In this digital exhibition, Native artists from Haskell Indian Nations University respond to a variety of issues they feel passionate about. Some practice artistic rituals of healing and remembrance, while others document important people, places, and objects. Still others just want to paint! You hold in your hands the results of countless hours of hard work, research, and creative play. Let each image and the accompanying text lead the way into thoughtful meditation and remembrance of the people and stories 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, Instructor of Art, Haskell Indian Nations University
Cover Image: Jayme Morris (Navajo), MMIW.
Hoksila Annis
Hehaka
Hehaka Hoksila Annis Way Of Life Photograph
One thing I was taught when I was young is that we could never capture pictures of our ceremonies. Pictures make them not sacred any ceremonial grounds, because they remind you of the good feeling that they bring when you’re there and that in itself is medicine my uncle’s Sundance in North Dakota. The name of his alter is Hehaka Ihanbdi
Dominic Battese-Saupitty Comanche
End of the Trail Photograph
Inspired by artists who remake James Earl Fraser’s famous 1915 sculpture End of the Trail, I put a stuffed animal and cardboard tube on my dog’s back. I had to give him some food so he would sit still because he likes to move around a lot. I quickly took this picture and also captured my family in the background.
Noksi Bowen Cherokee Nation
Amazing Grace Acrylic and ink on canvas
I was learning about my Native language and trying to learn the hymn of Amazing Grace, which I had heard sung in Cherokee growing up, and I wanted to create an abstract painting about it. When looking up the lyrics, I wasn’t sure which words were what, and found that the translation in Cherokee doesn’t sound quite as familiar as one would assume. This song has always brought a strong feeling to me, but an even more ominous tone is felt when one understands the lyrics. Inspired by Edgar Heap of Birds, namely his 2005 Fork Road Future, I chose to paint a stanza and a half from the composition that I felt displayed the irony of colonization and ‘the white man’s plight.’
e lo ni gv ni li s qua di ga lu tsv ha i yu ni ga di da ye di go i a ni e lo hi gv u na da nv ti a ne hv do da ya nv hi li
All the world will end when He returns. We will all see Him here the world over. The righteous who live He will come after
ᎡᎶᏂᎬᏂᎵᏍᏆᏗ ᎦᎷᏨᎭᎢᏳ ᏂᎦᏗᏓᏰᏗᎪᎢ ᎠᏂᎡᎶᎯᎬ ᎤᎾᏓᏅᏘᎠᏁᎲ ᏙᏓᏯᏅᎯᎵ
Cassandra Burtel Navajo
Yazh (“My son”)
Photograph and highlighter ink
Family is very important, so we need to cherish those we love. In my art, I’d like to express how fragile life is, even more so when we as a people have been exposed to things that bring harm. The land we live on is toxic. We have endured so much pain but yet are very grateful for the time we have with one another.
This is a digital photograph of my uncle with his friends taken from the Shonto Boarding School yearbook in 1969. As girls in the Navajo culture, we call our uncles on our maternal side “Yazh”. My Yazh passed from cancer caused by toxic uranium mines. I took this photo of a picture in the yearbook to capture a time in his life when he had his whole life ahead of him. I printed it out, and carefully highlighted the ground.
Elijah Childs Otoe-Missouria Tribe Revival Plaster Statue, paint
I chose an old statue in front of my gran and papa's house to document and transform. It’s been there, sitting in front of the house, since before even my own pops was born. My gran was saying how she would like to get it repainted and so my cousin and I over break got together while she was at work and painted it. We gathered all the supplies and info about how to do it without her knowing. When she got back, she saw it and was emotional, and the first thing she said was, “He looks reborn!” Before, he looked broken, lifeless, no spirit, and white as a ghost. I feel like with this project we “killed the white man and saved the Indian,” since after getting his color, he looks more alive and vibrant.
Ruben Couture Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribe Untitled Picture frame, paper, sharpie markers
This is a framed map of the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. I was inspired by the first time I saw this map and I was confused at what it all meant. In this drawing I wanted to show the differences between the tribal and state lands, and ask, why were my ancestors forced to move on to this reservation when they still can't own all of the land there? Green marks the tribal lots and red marks the state lots. Blue represents water. My grandpa owns one of the tribal lots, and I remember how emotional he got when he decided to pass the land down to my mom and her brothers.
Tyren Curley
Untitled
Photograph, paper blanket, model in white, paint
Missing and Murder Indigenous Women is a problem for all tribes. I chose this project because I wa nt to bring more attention to all Native American women who have been killed or kidnaped. I want to let the world know that all Indigenous women’s lives matter.
