“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s new big-screen epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, premiered in theaters just over a week after Americans marked Indigenous People’s Day. Based on David Grann’s bestselling book, the story depicts the brutal serial murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. Given the inherent drama of the narrative and the buzzy casting, the film seems destined for critical success. But will it usher in a new era for Hollywood’s Native Americans?

Thirty-three years ago, Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves” delivered a watershed moment. After decades of cowboy-and-Indian Westerns, the movie cast Native actors in prominent roles and showed a human dimension to its Native characters.

Costner’s epic earned seven Academy Awards, including best picture, and a nomination for Native Canadian actor Graham Greene in a supporting role. The movie also brought in over $400 million worldwide and sparked a mini surge of Native-themed stories, like “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992) and “Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).” Television mini-series like “Son of the Morning Star” (1991) and “DreamKeeper” (2003) followed the same pattern. Even Disney jumped on the bandwagon with its animated hit “Pocahontas” (1995).

Many Native actors, including Wes Studi, enjoyed a boost in their careers because of “Dances with Wolves.” But for all its hype, Costner’s epic did not employ Natives Americans in prominent creative roles behind the scenes.

Change in the ensuing decades has been incremental. Television has arguably worked the hardest to increase representation, beginning with the 1990 TNT series “The Native Americans. Behind the Legends. Beyond the Myths.” featuring Hanay Geiogamah (Kiowa) as a producer. That same decade brought “Smoke Signals” (1998), the theatrical debut of the Cheyenne and Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre.

Recently, the streaming series “Rutherford Falls” and “Reservation Dogs” have employed Native artists in front of and behind the camera, including showrunners Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo) and Sterlin Harjo (Seminole).

Sadly, “Rutherford Falls” was cancelled and “Reservation Dogs” will end after its third season.

Now a major motion picture has its chance. “Killers of the Flower Moon” has proudly touted Scorsese’s collaboration with Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear. To the studio’s credit, local Osage talent was hired in various production roles such as the costuming and art departments.

But no Native American is credited as being involved in the movie’s screenwriting, production or directing creative processes. This is an ongoing problem. Back in 2020, the Native American & Indigenous Writers Committee of the Writers Guild of America West addressed this same issue In an open letter advising the industry that merely using Natives as cultural consultants was severely limiting. They need to be hired as writers, directors and producers, too. 

This makes “Killers of the Flower Moon” both an interesting case study and ultimately a missed opportunity. The movie has tried to incorporate some Osage input, but it still is telling this story primarily through the lens of the white main character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. As Variety has pointed out, DiCaprio grabs the lion’s share of the screen time. And the camera often lingers on his face, even when other characters are speaking.

Perhaps one bright spot is the movie’s female lead.

Lily Gladstone, an actress of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage, plays the Osage wife of her slippery husband (DiCaprio) and is already garnering some Oscar buzz.

“If you’re wondering if you should go see this film, at least go see it for Gladstone’s performance,” advised Osage News editor Shannon Shaw Duty in her review.

With her powerful performance, Gladstone joined a small but important club of Native female actors. Elaine Miles stole countless scenes as the unflappable Alaska Native receptionist in 1990s gem “Northern Exposure.” Jana Schmieding of “Rutherford Falls,” Devery Jacobs and Paulina Alexis of “Reservation Dogs,” Sheila Tousey in “Thunderheart” (1992), Irene Bedard in “Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee” (TV 1994), and the late Misty Upham in “Frozen River” (2008) all won accolades for their portrayals of strong, independent Native women. And Amber Midthunder’s starring role as a young Comanche warrior in Hulu’s release of “Prey” (2022), a prequel to the “Predator” series, proved that Native women can carry blockbusters. “Prey” was produced by Jhane Myers of the Comanche Nation; she was nominated for a Producers Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Gladstone’s presence and strength may very well continue to open doors for Hollywood’s Native women. But without Native American artists behind the camera in prominent positions, as well as in front of it, Hollywood will struggle to tell Native stories authentically — or without centering and privileging whiteness. Lily Gladstone deserves better, just like the real Osage victims of this white supremacist reign of terror did all those decades ago.

