they have returned home across the river, awaiting our own journey where we too shall reunite with them.
Taylor Grant Otoe-Missouria, Comanche, Sac and Fox
Goodfellas
Digital Collage
I made a Steven Paul Judd inspired digital collage, taking my favorite movie cover (Goodfellas) and replacing Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci with three Chiefs from my tribes. On the left is Deer Ham Deer Thigh, who is a descendent of the Otoe-Missouria tribe and also my great great great grandfather. In the middle is the most feared Chief of them all, Quanah Parker, Chief of the Quahadi band of Comanches. And on the right is Keokuk, descendent of the Sac and Fox tribe. I share the same roots as these three Chiefs, I am enrolled Otoe-Missouria (Buffalo Clan), which I inherit from both my mom and dad. My father is an enrolled Comanche so I am a descendent of the Comanche tribe (Quahadi Band), and my mother is enrolled Sac and Fox so I am a descendent of the Sac and Fox tribe (Thunder Clan). Altogether this took one whole day just to get the design how I wanted it, print it out at Walmart, then find a frame big enough for it.
Brandon Colbert Muscogee Creek/Seminole
ChiefMichael Myers: Reimagining Fear
Colored pencils
I explore the dense relationship between cultural stereotypes and identity, particularly in the context of Native American representation. The central figure of Michael Myers, decorated with a Native headdress, serves as a symbol of the pervasive stereotype of Natives as inherently evil and to be feared. By subverting this stereotype and placing it within the framework of a well-known horror icon, I aim to highlight the silliness and harmful effects of such basic categories. I was inspired by Stephen Paul Judd, who combines pop culture with traditional imagery. The upside -down flag represents the victories we have had over colonizers trying to take us out. It means we as Indigenous people do not fear the white man.
Taryn Tsosie Navajo
Serenity
Sumi ink
Kyra Toreen Bdewakanton Dakota
Circle of Control
Beads, n ylon cord, thread
Han Mitakuyapi, Kyra Toreen emakiyapi ye! Mdewakanton Damakota, Cansayapi hemantahan, g’a Haskell Indian Nations University ed wabdawa. Hello, my relatives, my name is Kyra Toreen! I am a dweller of Spirit Lake, and I am Dakota. I was raised on the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation, and I study at HINU.
Circle of Control is a beaded bracelet. I chose to follow in the footsteps of Carl Beam with the idea of taking everyday objects artful and significant. This bracelet does not have a stopping point, it is simply a circle with “roadways” that lead to a stoplight depicted through the beading.
Stoplights and roadways are typical everyday experiences for everyone. It is interesting to look at how these American inventions control all of us from above.
Sierra Brady Comanche
Only a Quarter
Elmer’s glue, cotton pads, paintbrushes, acrylic paint, beads, nylon string, fake blood, foundation, feather chain, photoshop.
This is a digital photograph of my surrealistic take on the required blood quantum measured for Indigenous Peoples. As I am “onl y a quarter” Comanche and live in a country conflicted in determining what makes someone a real Indian, I have personal experience in the confusion that arises when living amongst Indigenous and Nonindigenous communities and have felt constant pressure to prove my Native ancestry.
This project is intended to bring awareness to the forced representation and constant pressure of exposing my Native American culture through literally “Indigenizing” my face. I am careful not to exceed a quarter percentage , to call to attention the ridicule experienced for not looking “traditional enough” and the fear of being seen as a pan-Indian who is trying too hard. My work was inspired by numerous artists, such as Erica Lord’s The Tanning Project (2005), Gregg Deal’s Indian Pedigree (2018), and Rebecca Belmore’s Fringe (2007); much like each of these pieces, my body is the canvas, and my experience is the inspiration.
Henry Chee Navajo
A Spring in the Forest Photography
I chose to remix the famous Edward Curtis photograph “An Oasis in the Badlands” to connect with the Oglala warrior named Red Hawk, as well as to “fake” my own photograph. I replaced Red Hawk with Optimus Prime from the Transformers Masterpiece Series line, and I used my dog, Jake, a Chihuahua and a good boy, as the horse.