Brooke Espinoza Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Bones In a Box
Cardboard box, dirt, fabric
I found the cardboard box at my work and got dirt from right here on the Haskell campus, and then I purchased the fabric. My intention is to bring more awareness to the Boarding School children who still have not been returned home and to those that remain undiscovered. I put dirt on the bottom of the box which peeks through to show that there is so much more than what we see on the surface when it comes to the boarding school era. Many people do not realize that there are still children buried here on campus. I was inspired by Natalie Ball’s “Hey Berkeley’s Phoebe Hearst Museum, this is Natalie Ball. Put my Bones in the Box. Wrap them in the fabric, children and women first. And return my Ancestors. I’ll Cover shipping” from 2020. I was inspired by this piece because of how much it reminded me of the children on our campus and across Indian country that have not been returned to their homelands.
John Factor Seminole
Untitled Tattoo
I worked with an artist and got a tattoo of my niece’s name. I am inspired by Seminole tradition and also by Yupik women in Alaska. The reasons and ways they get tattooed helped me overcome my fear of getting a tattoo.
In the Seminole nation uncles are known to take care of the kids while their fathers are gone hunting. In a sense, the bond between the uncle and his nephews and nieces is deeper than the one they have with their father. Uncles are teachers. Uncles are who the kids to go to when the parents aren’t around. The uncle is like a second fathe r. He helps the children grow and learn, and this includes hunting, cleaning, fishing, farming, and other chores. This relationship has always amazed me, and it is what inspired me get my first tattoo.
Tonoa Foster Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
LL Photography
The photo is of these red, yellow, and pink flowers placed inside a cinder block located on the rocky edge of the Clinton lake, as well as spread throughout the shore. These flowers were actually given to my friend by a man she had broken ties with. I liked the contrast between the beauty of the photo and the truth behind the flowers.
Taurice Grant Omaha & Meskwaki
Sept 30
Nike Boxes and orange tape
Inspired by Brian Jungen’s use of discarded materials, I wanted to destroy Nike Boxes and form them into something that needs more attention: September 30th, the day of remembrance of what happened at residential schools. With Haskell being a former residential school, I felt it was only right to take pictures of the date around campus. I placed it next to the Craig Goseyun statue titled “Apache Hoop & Pole Player,” on the steps of our oldest building, Hiawatha Hall, and next to the offerings to the children at the Haskell Cemetery.
Leo Grass Ketoowah Cherokee and Western Shoshone Raising Warriors
Photograph and watercolor markers
My coloring and marking on old photos is a nod to Wendy Red Star's Crow Peace Delegation series which displays the culture of America's native people, practice, and generations to come. I was interested in how we can re-archive and respectfully "graffiti" an old photo with our own interpretation of said image. I printed out copies of the original image which I still have, and colored on them with watercolor markers. This annotated version is just about guys being with their bros, indigenously and proudly passing down traditions.
Aliyah Holiday Creek
?¿ glass, paint
I made something similar to Joe Feddersen’s glass basket patterns, but mine is made up of black and brown fingerprints. I was inspired by his modernistic aesthetics.
Mahpiya Wi Irving Prairie Band Potawatomi/Oglala Lakota Trail of Death Paper, Pencil, Colored Pencils
My work is influenced by the warrior artists at Fort Marion in 1875 who created ledger art that reflected their sacred objects, visions, and ceremonies. I decided to draw on my tribe’s Per Capita Advance Application because I thought it was the perfect time to represent what my nation’s ancestors endured/sacrificed for the current generations to have. In the background, there is a map of the United States with a red line running through a few states. This line represents the trail the Potawatomi were forced to take in the 1830s after the approval of the Indian Removal Act and the Treaty of Chicago. On top of the map, I included drawings of a bark house, corn, sweet grass stalks, and a deer because we were accustomed to these in our homelands.
Thurman Keo Prairie Band Potawatomi and Kickapoo Flipped Mixed Media
This is about the wars that went on in the 1860’s and just all the violence that happened back then between the Indians and the white men. Usually the Indians were on the losing end of wars and in this project I have a representation of the Indians winning and the white people being strung up in front of Sitting Bull. The U.S flag is in bundles strung up on the posts, resembling people. I was inspired by Erica Lord and the way she hung up bundles in her Native American Land Reclamation Project.
Sierra Kirkland Cherokee
Take A Picture With A Real Indian Digital Photography
“Take a picture with a real Indian! Take a picture with a real Indian here in the middle of Oklahoma. Take a picture here on this rainy day, the fourteenth of November.”
