Arts & Entertainment Archives - Page 33 of 112

Indigenous Futures: Indian Heritage Murals

Mural_3 — Photo courtesy Andrew Morrison

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News

Recently, the Seattle Art Museum presented PechaKucha Seattle volume 63, titled Indigenous Futures. PechaKuchas are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and present their ideas, works, thoughts – just about anything, really – in fun, relaxed spaces that foster an environment of learning and understanding. It would be easy to think PechaKuchas are all about the presenters and their presentation, but there is something deeper and a more important subtext to each of these events. They are all about togetherness, about coming together as a community to reveal and celebrate the richness and dimension contained within each one of us. They are about fostering a community through encouragement, friendship and celebration.

The origins of PechaKucha Nights stem from Tokyo, Japan and have since gone global; they are now happening in over 700 cities around the world. What made PechaKucha Night Seattle volume 63 so special was that it was comprised of all Native artists, writers, producers, performers, and activists presenting on their areas of expertise and exploring the realm of Native ingenuity in all its forms, hence the name Indigenous Futures.

Andrew Morrison.Photo courtesy Andrew Morrison — Andrew Morrison.
Photo courtesy Andrew Morrison

Andrew Morrison, San Carlos Apache and Haida, is a phenomenal painter and muralist who is proud to call Seattle his home, he is a great 12^th Man Seahawks fan, and considers a blank wall his absolute greatest resource. Morrison’s PechaKucha presentation was on the past, present, and future of the great Indian Heritage High School murals he created of Chief Sealth, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, and Chief Sitting Bull.

“Being a Native person, I really take a lot of pride in painting and creating murals. It truly is an honor every day to be able to celebrate the Native American arts through my craft,” says Morrison. “The goal of my painting is to better myself, my family and the community.”

Morrison and many of his friends attended Indian Heritage High School (IHS) in Seattle. In 2001, after attending college, Morrison began volunteering in the art program and noticed there was a void within the school. “I saw there wasn’t a lot of artwork on the walls of the school. The walls were very blank and very dormant, without energy. As a muralist, as a painter, I’m always striving for larger surfaces,” explained Morrison of his motivation to begin painting 25-foot by 100-foot large murals of Native American heroes.

It was a twelve-year project to completely finish the four mammoth murals on IHS, beginning in 2001 and being completed in 2013. The massive portraits of Native American heroes was noticed by news outlets, tribal and non-tribal alike. The portraits are a source of pride for many Native people who don’t see their heroes recognized as they should be. Unfortunately, there were those who saw the massive portraits as an opportunity to vandalize another’s work to showcase their own ignorance, as the mantra goes, ‘haters gonna hate’. Over the weekend of February 24, 2015 a local graffiti crew desecrated the murals by splattering white latex paint all over them.

Only days later a cleanup operation, led by Morrison, consisting of 30-35 volunteers worked tirelessly to remove the white spray-paint and restore the murals to their former glory. As if the vandals’ desecrations wasn’t enough, soon after restoring the murals Morrison learned there was a proposal in the Seattle School District to demolish Indian Heritage High School, along with his murals.

“I fought and advocated for a year straight, twelve months exactly, to preserve these murals. I felt these images of our Native American warrior chiefs were so sacred and so holy that to demolish them to the ground would be another form of desecration. That was a very tumultuous battle and fight, but I give the credit to the community and the people who believe in art and believe in our indigenous culture. Through the power of togetherness we were able to get the Seattle School District to vote to preserve these murals. Now, these murals are presented prepped and ready to go as they will be built into the new Wilson Pacific Schools to be opened next year.

“Especially after living through experiences like these, it actually inspires me to paint bigger and larger and be more creative and go more in depth. It is heartwarming to know that the murals will continue to witness life and be an inspiration at the new Wilson Pacific Schools.”

Hundreds attend Tulalip Veterans Pow Wow

By Mara Hill, Tulalip News

The vibrancy of color and beauty in Native American regalia and the sound of drums is enough to give you goose bumps throughout your body, and a shiver down your spine. The intensity of the drum beat matches the heartbeat of the bystanders as they watch 15 drum groups and hundreds of dancers compete in the Annual Veterans Pow Wow. The dancing, round drums, and singing can give the sensation of being in a meditative state of mind. Attendees travel long distances to be a part of this pow wow, to not only honor our veterans, but to meet and connect with other communities and tribes.

