“Appropriation of cultural Regalia, such as the war bonnet …causes sacred objects to lose their power when they are represented out of context,” wrote Luger in his artist statement.
By Marianne Combs
When Dyani White Hawk Polk asked a group of artists for work for her exhibition “Make it Pop,” she was looking for contemporary pieces responding to issues of the day.
“We’ve had somber exhibits, politically driven, fine art,” says White Hawk Polk, sitting at her desk in All My Relations Gallery. “I wanted this to feel more playful and cutting edge, something that really speaks to our youth and people interested in pop culture as well as fine art lovers.”
White Hawk Polk got what she was looking for; the colorful show reflects and comments on popular culture in a number of ways. Interestingly, two artists – Frank Buffalo Hyde and Cannupa Hanska Luger – chose to focus on an issue that has many Native Americans upset: the appropriation of Native Regalia by popular culture – in particular, the headdress.
“In-Appropriate 3,” a painting by Frank Buffalo Hyde responding to the use of a Native American headdress and jewelry on a Victoria’s Secret model at a fashion show held on November 7, 2012.
White Hawk Polk says she wasn’t surprised.
“It’s always been an issue,” reflects White Hawk Polk. “It’s always been there, but this past year, year and a half, it’s just been prolific.”
Native Americans belong to many different tribes spread across Native North America. But the headdress, or war bonnet, is a universal symbol of great spiritual importance worn only by highly respected individuals.
Los Angeles Times This restaurant-grade salmon bisque can be made in less than an hour.
By Noelle Carter, Los Angeles Times
With the depth of flavor in this soup, you’d never guess it came together in under an hour.
Robin’s Restaurant in Cambria, Calif., was happy to share its recipe for rich and creamy salmon bisque, which we’ve adapted below.
Robin’s salmon bisque
¼ cup salted butter
1 cup sliced leeks
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2¾ cups (22 ounces) clam juice
2 cups crushed tomatoes
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, plus fresh sprigs for garnish
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups cubed fresh salmon (bones removed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes), about 1½ pounds
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups heavy cream
Heat a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until hot. Add the butter, and, when it is melted, stir in the leeks, mushrooms and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until the leeks are translucent and soft.
Stir in the clam juice, crushed tomatoes, chopped parsley and dill, and season with the salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, then stir in the salmon. Continue to simmer until the salmon is fully cooked, 3 to 5 minutes.
While the soup is cooking, whisk the flour into the heavy cream in a small bowl. Slowly add the cream to the soup when the salmon is cooked. Continue to simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Ladle the soup into bowls, and serve garnished with dill sprigs.
By Cole R. Delaune, Indian Country Today Media Network
Last week, the Internet news cycle erupted in a predictable maelstrom of gasps and pearl-clutching over the spring/summer issue of AnOther Magazine, an esoteric style rag based in London that caters to a relatively rarefied demographic of the sartorially literate and eclectically minded. Like a number of similar periodicals, the publication achieves its ad dollars not by accruing a large readership, but by courting the tastes of the creatively attuned — most likely, design students and other aspiring insiders. The fury reserved for its cover girl, a three-time Oscar nominee and the star of the recently released Oz the Great and Powerful, was the latest episode in a vogue of hand-wringing about pop caricatures of Natives and the perils of a specifically visual brand of cultural appropriation.
While some of the incidents in said wave have quite rightly garnered backlash and sparked timely and necessary dialogue about the historically invisible Indian America, the disgruntlement with Michelle Williams is perhaps most reminiscent of the uproar that occurred when Karlie Kloss trotted down a Victoria’s Secret runway last autumn clad in nominally indigenous regalia, replete with headdress and other cartoonish accoutrements. The ire precipitated by both controversies illuminates an ironic ignorance — since that, of course, is the primary element in each occurrence identified as offensive —about the nature of creative expression and hierarchical power structures in the fashion industry, as well as interesting implications about the trendiness of political correctness and waxing butthurt over consumerist minutiae and other contemporary inanities.
