The Heart is a Fist

The Heart Is A Fist is a digital art show from Haskell Indian Nations University, the oldest and largest all-Native university in the United States. The title comes from Joy Harjoʼs 2019 poem, Break My Heart, in which she writes, “The heart is a fist / It pockets prayer or holds rage.”

Artworks in this catalog also pocket prayer and hold rage, and they present careful examinations of issues that matter to Haskell students. The artistʼs statements are illuminating, but the images can speak for themselves. Let each one lead the way into meditation and remembrance of histories that haunt as well as exalt us.

This is just a sample of artwork HINU students created this semester! For more, please visit our Instagram @hinuarts. Onward Haskell!

-David Titterington, Professor of Art, Haskell Indian Nations University Cover Image: Lannie Dodge (Navajo), Red Injustice.

Lance Allan (Miami) Remittance Mixed media on antique ledger paper I drew a turtle walking away from two mushroom clouds. I’m inspired by the Indians who were incarcerated in Florida because poor settlers wanted their land. The Turtle walks away with its head up as if it were proud because it always wins.

Mareena Armour Northern Arapaho, Kiowa Untitled Mixed Media This quilt represents family and culture. I made a star quilt using my Neinoo’s (“Mother” in Arapaho) blue jeans and a black Nike shirt from my Thaw (“Father” in Kiowa). I was inspired by Jefferey Gibson, who repurposes different materials and mixes them together. Family is one of the most important aspects of life.

Sadie Bakeberg (Itazipco Lakota) Teachers Handbook Mixed Media I was inspired by Carl Beam, particularly his works titled Columbus Chronicles and Time Dissolve. Using his combination of the photo emulsion technique, dripping white paint, and red ink, I created this piece to document my personal perception as a soon to be educator in 2023. While teaching is my lifelong dream, recent events have given me, and other educators, a new outlook on how I can make my classroom a safe space for students. Gun violence is the number 1 cause of death in children under the age of 18. This piece is a sort of memorial for those children and their loved ones as we fight to prevent another tragedy in this country.

Georgia Blackwood Kickapoo, Prairie Band Potawatomi, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma Hound’s Bag Mixed Media

I sewed this pack together using houndstooth cloth, and then I embellished it with my blood quantum numbers and a crude outline of a dog in red seed beads. (It’s often said that dogs, horses, and Native bloodlines are the only things tracked in the US this way). The “¼” is in gold to highlight the tribe I’m enrolled with, and this also represents how we as indigenous people are confined to just one tribe in the eyes of the government—a tribe that may be just one aspect of a larger identity. I was inspired by Gregg Deal’s performance art to add the blood quantum numbers. I think wearing the numbers is a way to reclaim them, but it also shows how weird it is to have numbers there in the first place. I didn’t want to associate them with any tribe and just have the numbers on their own because it questions why they are even there. They’re just numbers. To finish the sculpture, I added the cross photo, as it is from my European heritage. Even though it's not a religion I follow, it’s still connected to my DNA and how my family and identity is shaped.

Jake Crawford Choctaw Ignored Lies Colored pencil and graphite on antique ledger paper These are drawings of contemporary TV show characters on tiny pieces of ledger paper from 1919. The characters are usually jovial, raunchy, and full of life, but I gave them blank expressions as a spin-off of the historical photos of Native American leaders (especially ones by Edward Curtis) who seem so emotionless and forced.

Lannie Dodge (Navajo) Red Injustice US flag, red paint, Indigenous woman The flag is sacred to many people, and I’m inspired by artists such as Erica lord, Annu Palakunnctnu Matthew, and Russel Means who use it as art material or to signal distress. Here, it helps me bring more awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). These are digital photographs of myself wearing an inverted United States flag as if it's a cape covered in red paint. The last image is of the flag alone, bundled up.

The red stars represent specific states. All of the materials are from arts & craft stores. I used my hands as paint brushes.

Halitopa Farve (Cup’iq & Mississippi Choctaw) Fake Flower Treaties Cement, Hand Mold, Fake Flowers Fake Flower Treaties was inspired by Edgar Heap-of-Birds, who does a lot of work around the disaster of Native land loss. My roommate Megan and I came up with this idea after getting some food. This sculpture is just a different version of the pictures that she took. Personally, I feel that we, as Native people, were done many wrongs, and American history wants to keep ignoring the past. This sculpture on the ground evokes our ancestors and people today. The flowers are super important. They are fake, but we chose them specifically also for their symbolic meanings. They are Mulberry, Hyssop, Lavender, Phlox, Begonia, Tansy, and Geranium.

Hvlpvtv Mekko Muskoke Nation Hidden Abuse Performance, 4 yards of white cotton fabric, red sea beads, black, red, purple, yellow, and white Japanese paint, 1 yard of white lace.

First I want to say thank you to Kimimila Ska Win Arvik, Derek Begay, Wakia Good Cane Milk, and Wolf Greystone for helping me make this possible. I couldn't have done this without you. Thank you, David Titterington, for encouraging me to do this and to explore my interest in art. This project was Inspired by Rebecca Belmore. She is my mentor. I wanted to bring awareness to the other kinds of abuse Natives go through. A lot of our everyday abuse goes unnoticed. We hide it and are ashamed. It's time we stood up and said No More, I am HERE. For the performance, I made two white dresses, one covered in different colored hand prints, the other with No More painted across the chest and I AM HERE beaded on the collar. Early in the morning, while wearing the first dress, I got smudged at the center of the Haskell Medicine Wheel, removed the dress, and then burned it. When it finished burning, I put on the other dress, covered my face with a white hand print, and went to school for the day.