Tierra Russell San Carlos Apache
Unfinished Passion
Glass beads, felt, thread, jewels
I gathered materials from the Library during a beading event to create these earrings. I grew up around a family of artists. I remember wa tching my aunt bead moccasins, earrings, medallions, and more. My aunt has inspired me to bead. I loved how she’d calmly weave the needle through the beads and pull them tight so they wouldn't break or budge. When I bead, it brings me immense calmness and takes my stresses away.
Arianna Riding In Gonzalez Pawnee
Uppit’s Collage
Digital Collage
I got the idea from an Instagram carousel. This is a digital collage of my Uppit (grandpa). I had to find pictures of him on different sites and from different family members. I then used Canva to line the pictures up and edit them. I made this collage about my Uppit because he is important to me. He helped raise me and I will always be grateful for that.
This is a photomontage of my youngest son's braids on top of a picture of ledger paper. I want to bring awareness to the problems that boys go through with having long hair. In remembrance of Cole! #BRAIDS4COLE
The Dawn has Ended
A New Horizon is Emerging
Ysabellah SongHawk Ihanktowan Nakota Thó-y!
Mixed Media on ledger paper
Growing up, my biggest goals were to attend every powwow around, the big ones and the small community ones. I wanted to dance everywhere and anywhere! Wherever I went, I was complemented and was told how well I carried myself in the circle and out of it. And even though I lost that spark in me as I grew older, I strive to see all the little girls in my life the same way I was growing up; PROUD . Thó translates to blue in the Dakota language. Dakhóta okáǧe translates to Dakota Style. I wanted to indigenize a favorite show for the younger ones (even us big kids) in my family. All of the indigenized artwork pieces shown in class were powerful, and I wanted mine to be the same way. As I was drawing each character out, I envisioned my sister, nieces, and all the other babies who I adore in ribbon skirts, running around, and just being the wild Native babies they are. I am proud to be Da/Nakota and I will teach the younger generation around me to also be proud. - Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ
Noalani Harry The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon Meteora
Photography
The materials I gathered for this picture include body and hair care products such as perfumes, hairspray, shampoo, body wash, and there is a non-body care product: the one and only soda, Sprite. The wire going near my feet is my hair straightener cord, and this photo was taken in front of Coffin Sports Complex to capture the Haskell logo in the background.
What inspired me to do this was other ‘native reenactments’ and the band Linkin Park. Their music flows within me, from every beat to the lyrics. I restaged the album cover for Meteora, but the 20th anniversary version which came out last year in March. I love the way the music album looked , such as how the photo was taken while the background sets for the music videos were being built.
A Portion of Indian / Portion of Mexican
Photo collage
I recreated a piece by James Luna , who is also mixed race, as a way of confronting the stereotypes of Mexican and Native American heritages, while also representing of my cultural identities. It is a three-way selfportrait; I am looking at myself, in color and in black-and -white, one from the past and one from the future.
Jadean Headbird Leech Lake Ba nd of Ojibwe God’s creation pictures and canvas
This is a collage made of pictures of the sunsets I took when I thought "wow God is so good". My intention was to create a pattern out of these moments to represent my faith. When I look around all I see is God’s creation and I think it’s so beautiful. I want to shine that out.
Addisyn LeBeau Cheyenne River Sioux & Cherokee
An Excerpt From Unanswered Motives
Acrylic paint markers, cardboard, staples.
I was inspired by Edgar Heap -Of-Birds. I admire the way he uses art as activis m. He brings awareness to the parallels of past unacknowledged violent crimes committed against Indigenous people and the current issues of today. When I learned of how a former president was pushing to have access to sacred land to use as bomb sites, it was disheartening for my whole being. Native Tribes are continuously exposed to toxic waste and radiation, and there is very little being done to fix this.
I wrote a poem titled “ Unanswered Motives” and used two stanzas from it for this drawing. The words can be read in any order, but the original flow is in columns from top to bottom.