When Kloss stomped down a New York City catwalk back in November during the lingerie monolith’s annual over-the-top marketing free-for-all, online commentators wasted little time in taking the model to task for her faux pas. Feverish speculation that the beauty had donned the fake tribal garb as an intentional diss to ex-boyfriend Sam Bradford quickly seized the imagination of especially misguided voices. Although the Rams quarterback is a registered member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, such fantastic romantic-revenge conjecture missed a salient point: major corporations are not in the practice of leaving any details of a multimillion dollar and nationally televised production to the whims of 19-year-olds. Companies helming a presentation of their clothing wares employ men and women whose sole professional responsibility is to apparel the posers in a pre-selected line of ensembles and determine the appropriate manner in which to accessorize those garments; these specialists are known as stylists. An organization investing money in such a large operation would inevitably require final approval over the outfits and accompanying entertainment from teams in a variety of departments. At no point does a mannequin, even one as highly paid as an Angel, customarily pipe in with an opinion on the costumes she has been assigned. Her job, effectively, is to function as a living doll or animated clothes hanger: show up and display the goods in as flattering a way as possible, in manner consistent with the thematic tone of the collection, the event, and the label at large. One assumes Ms. Kloss could have launched a dressing-room protest against ugly Halloween kitsch, but plenty of working women put up with managers who deploy disagreeable tactics, and most of them don’t face the possibility of breaching a lucrative contract while facing the costs of a West Village mortgage and future medical school tuition.
Unlike the carnivalesque VS spectacle, titles of AnOther’s ilk reside far from the intersection of explicit commerce and obvious sexualization; they trade in fantasy. Open up the pages of any glossy devoted to fashion editorial, and you are likely to find sequences of photographs that act both as subtextual advertisement and as optical poems. Such sittings are analogous to storybooks without attendant words or the still images of a film strip: there is a narrative at work, and this is the major reason why circulars like Vogue are celebrated as enduring escapist fare. Thus, when Michelle Williams poses for multiple cover variations, all of the portraits involved are most reasonably interpreted as depictions of fictional characters. The nuances of context distinguish an appearance in such circumstances from pointedly profit-driven transgressions of taste in more definitively market-oriented spheres like mass-underwear retail and the T-shirt arena of Steve Madden. And although detractors have raised valid questions about the disconcerting underrepresentation of Natives in entertainment and the sensitive conundrum of when it is acceptable for a person outside of a particular race or culture to portray a character of the aforementioned background on camera, such gray areas do not automatically damn Ms. Williams for her participation in an artistic exercise over which she enjoyed no autonomy and in which she was likely legally obligated to engage as part of the media promotional clause of her employment agreement with Disney. Michelle Yeoh, for instance, has appeared in theaters as a Japanese geisha, a Burmese freedom fighter, and a Chinese warrioress even though she is Malaysian, and has garnered nary a raised eyebrow. For that matter, Tantoo Cardinal and Irene Bedard have played roles in movies about indigenous tribes very disparate from which they hail in real life. Why not a Caucasian performer, and why not in a static picture? It’s called “acting” for a reason, after all. If disappointment and unease with these characterizations is to be channeled effectively, critiques should be directed to the parties with ultimate discretion over the projects: Victoria’s Secret Fashion Collection Creative Director Sophie Neophitou-Apostolou and Dazed Group Editor Jefferson Hack.
Of course, tempered consideration has no place in a debate like this, and the gallery of talking heads triggered to cry “off with her head” (or “racist!”) and avoid all but superficial analysis steadfastly charged ahead by ascribing culpability to Montana’s favorite starlet not only for the photo shoot, but also for statements she never made. Most confoundingly, Aurora Bogado of The Nation was apparently determined to take as much umbrage with the situation as possible, facts be damned; she penned an open letter to the thespian entitled “Native Americans Are Not Munchkins,” in which she chides the suggestion that “Natives are cute creatures that require safekeeping.” The missive would have been incisive and worthy of some self-righteous applause had Williams ever issued statements in that vein . . . except she didn’t, but rather accurately noted that one productive interpretation of L. Frank Baum’s Oz mythology is as a sociological allegory: “Quadlings, Tinkers and Munchkins didn’t mean much to me; it wasn’t my language. But when I thought of them as Native Americans trying to inhabit their land or about women getting the right to vote, it made a lot more sense. Even if it’s not always overt, if you’re looking for [politics] in the movie, it will feel very topical.” Relating the threads of an especially outlandish and arcane fantasia to the historical realities of the era in which it was created neither necessitates endorsement for troubling thematic undertones or authorial intent; as millions of audiences know, it’s easy enough to dissect the Twilight saga, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potter series, without earnestly believing in Mormonism, Christianity or the racial purity doctrine of the Third Reich. But who cares about literary deconstruction when there’s some moralistic sanctimony to plumb?
Educated at Darmouth College and Columbia University, Cole DeLaune is a native of Oklahoma and Tennessee. He currently resides in Atlanta, and has contributed editorial content to Vogue and Elle, among other publications. He is a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma.Skin-walking, his first book of poetry, will be published in October.
