Kent Monkman
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s P r i N g 2 0 1 1 k enT Monk Man: Miss ChiEf Maker The Caonao RideR The osage MuRdeRs Thanking The WaMpanoag salt RiveR fieLds foReveR + The EARLy YEARs of R.C. GO RMAN 1A1 AMERICAN AMERICAN INDIAN INDIAN SPRING SPRING 2011 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION A1 Ssssh! Who better to I'm in the middle solve tomorrow’s of an equation! challenges than Native talent? AISES: 34 years of working to increase American Indian/Alaska Native access to and success in science, technology, engineering, and math. Find out more at www.aises.org. ThB1ce1 AMERICANAme INDIANric SPRINGan 2011Indian Science and Engineering Society is a 501 (c)3 organization. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION c1 1 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 1 Contents 18 8 Meditative images like the Blue Madonna mark the formative NDIAN I years of popular Navajo artist 8 Making Miss Chief SPRING 2011 R.C. Gorman, featured in a Cree painter Kent Monkman confronts Western conventions with MERICAN new exhibit at the National A Kent another artistic tradition, the mocking alter ego. THE Mon KMan: Museum of the American M ISS ChIef MakeR OF the Caonao RideR Indian in Washington, D.C. the osage MuRdeRs USEUM thanKing the M WaMpanoag Woman, 1972 Lithograph salt RiveR Fields FoReveR print on Arches paper, 11/70. ational 18 N Printed at Tamarind Institute of The Caonao RideR THE Petrographs hidden in a Cuban cave record the Taino people’s first encounter OF + Albuquerque, N.M., by Harry y the eaRlY with Spanish horsemen, and the massacre that followed. YeaRs oF Westlund (25/9574). R.C. courtes go RMan hoto P 23 The osage MuRdeRs A Reign of Terror prompted by sudden wealth, greed and betrayal made the Osage Reservation in the early 1920s one of the most dangerous places in the country, and gave the fledgling FBI its first major case. 23 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 3 Spring 2011 vol. 12 no. 1 18 32 36 23 28 inside nMAI Thanking The WaMpanoag 46 The early yeaRs of R.C. gorman After four centuries, the Natives who rescued the half-dead Puritan The celebrity artist’s fascination with the female body and with Navajo settlement at Plymouth Bay are finally getting recognition. textiles marks a new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. 32 48 BeetleWing earrings fRoM The shuaR Mashpee ResToRes iTs souL 50 pulling doWn The CLouds The Old Indian Meeting House in this Cape Cod “praying town” has Poems by Contemporary Native Writers survived since 1684. Preserved and reopened, it is now on firm footing, Let Us Survive, by Roberta J. Hill (Oneida) along with the community it helped preserve. 52 nMAI in youR neighBoRhood 36 54 exhiBiTions and evenTs CaLendaR naTive PlaCes: salt RiveR fieLds foReveR In time for spring training, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community has just opened the first Major League Baseball facility to be built on tribal land. But it continues a tradition of Native ballcourts that goes back at least a millennium. 23 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 3 45 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 5 227 don gaspar santa fe, nm 87501 505.989.8728 KESHthe zuni connectioni www.keshi.com Director: Publisher: Kevin Gover Tim Johnson (Mohawk) (Pawnee) Managing Editor: Editor-in-Chief: James Ring Adams Eileen Maxwell Art Direction Features Editor: and Production Carol Johnson Management: Academica Group Inc Calendar Editors: David Beyer (Cree) Molly Stephey Ann Marie Sekeres Advertising Sales: Wayne Stafford Copy Editor: [email protected] Leonda Levchuk 519-258-6366 (Navajo) MaryAnn DePietro Administrative [email protected] Coordinator: 505-897-1903 David Saunders National Museum of the American Indian magazine (ISSN 1528-0640, USPS 019-246) is published quarterly by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), 4th Street and Independence Ave SW, MRC 590 P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C., 20013-7012. Periodical fetishes pottery jewelry since 1981 postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional offices. Les Namingha: Contemporary “Relic” Zuni Jar 8” x 11” National Museum of the American Indian magazine is a benefit of NMAI Membership and constitutes $6 of an individual’s annual membership. Basic annual membership Namingha ad.indd 1 1/9/11 9:10 AM begins at $25. Reprinting Articles: Articles may be reprinted in whole or in part at no charge for educational, non-commercial and non-profit purposes, provided the following details for the respective article are credited: “National Museum of the American Indian, issue date [such as “Winter 2005”], title of the article, author of the article, page numbers and © 