The Portland Art Museum’s curatorial team is looking ahead to the completion of the Mark Rothko Pavilion in 2025, when we will celebrate new, expanded, and accessible galleries with a host of exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s collections. While galleries are closed for construction, the curators are busy thinking expansively about the collection and about the many stories it can tell. Just as our physical spaces are expanding to become more inclusive and welcoming, so too is the process of creating exhibitions for the public. We are evolving our curatorial approach with a more collaborative process internally and, soon, externally as we continue to grow our partnerships with community organizations and artists in Portland. 

We’re flexing these new muscles in the coming year with the exhibition Throughlines: Connections in the Collection (opening October 28, 2023), engaging more with community-based and artist partners to better spotlight art, artists, and the communities they come from. We envision collection galleries as responsive spaces for storytelling, creative production, and community connection, engaging with more diverse audiences as well as evolving social, cultural, and creative contexts.

Hear from PAM curators about this process: Kathleen Ash-Milby, Curator of Native American Art; Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Prints and Drawings; Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography; Erin Grant, Assistant Curator of Native American Art; Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art; Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art;  and Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art. 

What opportunities excite you about the new Pavilion and the refreshed galleries, and how does the new physical connection prompt the team to think about thematic connections amongst the artworks? 

Sara: I am thrilled by the opportunity that the Pavilion entrance and community commons offer visitors—you will be able to choose your own pathway through the galleries from the beginning of your experience, connecting horizontally on each level. I hope this encourages visitors to explore the galleries in ways they haven’t before. For example, we’re thinking of a broader presentation of contemporary art across the top level where the Hoffman wing joins the Jubitz Center.

Grace: The physical connection on the fourth floor across our intersecting departments is really exciting, as it will truly echo the connections made by contemporary art. Previously, what might be programmatically the most similar in scope and attention—the APEX exhibition series showcasing Northwest artists, the Contemporary Native American Art program, and the ongoing Crumpacker Center for New Art—were physically in very separate spaces. In this new presentation, along with PAM CUT’s programs, I hope that some form of these exhibitions will offer more of a flow of an exchange of ideas and collaborative efforts. 

Sara: The new orientation also provides visitors a direct route to the Crumpacker Center for New Art contained within the Modern and Contemporary wing, where we will program exciting exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art drawn from research across the curatorial team, from photography to new media, international to Northwest, and more, giving us another platform to support emerging artists and innovative practices. 

Jeannie: The current main entrance, facing the South Park Blocks, will transform from an entry point into an expansive new space for art. I’m excited by the possibilities and challenges of this gallery, which will retain its historic glass windows and doors. This makes for a beautiful setting but raises important considerations for light-sensitive works of art. I’m researching new projects that would highlight this unusual space, yet still maintain a kinship with the adjacent galleries of Asian art. 

Mary: A new gallery above the new loading dock on the south side of the Main Building will provide a prime location for rotating exhibitions. I am busy working on shows featuring prints and drawings in dialogue with the adjacent galleries. Because the art in this room will be rotated frequently, visitors will make new discoveries each time, encountering Old Master woodcuts and engravings on one visit, and contemporary screenprints on another. The space is also amenable to focus exhibitions of paintings or photography—flexibility is a key feature of this beautiful gallery. 

Julia: I’m so excited that the floor where the current photography galleries are located will be greatly expanded and offer places to sit, visit, and take in art as well as the cityscape. I love the intimate dimensions of the photography gallery and think that the new spaces around it will offer a lovely balance of experiences, especially after time spent looking closely at photographs.

Sara: The second floor in the Pavilion will be a beautiful, double-height gallery to showcase PAM’s strong collection of sculpture. We are collaborating on a project that highlights works from the Native American, Northwest, and Contemporary collections. One idea we are exploring—how sculptors depict nature—will resonate with the wonderful indoor/outdoor sensibility provided by the Pavilion’s glass walls. The airy aesthetics of this space will also make a lovely home for occasional performances and events. 

What has the planning process been like?

Mary: Over the past few years, we curators have been very attentive to other museums that are planning reinstallations. We take notes, ask questions of our colleagues, and when possible, make site visits. We are fortunate to have generous curators around the country who are willing to share their experiences. Like us, they are seeking to create warm, inviting spaces for visitors. There are so many diverse ways to approach this question, and the learning process is quite invigorating.  

