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Description: Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American Art
~Our profound gratitude, first and foremost, to the ninety-two objects in this exhibition and publication, and to the countless others we met in storage cabinets and cases along the way. Thank you for allowing us to visit with you, hold you, and speak to you. Thank you for teaching us. We are grateful to the artists who created you, and to the ancestors,...
PublisherYale University Art Gallery
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Acknowledgments
Our profound gratitude, first and foremost, to the ninety-two objects in this exhibition and publication, and to the countless others we met in storage cabinets and cases along the way. Thank you for allowing us to visit with you, hold you, and speak to you. Thank you for teaching us. We are grateful to the artists who created you, and to the ancestors, artworks, and beings who taught them how to weave, carve, sew, and bead—who inspired them to create. This is for you, because of you.
We owe the existence of this exhibition and catalogue to the generations of Indigenous activists at Yale University who have fought and continue to fight for the accurate representation of Indigenous arts and peoples on campus. Thank you for your work and your courage. We hope this is a small step toward achieving that goal.
Thank you to our mentor and advisor, Kelly Fayard (Poarch Band of Creek Indians), former Assistant Dean of Yale College and Director of the Native American Cultural Center, for pushing us to ask the difficult questions and guiding us through this project with honesty and love. We are indebted, as well, to Anya Montiel (Tohono O’odham and Mexican), Ph.D. 2018, Assistant Professor of Art, University of Arizona, Tucson, for reading countless drafts of our essays and labels and helping us untangle Yale’s history with Indigenous art.
Immense appreciation is due to Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone), Professor of History and American Studies, and Edward S. Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of the History of Art, both at Yale, for their encouragement and advice. We especially thank Professor Blackhawk and Summer Sutton (Lumbee), Ph.D. candidate, Yale School of Architecture, for their incredible contribution to this publication.
This project benefited tremendously from the generosity and counsel of Chief Mutáwi Mutáhash (Many Hearts) Marilynn Malerba; Chairman and Justice of the Mohegan Tribal Council of Elders John Roberge; and Medicine Woman and Tribal Historian Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, all of the Mohegan Nation. We thank Melissa for her moving preface and for answering our many questions about the Indigenous communities of present-day Connecticut.
Thank you to each member of our Student Advisory Group: Nolan Arkansas (Eastern Band of Cherokee), TC ’22; Kohar Avakian (Nipmuc), Ph.D. student in American Studies; Gabriella Blatt (Chippewa-Cree), ES ’21; Charelle Brown (Kewa Pueblo), ES ’20; Luta Fast Dog (Sičháŋğu Lakȟóta), ES ’21; Madeleine Freeman (Choctaw and Chickasaw), BF ’21; Paige Johnson (Blackfeet and Navajo), GH ’20; Marlee Kelly (Oglála Lakȟóta), ES ’20; Mikki Metteba (Diné [Navajo]), BR ’22; Matthew Motylenski (Tyendinaga Mohawk), TC ’20; Alanna Pyke (Akwesasne Mohawk), B.S. 2019; Gabi Rivera (Mapuche), TC ’20; Anna Smist (Sac and Fox and Seminole), BR ’21; Anthony Trujillo (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo), M.Div. 2019; and Chase Warren (Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta), BK ’20. Thank you for trusting us, challenging us, and teaching us—and for laughing with us, and at us.
Our gratitude also goes to the revolutionary Indigenous scholars, activists, and community members beyond Yale whose work has inspired us, including, but not limited to, those who served on the Advisory Council on Native Arts and Cultures: Joshua Carter, Manager of Tribal and Native American Preference, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation; Greg Hill (Kanyen’kehaka, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Ontario), the Audain Senior Curator of Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Joe Horse Capture (A’aninin), Director of American Indian Initiatives, Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul; Daka-xeen Mehner (Tlingit/N’ishga), Assistant Professor of Native Arts, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache), Professor of Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Patsy Phillips (Cherokee), Director, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; Jami Powell (Osage), Associate Curator of Native American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire; Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora), Associate Professor, Departments of Art and History of Art and Visual Studies, and Director of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; and Brian Vallo, Governor, Pueblo of Acoma. Our sincere thanks to Pamela Franks, former Senior Deputy Director and Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and Tim Barringer, the Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University, for their instrumental role in creating the advisory council.
As student curators, we are indebted to every single staff member at the Yale University Art Gallery for teaching us what it means to be curators, how to allow objects to speak to one another, and how to use The Museum System (TMS). Thank you for believing in us and in our project. Our warmest gratitude goes to Laurence Kanter, Chief Curator and the Lionel Goldfrank III Curator of European Art, and Katharine Luce, Museum Assistant, Department of European Art, for their unwavering support. Thank you for being our mentors, for sharing in our excitement and our frustration, and for making space in your office for a ragtag Native American Art Department.