Clips from the performance: https://youtube.com/shorts/uWNo1G0k0Co?feature=share4

Jacob Long Cheyenne and Arapaho Wassily Kandinsky-esque Ledger Art Colored pencil on lined paper I’m inspired by the ledger art movement. This drawing depicts a teepee in a Kandinsky-inspired landscape filled with geometric shapes and abstraction. I love how Kandinsky's style is a lot like the flat ledger style. They differ in region and purpose but they both share a similar beauty.

Derrek A. Main Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Untitled Colored pencil on paper This is my take on a George Longfish drawing. His art speaks to me.

Megan McCain (Diné) Conformity Digital Photography

My work is a nod to Cara Romero’s symbolically rich photographs of strong Indigenous women. As an artist, it is important for me to bring light to critical issues facing the Indigenous Community. Domestic violence is one of the leading factors in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and children. I wanted to portray a feeling, and this is not just an Indigenous problem, it affects all people from all walks of life.

Many feel trapped in their situation, like a ghost, and they try to process all the emotions and invalidate their feelings. They rationalize the harmful behaviors that they have to endure. But you don’t have to.

Under that ghostly shell of conformity is a strong Indigenous person waiting to be freed.

Arin O’Neal Northern Arapaho tribe A Water’s Essence Photography, Canon 60d Camera I found this spot in downtown Oklahoma. This is one of my best shots, displaying a beautiful range of blues, sprays of water, as well as the sky above. Water and sky have a connection. Capturing nature and the water was my goal. I was inspired by Cara Romero’s “Water Memory.” Water is very sacred for Native Americans.

The idea of water comes in many forms, and how we see it and treat it matters.

Zion Pewamo (Kickapoo) gone to heaven Acrylic, photograph What inspired me to make this was when we discussed the many ways art can be disturbing and how it can also be a voice for the people who are hurt. This photo is of my cousin who was murdered by her boyfriend last September. She was shot three times. The wound is still very fresh for me and my family. Her death was tragic but she was a beautiful woman and loved by many.

Hannah Sazue Crow Creek Sioux The Way of Life colored pencil on antique ledger paper My artwork is inspired by the Indigenous way of life. Flowers flourish throughout the pages along with teepees and a mixture of other symbols. These symbols all have significant meaning when it comes to my culture. For example, the dragonfly is known to be the soul of a loved one who has passed; the butterfly can also be a relative who has passed but can also symbolize transformation and strength; the buffalo is the most sacred for they provided food and clothing for the people. The two women are wrapped in a traditional shawl with a hawk and lightning striking. This represents me and my best friend Maliyah who passed away to suicide in 2021, a tragedy but beautiful at the same time. I drew the sunflowers around us because that was her favorite flower. The three teepees are those of my ancestors; the buffalo with the lightning strike represents my Grandma Yvonne, the butterfly one represents my Grandma Ruth, who both walk with me in the spirit world.

The middle teepee represents my dad, Cetan Ska Hoksina, whose name means waterbird. The waterbird is a very sacred symbol and is known to be a part of medicine for heyokas or “sacred clowns.” The flowers are influenced by Ojibwe floral art.

It is to be known that the most beautiful flowers are often picked and then what’s left is the root, soil, and stem. My ancestors were also handpicked and made by Creator himself to flourish and grow throughout Earth to help and guide others. As the flowers sit beautifully and proudly, they are also surrounded by Dragonflies and Butterflies which are “Wamaka Nagi” (Spirit Animals) which are known as “Susweca” (Dragonfly) and “Kimimila” (Butterfly) in Lakota language. I relate to this piece because I too have faced things in my life that I must grow from. Still, my roots reside within me, and I will continue to flourish into something beautiful with the help of my ancestors from the spirit world and this beautiful way of life.

Armondo P. Tenequer Comanche-Navajo The Spirit Digital collage I remixed a scene from the Dreamworks movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) by adding a Bacone style figure “The Flute Player” (1955) by Acee Blue Eagle. I feel it's important to remind people of the various styles of Native American art that have been made since the late 1800’s, and the influence this art has had on modern artists and animators.

Niya Toppah Otoe Missouria UNCLE Digital I've seen many of my relatives drink their lives away and I notice that the majority of them are my uncles, brothers, and male friends. The problem is real, but I also see the harmful stereotype of the 'drunk Indian' in films. I wonder, how do the stereotypes influence our behavior?

Native Americans are the group that suffers from the most extreme stereotypes regarding their problems with alcohol use, disorders and abuse. I find it upsetting when the cops wait around town after a powwow, but not a rodeo. I was inspired by Jason Lujan and "cosmopolitan aesthetics," and the artist Edgar Heap-of-Birds's Smile For Racism billboard. He uses the ubiquitous Native head and words that point to the dehumanization of Indigenous peoples.

Taryn Tsosie Navajo Impermanent Picture frame, canvas panel, corn, tape This assemblage is in part an homage to Maurizio Cattelan, who taped a banana to a wall in an art gallery. His was funny and interesting because of how everyone reacted to it through social media over the world. In my version, I use corn because it's a reminder of home and of a question: As I continue to age, will my point of view of memories change?