Julia: Gallery reinstallation is a hot topic throughout the museum field, and we’re learning from our colleagues as they work on similar reconsiderations. In July, I attended the symposium Expanding Horizons: New Approaches in Display and Interpretation, which convened at the Toledo Museum of Art. Over 150 museum professionals from throughout the country were in attendance. People shared about their reinstallation planning processes, community considerations, successes and challenges, and varied approaches.

What new collaborations have emerged through the planning process? How are you thinking about how the spaces can reflect and speak to the connections between the collections that already exist?

Mary: Artists rarely confine their practices to one medium—painters frequently make prints and photographs, and sculptors often have lively drawing practices—but because works on paper are light sensitive, they have different requirements in the gallery. We hope to integrate works on paper into the painting galleries when appropriate, while also keeping separate spaces for these specific art forms where we can tell different, more medium-specific stories. 

Kathleen: Native American artists also work in all mediums, so confining their work to Native American Art galleries does not always make sense. I’ve had many opportunities to collaborate with acquisitions, programs and exhibitions since I arrived four years ago. The new Rothko Pavilion planning is building on this spirit of connection between our curatorial areas. Our visitors and artists benefit from this more expansive vision.

Are there ways that the team is thinking differently about acquisitions and shaping the collection in collaborative ways? With exhibitions too? 

Sara: We have been doing this over the past several years, but now the new connectivity in the galleries allows us to call it out and contextualize this practice

Mary: Agreed—this isn’t a new practice for us, but it has been moved to the forefront. There is a lot of overlap in our curatorial niches, and now we have the opportunity to think about collections in a collaborative way. 

Jeannie: One example is Japanese photography—I recruited Julia to work with me on a recent acquisition of a group of conceptual photographs, which will likely be shown soon after reopening. Together we are also in the very early stages of a larger exhibition project that will examine an early twentieth-century Japanese-American photographer from the Pacific Northwest. Both projects are rooted in a shared sense that moving beyond area-specific curatorial silos is not only desirable and endemic to our way of working, it’s critical. 

Sara: We have experimented with Throughlines to give visitors a look at what cross-department collaboration could look like. This exhibition, in part, asks us to consider the ways art connects us across time, culture and geographies, and proposes that within the broad realm of visual art there are continuities and resonances to be celebrated together. In our planning for after the Pavilion opens, we have been holding two important considerations: While we’ll maintain specific collection galleries across the buildings, we will create moments where constellations of diverse works will expand narratives and perspectives. We also want to instill other areas of collaboration both internally and with partners, artists or guest curators, to be responsive to current issues, community voices, or other social opportunities where we can utilize the collection as a resource for reflection or provocation.

What opportunities does this bring for deepening relationships with Portland artists and community partners? 

Erin: I am hopeful the Rothko Pavilion will set the stage for Indigenous communities and all communities of color to center themselves and their knowledge amongst the art. During the next few years, the Native American Art galleries will undergo an entire redesign that prioritizes the art, Indigenous community voices, and updated display practices. We are currently in the process of doing a collection review including repatriation research, which will ultimately aid Kathleen Ash Milby and me in the ethical storytelling of these items for wider audiences. 

Kathleen: While the new Native American Art galleries will undergo a complete redesign which will likely launch a few years after the Rothko Pavilion is completed, we are exploring other ideas to highlight the collection in our galleries. These include a 21st-century acquisitions exhibition and a smaller installation focused on our local and regional collections. The Native American art program is bigger than our permanent collection galleries, so you’ll continue to see it throughout the Museum and new spaces. There is so much more to come in the years ahead!

Learn more about the Portland Art Museum’s collection and our Mark Rothko Pavilion, coming in 2025!

The University of Nevada, Reno and Office of Indigenous Relations seeks requests for qualifications for an outdoor mural project to be located on the University of Nevada, Reno main campus. This mural is part of the University’s sesquicentennial celebration.

The University of Nevada recognizes that it is situated on the traditional homelands of the Numu (Northern Paiute), Wašiw (Washoe), Newe (Western Shoshone), and Nuwu (Southern Paiute) peoples and understands the importance of Tribal communities and Native Americans across the State of Nevada, and their diverse perspectives.

The mural will serve as a space for gathering, reflection, and celebration of Native American Peoples.

Vision

The vision for this mural is to be a transition piece to include storytelling as a visual representation throughout the years of Native American communities in Nevada, and to highlight the ways in which education has served as a tool for empowerment and the movement of Native American People. This may include the intertwined relationship between traditional ways in present day Native American communities.