The Veterans Pow Wow was held June 5-7 in the Don Hatch Youth Center.

Contact Mara Hill, award@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov

A new ‘edge’ at Indian Market this year

People crowd the streets surrounding the Plaza during last year’s Santa Fe Indian Market. The market last year brought in an estimated 150,000 visitors, and had an $80 million economic impact on the city and state. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)

By Jackie Jadrnak, Albuquerque Journal

Bouncing back from financial and staffing controversies last year, the Santa Fe Indian Market this August is promising a newly contemporary flavor.

It’s not that the standards are changing substantially for the main market on the Plaza, although last year and this year some rules have been loosened to allow some non-traditional materials and techniques – variations that must be disclosed, said Dallin Maybee, chief operating officer for the Southwestern Association of American Indian Arts.

“We want to protect the collectors, as well as the artists,” he said.

More important, this year’s market will see a new expansion called Indian Market Edge, which will offer indoor spaces at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center to galleries and Native American artists who create contemporary fine art, he said.

“I’m particularly excited about this,” Maybee said. “We can present some contemporary artists who don’t show with us now.”

While some artists who produce works in a contemporary style have complained in the past that they didn’t feel there was a place for them within the traditional bounds of Indian Market, Maybee said he felt that he had seen many artists include innovative works in their booths. Adding this contemporary showcase, though, will shine a spotlight on modern works being produced by Native artists, he said.

“The people I’ve approached about the concept are really excited,” Maybee said. “This will help us stay fresh. We have to change with the times or we lose aspects of our culture.” Contemporary art is an aspect of tribes’ cultural evolution, he noted, adding that he creates some contemporary works himself, as do many of his friends.

“I’d like SWAIA to be known not just for traditional mediums,” he said.

Shoppers look at Zuni fetishes at last year’s Indian Market on Santa Fe’s Plaza. Many Native American artists earn a substantial portion of their income during the two-day event. (Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal)

The idea is to offer 12-15 spaces to galleries that represent Native artists to show their works, while SWAIA will review applications from independent artists and choose about six to eight to showcase in its own space. He said the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts has expressed an interest in participating.

Altogether, Maybee estimated that 30 to 40 artists will have their work in Indian Market Edge. Booth fees won’t be charged, but SWAIA will take a “small percentage” of any sales, Maybee said.

Some 900 artists take part in the outdoor Indian Market, slated for Aug. 22-23 on the Santa Fe Plaza. Those artists keep the proceeds of their sales, but pay a fee for their booths.

SWAIA, the organization that makes Indian Market happen, went through some turmoil last year when former operating officer John Torres Nez left with two other staffers to form the Indigenous Fine Arts Market, which presented artists in the Railyard on some days overlapping Indian Market and promised a greater voice to artists in how the market was produced.

According to its website, IFAM intends to present a market again this year Aug. 20-22.

That split came about when SWAIA was experiencing financial troubles and reduced work hours of some of its staff.

Maybee said this week that the organization no longer is experiencing financial woes. It paid off its loans after last year’s market and hasn’t taken out any new loans since, he said, partly due to the fact that last year’s gala auction raised a record amount of more than $400,000.

“We got a groundswell of support among the artists,” who donate artworks for the auction, Maybee said. “They wanted to support and protect the legacy (of Indian Market).”

And the Winter Market, which usually doesn’t make money, came out ahead this year, he said, “between the Festival of Trees and good business decisions.”

The Festival of Trees was a program in which various businesses and artists decorated Christmas trees that were auctioned off as a fundraiser.

Eventually, Maybee said, he would like to see Indian Market go from producing events to being a year-round presence – about 50 acres would be a good size for a site to establish a permanent presence with art on display and for sale, not unlike the Indian Pueblo Cultural Arts Center in Albuquerque, he said.