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.—The Cherokee Heritage Center is hosting the 42nd Annual Trail of Tears Art Show and Sale featuring authentic Native American art in one of Oklahoma’s longest continuing art shows. The art show and sale runs from April 20 through May 27 and features federally recognized tribal artists.
Last year’s exhibition included 87 Native American artists from 13 tribal nations and featured 145 art pieces. Artists will compete in eight categories, including paintings, graphics, sculpture, pottery, basketry, miniatures, jewelry and a Trail of Tears theme.
The Cherokee Heritage Center is located at 21192 S. Keeler Drive, Park Hill, OK 74451. Operating hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, through the month of February and Monday through Saturday beginning in March.
Admission is $8.50 per adult, $7.50 per senior (55 and older) and students with proper identification, and $5 per child. Admission price includes all attractions. Entry to the grounds and museum store are free.
For additional information on the 2013 season and programs, please contact the Cherokee Heritage Center at (888) 999-6007 or visit http://www.CherokeeHeritage.org.
PHOENIX — A contemporary sculpture, “A River’s Spirit and Offering” by distinguished sculptor Marvin Oliver won the crowning artistic achievement of “Best in Show” at the 55th annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market on Friday, March 1.
The work by Oliver (Quinault/Isleta-Pueblo) is “formulated by merging the spirit of past traditions with those of the present, to create new horizons for the future,” according to his website, marvinoliver.com.
During his 40-year career, Oliver has experimented with cedar, bronze, steel and glass to create masks, helmets, wood panels, totem poles, blown glass bowls, bronze ravens and sculpted whale fins that mix ancient and contemporary styles. His art is inspired by the imagery of the southern Coast Salish, and incorporates northern formline designs into his work as a tribute to his Northwest Coast heritage, according to a description on the website quintanagalleries.com. His work “Mystical Journey” is prominently featured at the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and he has had many other public art pieces displayed across the United States, Canada, Japan and Italy, according to the artist’s website.
Oliver currently serves as the department director of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, where he also teaches two-dimensional design, woodcarving and art history. He also holds the title of curator of contemporary Native American art at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
“Best of Class” award recipients are listed below. A full list of winners and this year’s judges is at heard.org/fair, click on “Competition Winners.”
I – Jewelry and Lapidary – Benson Manygoats (Navajo/Diné), “Shush”
II – Pottery – Jennifer Moquino and Russell Sanchez (San Ildefonso Pueblo / Santa Clara Pueblo), Lidded Pot
It was a massive competition between the best new hip hop acts from New York and L.A., and when all was said and done it was LightningCloud — a Native act from the left coast — who reigned supreme.
The finale took place at South by Southwest, the entertainment-industry mega-event that descends upon Austin, Texas annually and which concluded on Sunday night. On Friday, LightningCloud, the delegate from Los Angeles as selected by hip hop radio station Power 106, faced Brooklyn product Radamiz, who had earned his spot in the finals by winning the contest held by New York’s Hot 97.
The matchup was decided by text voting on Friday, and LightningCloud were announced as the winners following a performance by hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar. For their victory, the group, which consists of MC Redcloud, Crystle Lightning, and DJ Hydroe, will open for Lamar on tour, and received a cash prize of $10,000.
By Jordan Wright, Indian Country Today Media Network
Pam Knapp of KQ Designs
Crafted from the tanned skins of elk, deer, moose or buffalo, and in colder climates often lined with rabbit fur or sheepskin, moccasins, often accompanied by leggings, are the standard footwear for pow wows.
Since colonizing Europeans began arriving in North America and started trading their glass beads with American Indians, the art of beading on moccasins has become a tradition that has evolved into high art. Once simply adorned with shell, quill, wood and bone, the moccasins of today are intricately beaded leather canvasses that depict the wearer’s heritage and/or dance style. Beads are stitched into complex motifs to reflect tribal, clan or familial influences with fanciful botanical, geometric or animal design themes.
For Michael Knapp, of KQ Designs, based in Lexington, Kentucky, a bead artisan for the past 40 years, beadwork is like snowflakes, in that “no two designs are the same.” Knapp, of Winnebago descent, who learned the art of beading from his mother and later taught his wife how to do it, creates head-to-toe regalia. “There are several different styles for women,” he says, “depending on what is typical for their tribe or the part of the country they are from or their dance style. For men, it’s typically a basic pair of fully beaded moccasins using the lazy-stitch style of beadwork. Men who dance traditional or straight dance wear leggings. In the old days all men wore leggings. With women there are more choices.”