The proposed mural will provide representation for Native American students, staff, faculty, community members, and visitors and strive to foster a sense of belonging at the University of Nevada, Reno. The artist will be given creative license to expand beyond the main theme of storytelling to include aspects of language, resiliency, education, empowerment, connection to land and culture, and Wolf Pack imagery.

The Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is hosting WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking & John Isaiah Pepion. WITHIN artist discussion on Oct. 26.

The event is drawn from the artists’ belief that the strength and success of Native American identity and culture is internally inherited and created inside of their communities.

As artists, Still Smoking and Pepion aim to help reclaim, reinform, and redefine what it means to a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana today. By looking within, they themselves and fellow indigenous communities become whole again, according to the museum.

The artists will collaborate to create a mural inside the museum with integrated individual works. The exhibition has a time-based element as the mural is temporary and reflects on the history of cultural erasure, while the combined individual free-standing works reflect continuity and resistance, according to the museum.

Together the artists investigate the varied meanings of being indigenous, with art and culture being at the core of indigenous education and identity.

“WITHIN offers the possibility of opening dynamic conversation with the public about the current state of indigenous art, education, and life in Montana. The creation of the mural at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, originally a public school built in 1896, is integral to the conceptualization of the installation because the visual subject matter encourages a discussion about education and cultural resilience. The artists aim to root their project in the hope and positivity of their people and culture but are also poignantly reflective about the trauma inflicted on indigenous communities resulting from the seizing of their land and the enactment of forced assimilation programs. Ultimately a complex conversation,” according to the museum.

Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy based out of the Blackfeet reservation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. He is best known for his ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes, as the buffalo hide traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. Pepion comes from a family of artists, and ledger art has been in his family for hundreds of years.

Still Smoking was born and raised in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation. Still Smoking worked as a stone sculptor and educator and returned to college to focus on painting. His artwork is influenced by the Impressionists, Lucian Freud, and research on the history of the American Indian Movement.

“The exhibition and lecture series echoes the museum’s core value initiatives to provide to support justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, in a space where all voices are heard. The museum is as a platform to provide and expand the reach of indigenous work in the arts and humanities by strengthening opportunities to provide educational outreach to the Great Falls and Montana community. The museum is hoping to build a better and more fortified relationship with local, regional, and statewide indigenous communities. We are aware that all indigenous voices and communities are different, including languages, experiences, history, and culture. It is through indigenous expertise and guidance, coupled with our own museum initiatives, research, and learning, that we aim to provide a positive space for future generations of indigenous artists and scholars to thrive in Montana,” according to the museum.

The events are free and open to the public.

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26: Artist Reception and Discussion for WITHIN: Louis Still-Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion. Join featured artists Still Smoking and Pepion in discussion with Nicole Maria Evans, the museum’s curator.
• 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17: Hiding in Plain Sight: Expanding the Canvas. Jennifer Woodcock-Medicine Horse will explore the history and social purposes of painted Blackfeet tipis and the transition to contemporary murals examined through Still Smoking and Pepion’s body of work. Woodcock-Medicine Horse is program director for IndigenEyes: Contemporary Native American Art of the Rocky Mountains and Plains.
• 5:30 p.m. Dec. 8: After years of being defined and designed to be something other than an indigenous people, Sean Chandler will illustrate the significance of indigenous lifeways as the foundation of indigenous education in contemporary life. He will present a brief background on the federal government’s policy to alter and control American Indian identity. Specifically, he will discuss how Aaniiih Nakoda College has been driven to counter those past assimilationist policies to define itself as an institution grounded in Aaniiih and Nakoda Lifeways for the people of the Aaniinen and Nakoda Nations. Chandler is president of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

For more information, contact Evans, curator, at nicole@the-square.org; 406-727-8255.

In more ways than one, the work of La Jolla artist Chakib Bouhdary is like a mosaic. In practice, he takes his material, cuts it into shapes and puts it back together to create something new. Personally, the effort to create the pieces represents the coming together of his upbringing, past careers and his life in La Jolla to tell a story.

Bouhdary was selected to be one of four artists in the upcoming Art San Diego Local Talent program, which chooses local artists with studios at the Arts District in Point Loma’s Liberty Station to have a booth at the show.