That’s all still in the talking phase, though, and would require a considerable amount of fundraising, Maybee said, adding that a new development director should be coming on board in a month or so. Santa Fe would be the location for such a project, if it came to fruition, he said.

Meanwhile, Maybee said this year’s Indian Market, in its 94th year, also will include:

The Native Cinema Showcase, starting earlier that week, along with the Classification X winners for submitted films.
A Thursday-night private preview reception where donors and tribal leaders can mingle and view the Best of Show winners; jeweler Raymond Yazzie, whose family currently has a show at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, will conduct a book-signing.
The Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit law firm from Denver that defends Native sovereignty and other issues, will offer panel discussions exploring various Native issues in Cathedral Park on Saturday and Sunday.
Fashion events to showcase both contemporary and traditional fashions produced by Native designers.
An auction that will feature many artworks, including a four-place table setting that will be auctioned off en masse with everything from place mats to wineglasses produced by a bevy of Native artists.
A farewell party, by ticket purchase, Sunday night at La Mesita Ranch past Pojoaque, organized in collaboration with Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, with music, food, wine, spirit tastings and more.

State of Indigenous People Traditional Pow Wow, May 30

Seattle Center Mural Amphitheatre, Saturday May 30, 2015

Experience the indigenous art of North America

by Micheal Rios, Tulalip News

Traditional ceremonial practices and art-making are imbedded in all Native cultures. These fundamental Native aspects continue today much as they did in the past, and new forms have evolved in response to social changes, new markets, and a desire for personal expressions. The resurgence of canoe carving teaches youth how to strengthen body and spirt by working together, while increasingly, Native foods are used to combat modern diseases. Artists today have important dual roles of creating works for their community and for family celebrations, but also for public art, private patrons, art gallery sales and museum displays.

For the last three months, the greater Seattle area had the opportunity to see some of the most stunning works of Native American art that has been produced as a result of those traditional ceremonial practices of long ago and the modern day interpretations that combine the traditional with contemporary design. The ‘Indigenous Beauty’ exhibit on display at the Seattle Art Museum held masterworks of Native American art. Those who were able to visit the museum and explore the exhibit marveled at nearly 20,000 years of amazing skill and invention. Museum patrons lingered over paintings, sculptures, baskets, beaded regalia and masks.

The immense variety of ‘Indigenous Beauty’ reflects the diversity of Native American cultures. Deeply engaged with cultural traditions and the land, indigenous artists over the centuries have used art to represent and preserve their ways of life. Even during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, when drastic changes were brought by colonization, artists brilliantly adapted their talents and used the new materials available to them to marvelous effect.

The works in ‘Indigenous Beauty’ inspire wonder, curiosity and delight. In an effort to share those feelings of admiration and amazement that stem from viewing the culture and history that was on display from February 12 to May 17, the Tulalip See-Yaht-Sub offers its readers a sample of the exhibit.

The objects on view in this exhibition reflect a wide breadth of indigenous history and artistry from the past 250 years, from the Columbia River to Southeast Alaska. The Seattle Art Museum is grateful for the generosity of the indigenous artists and their willingness to share their collections.

Glass Chest, 2005 (top left). For hundreds of years, cedar chests have been made by steaming and skillfully bending a plank of cedar to create the four sides of the container. A separate bottom and top are then added, and formline designs representing natural forms such as bears, ravens, eagles, orcas and humans; legendary creatures such as thunderbirds; and abstract forms made up of the characteristic Northwest Coastal shapes dramatically embellish the four sides of the chest. Wood chests were used to store valuables, serve as a royal seat for a chief, or even act as a repository for his remains after death.

This spectacular example is a very contemporary version made using cast and sand-carved techniques by Preston Singletary (Tlingit, born 1963), an innovative Tlingit artist who was the first to render one of the ancient designs in glass. Singletary’s glass chest retains the essence of an ancient art form and signals his participations in a larger community of contemporary art.

Frog Feast Bowl, 1997 (page 8 bottom) Preston Singletary worked at Pilchuck Glass School, an international center for glass art education, for thirteen years where he studied with Dale Chihuly. His work is renowned for incorporating Northwest Coast design into the non-traditional medium of glass, synthesizing his Tlingit cultural heritage, modern art, and glass into a unique blend all his own.