The pow wow dancer can choose from three basic styles, though the final product shows the limitless artistry expressed by the beader. There’s the familiar low-cut moccasin with a squared-off tongue and hole-threaded leather laces, or the high-top “desert boot” with turn-down cuffs. There’s also the mid-calf boot with thong ties that wrap around the leg and up the calf. (Floor-dusting fringe often runs along the sides or back of the boot.) Beaded leggings that cover the top of the moccasin up to the top of the calf are sometimes added to complete the outfit.
Stepping Out in Style: contemporary and traditional leggings and moccasins (Pam Knapp of KQ Designs)
Whether pow wow dancers are performing grass dance or jingle, straight dance, fancy dance, traditional or hoop dance, beaded footwear is a considerable investment, and it must not only be beautiful but also able to withstand wear and tear. Although sinew, the animal tendon once used to lace the shoe together, is seen at art shows demonstrating traditional styles, it’s not strong enough to hold up to energetic pow wow dancing. Instead a strong thread is used, though Knapp likes to use sturdier, and pricier, waxed dental floss to ensure the beads stay on during the dancers dynamic performances.
Historically, tribes like the Kiowa and Comanche typically wore high-tops. Seminoles, who did little beadwork, used predominately patchwork appliqués with different colored materials and some accent edge beading. On the West Coast, beadwork was rare, but in the Plains, including the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa, there was a lot of beading, and women’s regalia had not only fully beaded yokes on their dresses, but also on their moccasins and leggings. In the Plateau region of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana and Northern Utah a different style of stitchery called flat stitch was often used—that refers to the way beads are tacked down onto deer hide or cloth. The Cheyenne were known for lazy stitch, eight to 10 beads wide.
Today much of the regalia no longer incorporates traditional stylings, and many beaders feel the change is good. “Though rhinestones and mirrors in beadwork are only from the past 15 years and don’t reflect traditional styles, it comes down to artistry and we are very open to it,” says Knapp. “It has more to do with the dancer as a beautiful piece of art.”
Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty, Sioux/Assiniboine, is another bespoke beader whose work has won numerous awards and been featured at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C. (some of her art will be presented in the upcoming NMAI exhibit Grand Procession, opening April 17) and the Denver Art Museum. While living on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana, she learned the art from her mother, Joyce Growing Thunder, one of the most prominent beaders in North America.
As Fogarty works on a pair of smoked moose hide moccasins for her 10-year-old daughter, she explains that her family not only beads together, but dances together. “It’s a part of who we are. We were raised to dance for others,” she says. Brother George is a grass dancer and older daughter Jessa Rae Growing Thunder, Miss Indian World 2012-2013, is a competitive dancer and a beader.
Joyce and Juanita incorporate a wealth of stitches in their extraordinary designs. “Some of the stitches we use are appliqué, lazy, edging, whipstitch, Southern, peyote, brick or loom beadwork,” says Fogarty, who teaches summer classes in beading at the Idyllwild Arts center in California and refers to moccasins by the Sioux word hampas. “Mostly I use our tribal style, sticking to lazy stitch and appliqué, a two-needle stitch with one needle on top that holds the beads and another that loops over to attach it to the hide. I use materials we would have used a hundred years ago.”
There is a tremendous sense of pride at pow wows as dancers express their ancestral stories not just through the intricately stitched symbols and designs that glimmer from the light of thousands of hand-sewn glass beads and sparkling ornamentation, but by each footstep reconnecting them to Mother Earth and Father Sky. As Fogarty puts it, “The circle is a healing place. You’re there to heal others hearts and spirits.”
Ask Northwest book lovers about authors they enjoy. Picking one favorite is too hard, but Timothy Egan is sure to be on many lists.
The Seattle-based author has a gift for bringing together history, humanity and a knowing sense of place.
I’ve been hooked on Egan’s nonfiction since reading his 1990s books “The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest” and “Breaking Blue,” a tale of police corruption in 1930s Spokane.
For years a correspondent for The New York Times, Egan chronicled the Dust Bowl in “The Worst Hard Time,” which won the 2006 National Book Award. His book “The Big Burn,” about a massive 1910 forest fire, explores early champions of conservation President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot.
Egan’s latest, “Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis,” is a biography of the Seattle photographer who sacrificed much to capture iconic images of American Indians in the early 1900s.