I wanted to simulate how Indians are romanticized by people who aren’t Indigenous. This is a digital photograph of two people, a “real-life Indian” and a tourist, located outside of the shopping store Ross, in Catoosa, Oklahoma. The idea was inspired by my mentor, James Luna, and his performance, Take a Picture With A Real Indian. I staged a photograph of my two siblings, one Native, one not, reenacting the performance by Luna. My Intention for this piece is to show how people automatically assume what an Indian should look like. Luna says, “America likes romance more than they like the truth.”
I chose a location that is pretty popular in my town to make it realistic that a girl would be shopping on a regular Monday. For my image, I asked my sister to wear something that she would typically wear for a normal day of shopping. To confuse things, I dressed my non-Native brother in a shirt so that he might "look the part."
Jules Hummingbird Cherokee Nation
Mixed Breed Blood, sweat, and tears
This piece is deeply inspired by the discomfort within myself. Adolescence and early adulthood have given me many learning opportunities in the grieving process. I have grieved for the loss of many through this lifetime already, and in doing so, I grieve for the versions of myself that have been extracted along the way. In this grieving, I find it important to allow these feelings to hold the space they desperately desire. Fritz Scholder served as a significant inspiration for conveying the ugly feelings within Indian Country, and Rebecca Belmore gave me the confidence to express my femininity without any needed approval.
Dason Longie Spirit Lake Sioux
White Man Runs Her Digital Photo
White Man Runs Him is known for being a Crow scout serving under George Armstrong Custer during his 1876 expedition. It is said that White Man Runs Him's name comes from his way of responding to the overwhelming presence of U.S. soldiers in his area at the time. Here, his name correlates to the women's rights situation in the United States today. Roe v. Wade was overturned over the summer, which protected all women's fundamental right to abortion. My girlfriend needed to be the model for these overlapping pictures because she had no say in the decision to overturn that ruling. This clearly indicates how white, powerful men control us today. I was influenced by Kent Monkman's Emergence of a Legend photographs that captured the history within Native American performance culture by inserting two-spirit native bodies into historical-looking pictures. Taken on university grounds, this is about how white men still run everything in this country.
Jalen Merrick Umoⁿhoⁿ Tribe of Nebraska
No Fear
Blue Colored Construction Paper/Black Ink Pen/Blue Marker
I made this artwork because I wanted to visualize a motto that motivates me and hopefully inspire others. They are three simple words, but are yet very powerful. As a basketball player who is considered short, a question I am often asked is “Are you tall enough?” I wanted to express exactly what I say and how I feel when someone says such a thing.
Jayme Morris Navajo
Photograph
Every year the violence against Native American women goes unrecognized. Four out of five Native women endure some type of violence in their life. In 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of missing Native women, which is 10 times the national average, but there were only 116 reported cases in the media. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement advocates to end the violence against Native Women. As an indigenous woman, I hope my piece shines the light on this issue. I used 9 inch x 11inch canvases painted red, black, and white with MMIW letters, then photographed me and my friends holding them.
MMIW
Justine Nieto Santo Domingo Pueblo White Ceremonial Moccasins
Photograph
This is a picture that I happened to take during my tribe's annual feast day on August 4t. I am wearing my ceremonial attire which we wear for our Corn Dance. August 4th is the day we honor our Pueblos patron Saint, St. Dominic. It's a picture that shows Pueblo's still have their traditional ways, even when the Spanish tried to colonize.
Jose Cortez Miama
Fam
Photograph on wood
This is a digital photograph of my siblings and I. I used a filter to make it have a psychedelic affect. I gathered the materials from my house. I got a 4 by 6 by 1 inch block and pasted a photo on it. Then I sanded the edges to really pop or make the photo come to life. The intention is to bring more attention to how important siblings are. It also represents a building block of important things in someone's life. I feel like since being away at college I haven't kept in contact with my family. So, by creating this piece, it creates a memory, so that whenever I come across it it'll remind me to get in touch.
Jeremiah Roulain
Untitled
Mixed Media
My art represents how Federally recognized tribes of the United States of America's government-togovernment relationship are imbalanced presently and historically. The flags represent all First Nation tribes of this country. The United States Constitution represents the pledge to honor t reaties made with tribes as sovereign nations. The boxing gloves represent the ongoing fight tribes must engage in for equal selfgovernance and civil rights. The law book speaks to the tattered foundation resulting from the disregard courts apply to criminal justice and civil jurisdiction to native tribal issues. My inspiration for this art came from Jeffery Gibson's moving beaded punching bags, as he captured the neglect of treaty obligations. An ongoing fight is necessary to maintain treaties against unrighteous dominion by any government against First Nations.