2011, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian.” Questions regarding permission to reprint and requests to use photos should be directed to the NMAI’s Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., at • Celebrate 40 years of Qiviut (202) 633-6985. • Enjoy traditionally inspired designs Letters to the Editor are welcome and may be mailed • Soft and lightweight to NMAI, Attn. Editor, Office of Public Affairs, P.O. Box 23473, Washington, D.C., 20026-3473 or an e-mail may be sent to [email protected]. Or, you may call NMAI’s Public Affairs office at (202) 633-6985 or send a fax to • Eight times • Be part of our (202) 633-6920, Attn. Public Affairs. warmer than mission to bring wool Back issues of National Museum of the American Indian are money into $5 per copy (shipping and handling included), subject to • Share in a remote villages availability. To order, please call (800) 242-NMAI (6624) or heritage of Alaska send an e-mail to [email protected]. Member Services: To join or renew your existing member- ship, or to submit a change of address, please call (800) 242-NMAI (6624), visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/give OOMINGMAK or send an e-mail to [email protected]. Downtown Location • Corner of 6th & H You may also write to NMAI Member Services, P.O. Box Little brown house with musk ox mural 23473, Washington, D.C., 20026-3473. 604 H Street, Dept. AIM, Anchorage, AK 99501 Postmaster: Send change of address information to Toll Free 1-888-360-9665 National Museum of the American Indian, P.O. Box 23473, (907) 272-9225 • www.qiviut.com Washington, D.C. 20026-3473. 45 AMERICAN INDIAN SPRING 2011 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 5 Oomingmak NMAI AD_4.875x5_52226.indd 1 1/14/11 1:49 PM Photo © 2008 Kim Ashley Photo © 2008 Kim MENTOR ANAMERICAN INDIAN ANDCHILD BUILD A RELATIONSHIPTHAT LASTS A LIFETIME SUPPORTANAMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH GROUPAND HELP T0 BUILD NATIVE LEADERS FUTURES FOR CHILDREN Please call 800-545-6843 or visit our website for information on how you can 9600 Tennyson St NE become a mentor or Youth Leadership supporter: www.futuresforchildren.org Albuquerque NM 87122-2282 Shop67 AMERICAN our online INDIAN store SPRING for 2011 authentic American Indian Art. www.ffcais.com Where Native Youth become Tomorrow’s Leaders! SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 7 Ad1.indd 1 1/19/11 9:53:41 PM Director’s Letter Photo © 2008 Kim Ashley Photo © 2008 Kim that way. Dr. Carlos Gonzales’ blessing at the memorial spoke of bringing a balance back MENTOR into our world. I understood him to refer to AN an imbalance that often exists in our relation- AMERICAN ships with one another – particularly with others of different cultures and generations. It doesn’t have to be that way. INDIAN Take for example our community – the AND community of donors, visitors, leaders, schol- CHILD ars and members like you who have signed on A to a global mission to disseminate knowledge BUILD of Native America’s past, present and future. We are a community that crosses geographical RELATIONSHIPTHAT boundaries. We are all over the map in terms A of our ages and thus in the way we like to com- LASTS municate, whether you are one of our 50,000 members or one of our 30,000 Facebook friends. We live in urban areas and in the sub- LIFETIME NDIAN I urbs, on reservations and in myriad sovereign nations. Collectively, we speak hundreds of MERICAN A languages and represent numerous cultures. THE It is these very differences that make us the OF strong and healthy institution that we are. USEUM And while we are ever mindful of our charge M to take care of this exquisite building and the ational precious collections that it houses, we know it N is our shared humanity that brings us together THE OF in this mission. y And hope does spring eternal. I had the courtes pleasure of being interviewed by Courtland SUPPORTAN Milloy of The Washington Post in January hoto AMERICAN P about Native America’s views on the name of the D.C.-based National Football League INDIAN team. Milloy was inspired to do the article af- MoRe Than eveR, iT’s ouR ter a recent visit to the Museum. As I told him YOUTH during the interview, we don’t believe anyone CommuniTy ThaT susTains us means us harm, but on the other hand, once AND people know that the team’s name is offen- GROUP very year, I am surprised the city’s sidewalks again. It is miraculous. It sive, and they continue using it, it hurts. I was HELP T0 BUILD by the tender beauty of brings renewed hope. Hope that at times this heartened by the many readers, some long- a Washington Spring. past winter seemed to have abandoned us, as time Washington fans, who responded that it From the dead of winter it did after the horrific shootings in Tuscon.