It’s all so well written you forget you’re reading serious history. Wouldn’t it be fun if another Northwest favorite, “Book Lust” author Nancy Pearl, sat down with Egan for a literary chat?
That’s a book-lover’s dream, and it’s going to happen at 7 p.m. April 6 at the Everett Performing Arts Center. Planned by Friends of the Everett Public Library, the event is free, but organizers will ask for donations to support the library’s summer reading program.
Pearl, a former Seattle librarian and former director of the Washington Center for the Book, spearheaded community reading with the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” program. Her reading recommendations fill several “Book Lust” volumes, and she’s been a public radio regular. Pearl may best be known as the inspiration for a librarian action figure, a replica that makes the finger-to-lips “shhhh” gesture.
“I’m just hoping for a great turnout,” said Everett Public Library Director Eileen Simmons, adding that she knows Egan and Pearl both have many fans. There were plans to bring the pair to Everett years ago.
Before becoming library director in 2007, Simmons was involved in planning a “Reading in the Rain” winter program at the library. Another librarian suggested bringing Pearl to a kickoff event to interview an author.
“Tim Egan had just come out with ‘The Worst Hard Time,’ so we picked him. He was willing, we had it all set up,” Simmons said Friday. Pearl had to cancel. Another date didn’t work for Egan; it was Super Bowl Sunday. “Then he won the National Book Award, and we couldn’t get him,” she said.
Simmons had hoped Matika Wilbur could be part of the April 6 program. Wilbur, a member of the Tulalip and Swinomish tribes, was featured in Gale Fiege’s Herald article last November.
Like the photographer subject of Egan’s book, Wilbur’s mission is to photograph members of every American Indian tribe. Simmons said the young woman won’t be available for the library event, which is sponsored by Rodland Toyota.
There’s other good news at the Everett library.
The Bookend Coffee Company, a coffee shop inside the library, is open again after its previous owner quit the business. Opened as Espresso Americano in 2004, the library shop had been run by Jennie Wheat as Bookend for almost two years. Wheat left when her lease expired in February. Espresso Americano now operates at Everett Station.
The library shop recently reopened with new owners, Everett’s Barry Wheeling and Jennifer Schmidt. “They lease the space from the Greater Everett Community Foundation,” Simmons said. That arrangement allows the rent money to be used by the library, she said. The Bookend shop serves Herkimer Coffee, a Seattle brand.
“It’s pretty good,” said Simmons, admitting she’s no coffee expert.
Books, best-selling authors on the way, and the coffee shop is back — it’s all pretty good.
National Book Award winner Timothy Egan will read from “Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis” and will be interviewed by “Book Lust” author Nancy Pearl at a public event at 7 p.m. April 6 at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave. The Friends of the Everett Public Library event is free, but donations will support the library’s summer reading program.
He was a friend to Indian tribes and served two terms as governor of Washington state; Booth Gardner, a democratic, died at the age of 76 on Friday, March 15 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“Governor Booth Gardner was a wonderful man and an exceptionally good governor. He was clearly a very close friend of the tribes, a man who truly understood the great value of establishing and maintaining positive relations with us, on a government-to-government basis, and who had the courage to stand up for what is right,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, in a statement.
“It was under Booth’s leadership that the State of Washington and the Northwest Tribes stepped away from constant court battles into a new era of cooperation in the 1980’s. It was he who signed the Centennial Accord with tribal leaders in 1989 and it was he who helped open the door to positive state/tribal relations in places where conflict and polarization existed before,” Sharp continued. “Booth Gardner was a brilliant and visionary man. We pray the leadership he provided in his life will live on for generations to come. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and to all the people of Washington who we know will also miss this great and vastly accomplished man.”
ARLINGTON — Arlington’s second annual Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt will wrap up “Paint the Town Purple Day” on March 23 in the Haller Middle School stadium, with the gates opening at 8 p.m.
At 8:30 p.m., attendees 5 years old and younger will be released onto the field, and at 9 p.m., the lights will go out for all ages, come rain or shine, at a cost of $5 per person, with all the money raised going toward the American Cancer Society.
“The pre-hunt for ages 5 and under this year was added by popular demand,” said Heidi Clark, who organized last year’s Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt. “The main hunt will be open to ages 3 to 103. Teenagers and adults are encouraged to attend.”
While hundreds of plastic Easter eggs will be filled with candy, some eggs will contain raffle tickets for cash prizes, gift cards donated by local businesses, vacation packages and more, with some of them valued at $500 or more.
Attendees should bring their own baskets and flashlights. For more information, call Clark at 360-925-6436.