Indian Warrior, 1898 (page 8 top right)A westerner by birth, Alexander Proctor (1860-1950) earned an international reputation as one of the most accomplished sculptors of his generation. This parlor sculpture was Proctor’s response to the equestrian statues that were typically favored by 19^th-centure Americans. Proctor imagined a great Native leader. While on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, he modeled the figure from a Blackfeet warrior, a man who conveyed elegance, fleetness and dignity. His heroic subject, cast in bronze in Paris, won the twenty-seven year old Proctor a gold medal at the International Exposition of 1900.

Thunderbird mask and regalia, 2006. Wood, paint, feathers, rabbit fur and cloth by Tlasutiwalis Calvin Hunt, Kwagu’l born in 1956. “In the myth stories in our culture, we believe that the animals and the birds can take off their cloaks and transform into human beings.” – Calvin Hunt.

Killer Whale, 2003. Fused and sand carved glass by Preston Singletary, Tlingit born 1963. In this, his first monumental work, Singletary fused his clan Killer Whale crest into sixteen panels, recharging an ancient tradition and bringing the past forward.

Breakfast Series, 2006. Sonny Assu’s (Southern Kwakwaka’wakw born 1975) ‘Breakfast Series’ appropriates the form of the familiar cereal box and decorates its surfaces with commentary on highly-charged issues for First Nations people – such as the environment, treaty rights and land claims. The pop art-inspired graphics on the five boxes in the series contain recognizable imagery, but upon closer inspection we see that Tony the Tiger is composed of formline design elements, the box of Lucky Beads includes a free plot of land in every box, and contains “12 essential lies and deceptions.” The lighthearted presentation, upon further investigation, exposes serious social issues.

Contact Micheal Rios, mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov

Traditional and Coastal Cultures Pow Wow, May 24, Seattle

Traditional and Coastal Cultures Pow Wow, this Sunday May 24 at Seattle Center

NEW Exhibit: Roots of Wisdom opens at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve

Mytyl Hernandez, Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve

Tulalip, Washington – Overcoming environmental and cultural challenges can make for unexpected partnerships that result in extraordinary outcomes. At Roots of Wisdom, the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve’s latest exhibit opening to the general public May 16th from 12:00–5:00 p.m., the knowledge of native peoples and cutting-edge Western science are explored, providing insight into how we can improve our relationship with the natural world.

Roots of Wisdom features stories from four indigenous communities, giving visitors real life examples of how traditional knowledge and Western science, together, provide complementary solutions to ecological and health challenges facing us today. Through the voices of elder and youth, engaging video interactives and hands-on games, visitors will gather resources, examine data, and take part in the growing movement towards sustainability and the reclamation of age-old practices.

“We are so pleased to have had the opportunity to develop an exhibit through a collaborative process which is a new experience for us. We are so excited that we get to be its hosts”, says Tessa Campbell Senior Curator. “Roots of Wisdom allow our guests an inside look into Tribal communities throughout the country and see how they are managing and preserving their natural and cultural resources”.

Traditional Knowledge/Western Science

Visitors are invited to explore the unique relationship between Western science and native ecological knowledge. From everyday items like duck decoys to surfboards, popcorn to chocolate, guests will learn how native knowledge impacts our daily lives, and recognize the great contributions that indigenous peoples have provided over centuries.

Re-establishing a Native Plant (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

The river cane plays a prominent role both in revitalizing cultural practices and restoring ecosystems. Guest will learn how this hardy plant affects water quality and how Cherokee elders are teaching new generations about the traditional craft of basket weaving. Visitors are invited to experiment with river environments and even try their hand at basket weavings.

Restoring Fish Ponds (Hawaii)

Guests are given a chance to act as a caretaker of a fish pond or join a droplet of water on an incredible journey down a Hawaiian mountainside in these popular hands-on interactives. Visitors learn how native ecosystems have been disrupted and what is being done to restore these innovative forms of aquaculture, which could be a critical component to food sustainability for the people of Hawaii.