Ryan Sack Muscogee Creek
Untitled Photograph
My dream of being an Astronomer made me embody myself through my telescope, covered in my ideals and draped by my heritage. This is a photograph titled "Sirius" of my telescope, I have put a personal "I Voted Sticker" from the last election on it, as well as a rainbow peace sign. These represent my leftist ideology as well as my pacifist queer identity. I wrapped my Native blanket around the telescope to connect to my Native side, and in the background is my Sonic Drive-In store, where I have worked for 3 years. I was inspired by Wendy Red Star's "Four Seasons", my goal was to create a self-portrait with a telescope embodying me, personalized to me while showing a capitalist and western company background.
Mikeya Sheppard Navajo Biracial on the Rez Photograph
Being a Mixed Native and having strong African American features has many ups and downs. Growing up on the rez in a predominately Native population, it was very common for me to feel that I was out of place. I did not look like any of the kids or people that I was constantly around. I had darker skin and coarse hair. In the picture, one side of my hair is straightened out along with a beaded earring and the other is my natural hair with a hooped earring representing the two races that I am mixed with. The Idea of “Biracial on the Rez” came to me after we went over the segment on Erika Lord’s Un/Defined Self-portrait series. This piece of artwork inspired me to share what it was like being mixed race and growing up on a native reservation. I felt a connection with Erika Lord because some of the situations that she shared with us were very similar to those that I have experienced.
Maliyah Soto Sac and Fox/Kickapoo/ Salt River Pima
Last Kiss graphite and lipstick on canvas
I made this piece because there are women out there who have gone through horrible things. I want people to pay more attention to that. MMIW is a very difficult topic to connect with, but I wanted to try connecting with it. I was inspired by Rebecca Belmore. My piece is similar to how she used 1,181 nails.
Heidi Thomas Navajo
Untitled
Mixed media
This is a collage of different images of Native American women who have been missing nation-wide. I wanted get as many women from different tribes as I could in the artwork. Then I covered it with red paint and added a red hand print on the bottom left corner. I was inspired by Carl Beam's 1992 Columbus Chronicles painting that features a photo-transfer collage covered by white paint.
Krystina Waquie Jemez Pueblo
Untitled Colored pencils
I drew a traditional female dancer performing on Feast Day. I was inspired by Harrison Begay's Studio Style works. I drew this because I wanted to see for myself how it feels to draw one of our traditional scenes “Disneyesque.”
I focused on one dance r because I wanted to show the details and colors of what the females wear when we dance on Feast Day. In the background, I drew our mountain that is very sacred to us. It is overlooking the dancer, because when you are a visitor watching the dances and you're standing/sitting on the south side of the plaza, if you look up to the North that is where you will see our mountain overlooking our Pueblo.
Samuel Weston Tlingit-Haida
Atrocious Acrylic on canvas
I made this small painting after learning about nuclear colonialism and the sexualization of the Indigenous. Most of these issues are not seen as a big problem in non-Indigenous communities. I was inspired by the works of Demian Dinéyazhi' and his piece “Every American flag is a warning sign.” I made this painting with three prominent yellow dots. One represents the problem of nuclear testing and mining going on in the Southwest, and the other two represent the two atomic atrocities that happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The eye in the middle is a Medicine Wheel to represent our Reservations and how Indigenous peoples have been forced to live in a small space, but are still resilient as ever, and still hold our values high. Finally, the arrows represent the sexualization of our people.
Vynette Woody Dine
4th Generation Wool, Feather, Cotton
To capture a scenic background, I took a drive to Clinton Lake. I gathered a couple of my first rugs and rolled them into a bundle. On top of the bundle, I placed an eagle feather that symbolizes the highest, bravest, strongest, and most spiritual thoughts that I have as I weave. This project was inspired by textile artist Natalie Ball, who explores gesture and material to create sculptures she calls “Power Objects". As a 4th generation rug weaver, my work highlights the powerful objects of my heritage and embodies my identity as a Navajo rug weaver. Water is central to life and is connected to all living things. For the benefit of present and future generations, we must be able to stand up to protect water.
Nicholas Yazzie Diné
Life Continues
Mixed media
I was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s still-life titled A Pair of Old Shoes. This is a digital photograph of a particular pair of cross-country spikes. I gathered nothing more than just an old pair of shoes. I made this artwork to give a remembrance in what I run for, which is for my late family/friends. My culture believes in discarding anything that belongs to any late members such as pictures.
Therefore, I write their names on my shoes to remind me that I’ll always have them with me as my life continues without them.