Art San Diego will be held Friday through Sunday, Nov. 3-5, at the San Diego Convention Center downtown.

As part of the program, Bouhdary taught art classes at San Diego’s Monarch School (which serves students affected by homelessness), and the resulting pieces will be on display and available for purchase with a suggested donation to the school.

“It’s very exciting to be a part of this, it’s really a privilege,” Bouhdary said, especially given that he moved to La Jolla only two years ago and recently joined the local art scene. He’s originally from Morocco and was trained in the technology industry before retiring and dedicating his time to his art.

“I liked art for a long time and did projects here and there, but when I retired, I tried to connect all the pieces of my life together through my art,” he said. “Morocco is colorful and lively; they use shape and color to create beautiful spaces. So I took advantage of my culture and blended it with newer art technology like alcohol-based paint and resin to make these pieces.”

With his move to La Jolla, Bouhdary is constantly inspired by the ocean and sunsets because they are “never the same twice; there are always new colors or clouds or flow or light,” he said. He often tries to re-create the feeling of a sunset in his work.

To make his pieces — which can be placed on everything from a canvas to a coffee table — he takes whatever material he is working with, paints it, cuts it or breaks it into pieces and reassembles them. He covers the completed pieces with a shiny sealant to “make the colors pop even more.”

“It’s very elaborate work, but beautiful when it’s finished,” he said.

(Bouhdy Art)

Bouhdary said the process “came very naturally” to students at the Monarch School because of its hands-on nature and creative aspects. But they also “broke the rules to make something that was just theirs,” he added.

Bouhdary did two sessions with the students and one with their parents so they could replicate the projects as home.

“We did 15 pieces together. I was blown away by what these kids produced in an hour and a half,” he said. “It proved to me the value of making art accessible. Art can be anything that makes you feel calm or happy.”

He also believes that art is necessary as a complement to the more technical skills children learn to be successful adults.

“When you look at something that is the right balance between design and function, like a car or a phone, that is the result of someone using the creative and the practical sides of their brain,” he said. “I think we push children toward the practical side, but I think we need to encourage the use of both sides of the brain. I feel strongly that we need to expose kids as much as possible to the beauty of art. It’s critical to the future of jobs and the future of humanity. It’s really powerful.”

Discovering the artistic talent in San Diego has been “eye-opening,” Bouhdary said, and he wants others to discover it as well.

“It’s so important to have artists in the community,” he said. “It really surprised me that we have an Arts District in Liberty Station. There are amazing local artists that show there. I would encourage people to get involved in their local art community.”

Bouhdary’s Bouhdy Art studio is at Liberty Station’s Barracks 19, 2690 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. To learn more about Art San Diego, visit redwoodartgroup.com/art-san-diego. ◆

Museums and collectors are showing interest in works by developmentally and intellectually challenged artists, many of whom were nurtured in a vibrant Oakland, Calif., center.

Marta Minujín is about to get her due at a Jewish Museum solo exhibition — her first major show in the United States.

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NEOSHO, Mo. — A new mural honoring native son Thomas Hart Benton was installed earlier this week on the north side of Neosho City Hall.

Titled “A Social History of Thomas Hart Benton,” it was painted on panels by Neosho artist Jared Jennings, who said he was inspired by a trip his fifth grade class took years ago to the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, where he first saw Benton’s “A Social History of the State of Missouri.”

“I didn’t really pay any attention to what anybody was saying,” Jennings said. “I was just hung up on the paintings in that room.” 

After receiving both his undergraduate and master’s degree, he approached the Neosho Arts Council with the mural proposal.

“They liked the idea of doing a tribute to this Neosho native, this muralist,” he said.

“We are so excited to not only bring another public art work to our community but to also honor this world-renowned artist who called Neosho home,” Sarah Serio, president of Neosho Arts Council, said in a statement. The Neosho Arts Council sponsored creation of the new mural.

Benton was born in 1889 in Neosho.

The mural features an older Benton at work painting. One of the dominant elements in the painting is a train with the number 75, which Jennings said plays off the euphemism “when my train comes in” to refer to Benton’s death in 1975.

There’s also a black horse racing beside a recently plowed field, and Jennings said he was inspired by a Benton painting titled “Plowing it Under,” which is at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and also to Benton being a “dark horse,” meaning his family wanted him to pursue a career in politics and law rather than art, but he defied them even though it led to an estranged relationship with his father.