Rediscovering Traditional Foods (Tulalip Tribes)

Through a clever computer interactive, hands-on activities, and recorded stories, guests learn how Tulalip Tribes are striving to find a balance in their need for natural resources against the loss of land rights and environmental degradation. Visitors learn about traditional practices of wild harvesting and gardening. They will discover through Western science how these techniques are beneficial to human health.

Saving Streams and Wildlife (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation)

Seen as a pest in some areas of the country, the lamprey is an eel-like fish that is important both ecologically and as a food source to many indigenous people. In this fun interactive, visitors can pick up a replica lamprey as would a scientist. Visitors learn about the traditional stewardship of the lamprey and how the fish is a critical component of the ecosystem that the Umatilla Tribes depend on. Find out how traditional ecological knowledge and Western science are being applied to bring this amazing little fish back from the brink of extinction.

Roots of Wisdom opens Saturday May 16, 2015 at 12:00 PM and closes September 13, 2015.

The Hibulb Cultural Center is open Tuesday through Friday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM, closed on Mondays. Pricing: Adults $10, Seniors (50yr+) $7, Students $6, Veterans & Military $6, Children (under 5) FREE. “Family Pass” (2 adults, 4 children) $25. Visit www.hibulbculturalcenter.org for more information about the museum.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Roots of Wisdom is specially designed for visitors ages 11-14. The exhibition was developed by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), the Indigenous Education Institute (IEI), the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Tulalip Tribes, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Waikalua Loko Fishpond Preservation Society in Hawaii, and was made possible through funds from the National Science Foundation.

About the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve

The Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve is dedicated to those who have gone home before us and those who remain to keep the cultural fires burning. The Hibulb Cultural Center features a fully certified collections and archaeological repository. The Center features a main gallery, a temporary exhibit, two classrooms, a research library, an interactive longhouse and a gift shop featuring Coast Salish and hand made products.

Directions: From I-5 take exit 199 Marine Drive NE in Marysville. Go west approximately 0.5 miles, then turn left on 23^rd Avenue NE.

Aspiring Artist Leaves Job, Follows Dream

By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News

Jennifer Tracy. Photo courtesy Jennifer Tracy — Jennifer Tracy.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Tracy

Meet Jennifer Tracy, an up-and-coming artist from Tulalip, trying to break into the mainstream and leave that whole working nine to five thing behind her.

During a leave from work due to health reasons, Tracy decided to reconnect with her culture through painting, and her new career was launched.

A self-taught artist, Tracy’s Native background and good business sense help to keep her small business growing while she formulates her unique, artistic style.

Jennifer’s mother is Sandy Tracy, and her grandparents are the late B. Adam and Marge Williams, all Tulalip Tribal members.

Tell us about your introduction into the world of art?

I have always had an interest in learning about the world we live in. I found, for me, seeing the world not only by my personal experience, but also by learning about people through their culture helped me to see the beauty in all things. One of the best things about growing up in Tulalip, I was able to live in a unique cultural area. I was able to attend pow wows, salmon ceremonies, and I got to dance in the Johnny Moses Dance Club to name a few things. As a child I would listen to stories passed down by our elders, which taught me a bit about the life of our ancestors, our connection to spirit and nature.

What is the primary medium in your art?

I primarily paint with acrylics, but I am incorporating other mediums as well, such as oil paint, watercolor, and spray-paint. I paint on canvases, wood rounds, paddles, drums, ornaments and cloth. I basically am open to trying new things as often as opportunity allows. I also taught myself to bead, which is a lot of fun.

What is your creative process like?

I do a lot of “research” throughout the year. I visit every museum, gallery and art show that I can find. I get inspired by different types of art, seeing what is being done in other genres. I get a lot of input from people as well, as far as what it is they like, what they would like to see, things they think would make great pictures. As I begin, I have an animal or two to concentrate on, I picture in my head what I would like it to look like, and then I do some sketches. When it feels complete I begin the process of picking a color scheme and then paint.

Creative blocks can be an artist’s nightmare. Have you had them and how do you get the creative juices flowing again?