We are immensely grateful for the insight and work of our incredible editor, Tiffany Sprague, Director of Publications and Editorial Services, without whom this publication would not exist. Thank you for your patience and guidance, for challenging us to think deeply and write clearly about these important objects and artists. Special thanks to Jennifer Lu, Editorial and Production Assistant, for her constant direction and motivation. We very much appreciate the work of Christopher Sleboda, Director of Graphic Design, for capturing our vision for this exhibition in his designs, and Cecilia Estanislao, Graphic Designer, for her assistance with the reproductions in the book, as well as that of Joellen Adae, former Director of Communications, for helping us engage the public in these important conversations.
For fully embracing the goals of our exhibition and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into your work, we also thank: Stephanie Wiles, the Henry J. Heinz II Director; Jock Reynolds, former Henry J. Heinz II Director; Jeffrey Yoshimine, Deputy Director for Exhibition and Collection Management; Andrew Daubar, Exhibition Production Manager; Anne Goslin and Amy Dowe, both Senior Associate Registrars; Frauke V. Josenhans, former Horace W. Goldsmith Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts; Mark D. Mitchell, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture; John ffrench, Director of Visual Resources; Kathleen Mylen-Coulombe, Rights and Reproductions Coordinator; and Richard House and Alexander Harding, both Senior Photographers. Special thanks to Molleen Theodore, Associate Curator of Programs, for countless meetings, phone calls, and conversations about bringing life to our exhibition through programming. Additional thanks to Anne Gunnison, Associate Conservator of Objects, for her care of the objects; the Facilities and Security Departments for their work on the exhibition; and Elisabeth Hodermarsky, the Sutphin Family Curator of Prints and Drawings, for her enthusiasm and encouragement.
We could not be more grateful to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History staff, especially Director David K. Skelly, for his commitment to this important collaboration, and David Heiser, Director of Student Programs, for encouraging us to always dream big. For their herculean efforts on behalf of this project, our special, heartfelt thanks to: the Division of Anthropology, including Roger Colten, Senior Collections Manager, and Maureen DaRos White, Senior Museum Assistant; Erin Gredell, Registrar; Rebekah DeAngelo, Museum Assistant, Collections and Research; and Catherine Sease, Senior Conservator.
We extend our deep gratitude to the talented staff at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, especially to Director E. C. Schroeder for his enthusiasm and investment in our project. We are grateful for the infinite wisdom and unconditional support of George Miles, Curator, Western Americana Collection. Thanks also to the gifted Yale University Library paper conservator Marie-France Lemay for all of her assistance.
For her valuable counsel and unending encouragement, we are indebted to Ruth B. Phillips, Canada Research Professor in Modern Culture, Carleton University, Ottawa. We also thank Kaitlin McCormick, former Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Native American Art and Curation, Department of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Gallery, now Curator of Western Ethnology at the Canadian Museum of History, Quebec, for offering advice as we approached and tackled the many daunting tasks associated with this project. Special thanks to Sequoia Miller, Ph.D. 2018, Chief Curator, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, for guiding us through the early stages of this project and teaching us how to learn from objects. We are grateful to Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye, Curator of Education and Academic Outreach, Yale Center for British Art, for always being generous with her time and advice.
The following scholars and artists fielded questions and gave feedback, often going above and beyond the call of duty as we delved into new areas of study: Tara Backhouse (Seminole), Collections Manager, Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, Big Cypress, Florida; Layla Bermeo, the Kristin and Roger Servison Associate Curator of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Jack Davy, Research Associate, Beyond the Spectacle: Native North American Presence in Britain; Bonnie Devine (Serpent River First Nation of Northern Ontario [Anishinaabe/Ojibwa]), Associate Professor of Art and Founding Chair of the Indigenous Visual Culture Program, OCAD University, Toronto; Aaron Glass, Associate Professor of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Bard Graduate Center, New York; Candace Greene, Anthropologist, Collections and Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Emil Her Many Horses (Oglála Lakȟóta), Curator, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; artist Richard Hunt (Kwakwaka’wakw; cat. 73); Aldona Jonaitis, former Director, University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks; Christine Lalonde, Associate Curator, Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada; Edith Leoso (Bad River Ojibwe), Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe; artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Norwegian, and Austrian; cat. 82); John P. Lukavic, the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Native Arts, Denver Art Museum; Timothy McCleary, Professor, Little Big Horn Tribal College, Crow Agency, Montana; Alexandra Kahsenni:io Nahwegahbow (Whitefish River First Nation [Anishinaabe and Kanien’kehá:ka]), Associate Curator of Historical Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada; Wanda Nanibush (Beausoleil First Nation), Curator of Indigenous Art, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Lindsay Nixon (Cree-Métis-Saulteaux), Editor-at-Large, Canadian Art; Jami Powell; David P. Sweeney (Inupiaq), Ahgupuk Art and Appraisal LLC; artist Marie Watt (Seneca; cats. 78); and Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Associate Curator of Native American Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Our thanks to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Jane and Gerald Katcher Fund for Education, and the Nolen-Bradley Family Fund for Education for making this exhibition and publication possible.
Lastly, we are grateful for the endless support of our partners, families, and friends— you inspire us, always.
Katherine Nova McCleary (Little Shell Chippewa–Cree)
Leah Tamar Shrestinian
Joseph Zordan (Bad River Ojibwe)
Acknowledgments
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