“One of the really fascinating elements that Jared included in this mural is the tree and grass on the right,” Serio said. “In spots it’s a red-brown color. This was done on purpose to reference the maquette, or small clay models, that Benton sculpted and painted and then used as reference designs for his murals.”

“I really wanted the mural to feel like something he would have done himself,” Jennings added. 

The Neosho Arts Council is working on a descriptive audio guide for the mural. 

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the mural will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, by the Neosho Area Chamber of Commerce.

During his 1962 visit, Benton gave 12 original lithographs to Neosho, Serio said. They are on display in the lobby of Neosho City Hall. The Neosho Arts Council has produced a guide to give a background on each piece, plus it explains what a lithograph is and how one is made.

The public can also view a second mural located inside Neosho City Hall. “Flower Box City” was painted in 2008 by Benton’s grandson, Anthony Benton Gude. The mural features scenes from Neosho during the first half of the 1900s, including Benton’s arrival in Neosho by train in 1962 for Thomas Hart Benton Day.

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The City and County of Honolulu announced Thursday that it received an award through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge.

More than 150 proposals were submitted to the challenge this year, with Honolulu’s proposal being one of eight that was chosen. 

Called “Wahi Pana,” which translates to “storied places,” the proposal intends to highlight indigenous stories at Oahu sites popular with tourists. 

No specific examples were included within the city’s press release, which credited the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts with leading the proposal, but the city said that these art installations will be multimedia projects by Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-based artists.

These artists will “collaborate with cultural experts to research and create site-specific artworks highlighting the complex histories of often overlooked cultural and historical sites affected by over-tourism,” according to the press release. 

Per the funder’s guidelines, projects will be temporary installations. They will be crafted throughout the next two years.

Other cities that received the award proposed their own unique projects. 

In hot and dry Phoenix, for example, the winning proposal seeks to create more shade through its public art. Houston’s winning proposal seeks to “interrupt perceptions of homelessness,” its mayor said in an announcement video put together by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The full list of recipient cities include Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Orlando, Phoenix and Houston. 

photo by: Shelley Hanson (file)

During a plein-air painting event in September, Marshall County Schools students, clockwise from left, Olivia Wyatt, Alexis Roberts, Dante McGlumphy and Chyanne Foster work on their paintings of the ancient burial mound at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville. The mound is set to hold its inaugural Native American Heritage Day on Nov. 4.

The Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville is set to hold its inaugural Native American Heritage Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 4.

Site Manager Jeremy Kohus said the day will kick off with a presentation by Tyrone Smith, project director of the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio.

The Friends of Native Roots Artists Guild’s Seneca Tribe of New York members will also be doing demonstrations and selling their works of art. Demonstrations will include quill earring making at 11 a.m.; beadwork with caribou fur tufting at 1 p.m.; make and take bracelets for children at 2 p.m. and moccasin making at 3 p.m.

There will also be traditional food samples, crafts for children and a seed giveaway. The museum’s collections including cultural objects and the hellbender dugout canoe will also be talked about.

Featured visiting artists will include:

∫ Kristina Tome of the Seneca Nation, Deer Clan, of New York. She lives on the Allegheny Territory in Salamanca, New York. She uses a variety of mediums including paint, pencil, beads and porcupine quills to make traditional and non-traditional earrings;

∫ Penelope Minner of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, of New York, creates black ash splint baskets and corn husk dolls. She also lives on the Allegheny Territory in Salamanca, New York.

∫ Samantha Jacobs of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, New York, will also be demonstrating traditional arts. She lives in the Cattaraugus Territory in Irving, New York; and

∫ Mary Jacobs of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, creates traditional Iroquois raised beadwork in traditional patterns and designs using artisan glass, semi-precious and precious stone beads, textiles and leathers.

Kohus said the event was researched and planned by AmeriCorps volunteer Basil Stewart.

“He did all the coordinating and brainstorming for this event. He reached out to all the participants,” Kohus said. “This is a first-time event for us here and it’s a one-of-kind event for our area.”

Kohus added Stewart’s term as a volunteer has ended, but he will stay on as a consultant for the museum.

“We’re glad to have him here with us,” he said.