Oh yes I do get creative blocks from time to time. There have been times when I cannot think of a thing, or a design just doesn’t feel like it will ever be done, when this happens I get out in nature, clear my head, or get some exercise. Remind myself that it can be finished; it will look right when I am done. I really try not to let my own thinking get in my way.

What prompted you to leave your career and strike out as an independent artist?

After high school I had the opportunity to work for the casino, which was basically where I stayed for the next 18 years. During this time I slowly felt more and more disconnected from my culture. With working the weekends, odd hours, and overtime I had very little time or energy for other things. In 2008 I had a surgery, which I had to take a couple weeks off work for. During this time I decided to reconnect in my own way to my culture. I focused on painting native design, and it was not easy at first. I have never taken an art class so when people ask about techniques and specifics about how I come up with my drawings it is a little difficult to answer. I see a design in my head and go from there. I keep a pencil and a ruler on my work table for sketching my designs. My style tends to be a mix of traditional and modern design.

I began selling my artwork in 2009 to family and friends. Then I began to sell at the Annual Christmas Bazaar and local pow wows where I was able to really get my work out and get feedback from more and more people. I left my job in September 2014 to become a full time artist. Super scary to take the leap of faith that I could really do this. My money went faster than I had hoped but I really felt a calling that this was what I was meant to do. Spiritually this has helped me grow and I get to express a part of my culture to others.

Being a full time artist is not easy work by any means, but in a way this pushes me to work harder. Money is still inconsistent but I have my work in a few gift shops, including the Hibulb museum here at Tulalip, Highway 2 Collectibles and Imports in Sultan, and Moonfrye Metaphysical in California. I still am a vendor at pow wows and bazaars, I started a web page on Shopify and on Photoshelter, and I do special requests for friends when I have the chance. I also offer items for sale on Facebook , on my personal page and on my Art Z Aspects page. I have some designs on display on an online gallery, Touch Talent, which has a large following worldwide. My Orca design was featured as the Editors Pick in January. Right now I am really working on becoming established as an artist. Once established, I would like to work towards owning a gallery.

How do you come up with a profitable pricing structure for your art?

For pricing on my prints I got help from an art consultant I had met. She gave me some real good advice about pricing, some info on local events, and wholesale pricing for businesses.

On my canvases, I had to figure in total cost to me and time spent. Then researched other Native artists and their pricing, originals versus series, different syles, ect. I decided I would keep my work on the low side of pricing because I would rather get more of my work out to people as opposed to waiting for a sale once in awhile.

For online sales the hard part is figuring out the cost of shipping.

What’s the coolest art tip you’ve received?

A few years ago at a gallery event I met this artist from China; his work was great. Before I left I got to talk with him and showed him some of my work. He told me if I wanted to be a professional artist, do it. Draw or paint something everyday. It does not matter what you draw or how much, just do some art everyday. If you only draw once in awhile you have to retrain yourself to do what you already knew in the first place.

Tracy’s artwork can also be found in prints and housewares, like coffee mugs. View Tracy’s art at the following websites:

Facebook: Follow Art Z Aspects at www.facebook.com/ArtZAspects and keep updated on new designs and upcoming events.

Photoshelter: http://artzaspectsjentracy.photoshelter.com

Shopify: art-z-aspects.myshopify.com

Tulalip News visits the Burke Museum, and so should you!

Traditional inspirations, modern expressions

Burke_7 — Photo/Micheal Rios, Tulalip News

By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News

The Burke Museum, located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, is currently showcasing their Native American artwork exhibit Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired. The exhibit is on display through July 27, 2015.

Here & Now showcases how today’s artists learn from past generations. According to Burke curators, the exhibit features 30 new works by contemporary Native artists, paired with historic pieces from the Burke Museum that artists identified as key to their learning.

“One can never be done learning,” explains esteemed Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley of Metlakatla, Alaska. “I want to see every piece I can of the old masters. They are my teachers and this is the only way I can learn from them.”

Over the past ten years, the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art at the Burke Museum has awarded grants to over 90 artists and scholars providing access to the Burke Museum’s collections. To gauge the real-world effects that their grants had on recipients, the Burke contacted each of their grantees and invited then to share how their artistic practice was affected by their study at the UW. Many of the grantee artists conveyed messages about how new pieces they had made were inspired by the historical artworks they had come into contact with at the museum. Each artist identified one key piece that influenced them, which are now on display next to each artist’s modern day interpretation of the artwork.

“It’s great to go and study the old pieces, to look at them, and hold them. You feel the energy. You can’t get over the quality, the detail, in the pieces. They’re some of the best teachers you get,” explains Latham Mack, Bill Holm grantee and Nuxalk artist from an Indigenous First Nation in Canada.

The Burke made the statement: Ours is a working collection, serving artists and scholars who forge connections with these artworks to maintain a continuum of knowledge and creativity that spans the generations.

For more information about the Burke Museum, including daily hours, admission costs, location and directions, please visit www.burkemuseum.org or call Burke Reception at (206) 543-7907.

Contact Micheal Rios, mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov

1920s Silent Film, Native American Cast Get Due Decades Late

By David Warren, The Associated Press

A long-lost silent film admired by historians as a rare visual account of Native American customs is being released after a private detective in North Carolina stumbled across a damaged copy.

“The Daughter of Dawn” — first screened in Los Angeles in 1920 — features a large cast of Comanche and Kiowa people and shows scenes of buffalo hunting and ceremonial dances obscured by time. The copy, discovered more than a decade ago, has been restored and was screened in Texas this week, ahead of its commercial release later this year.

“We were just so stunned that it existed,” said Jeff Moore, a project director for the Oklahoma Historical Society, which purchased reels of the film from the detective in 2007.

The delicate restoration work took years, and an orchestral score was completed in 2012. A year later the Library of Congress added the movie to its National Film Registry, describing the work as “a fascinating example of the daringly unexpected topics and scope showcased by the best regional, independent filmmaking during the silent era. …”

The same year the movie was first screened, it survived a fire that destroyed the Dallas warehouse where the small Texas Film Co., which produced “The Daughter of Dawn, stored most of its work.

Somehow, a copy ended up in the care of a North Carolina resident, who offered five nitrate celluloid reels to the private detective as payment in an unrelated matter, Milestone Film owner Dennis Doros said.

The detective then sold the reels of the movie — shot in the Wichita Mountains in southwestern Oklahoma — to the Oklahoma Historical Society for more than $5,000 before Milestone was recruited as the distributor. The historical society retains ownership of the original nitrate film, which is being stored at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Los Angeles.

“It’s a really compelling story for film restoration,” Doros said. “There’s still hope for lost films. How many times do you get to premiere a film 95 years after its production?”

An initial screening of the 87-minute, black-and-white film was held this week at an Amarillo library.

“The village scenes, the hunting scenes all look very accurate,” Michael Grauer with the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum told the Amarillo Globe-News. “It’s a little bit Hollywood-ed up. … But the fact that they used native actors was groundbreaking, really quite astonishing.”

Two of the approximately 300 Comanche and Kiowa people in the film, which portrays a fictional love story that also serves as a record of Native-American traditions, are children of legendary Comanche chief Quanah Parker, whose exploits were widely recounted on the frontier.

Author S.C. Gwynne, whose book “Empire of the Summer Moon” accounted the rise and fall of the Comanche, said during his research he came across only one film germane to the tribe, a two-reeler western from 1911 called “The Bank Robbery” in which Parker had a role.

“I would think that a film featuring only Native Americans would possibly be unique,” he said. “Who at that time only made a film featuring Native Americans? That, to me, is something of great rarity.”

Moore said the Oklahoma Historical Society had known about the film because years ago it had obtained the works of a photographer who was on the movie set, but it was thought the film was lost.

“This is so visually interesting and it is very much an Oklahoma story because you have two of the premier tribes in the state, and then you have the horse culture,” he said. “It’s so indicative of the southern plains.”

Bryan Vizzini, an associate professor of history at West Texas A&M University, said “The Daughter of Dawn” was a striking departure from the racial stereotypes found in films from that time, such as D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation.”

“And here’s this small independent film company that gets it right,” Vizzini said. “It’s a very un-Hollywood kind of experience.”

The film will be released on DVD and Blue-ray, and made available through online outlets.