Native America past, present and future comes alive across cinema, television, and fine art this fall. Leading the way is director Martin Scorsese’s film adaption of David Grann’s bestselling “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

The true-life murder mystery centers on the Reign of Terror which befell the Osage Nation in Oklahoma when oil was discovered on the reservation in the 1920s, transforming the Osage, overnight, from poverty into millionaires.

In addition to featuring the greatest filmmaker of his generation, “Killers of the Flower Moon” co-stars Robert DiNiro, the greatest actor of his generation, and Leonardo DiCaprio, the greatest actor of his generation.

The three-and-a-half-hour movie’s production was informed throughout by the Osage Nation and filmed in Oklahoma, assuring historical accuracy.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” opens nationwide in theaters on October 20, but only scratches the surface of opportunities to see Native America anew this month.

“Native America”

The PBS series “Native America” returns this October with four new hour-long episodes presenting a groundbreaking portrait of contemporary Native America. Each explores a core tenet of Native American heritage: the power of Indigenous design, how language and artistry fuel the soul, the diverse ways Native women lead, and the resilience of the warrior spirit.

“We want to reframe folks’ ideas around who Native people are, to have a very contemporary and modern look at Native people all across the country, creating and doing in ways that are very much aligned with the ways that we were taught and learned growing up, but also our way of innovating and thinking of new solutions to problems that persists today,” series producer Jennifer Johns (Diné) said.

Those problems include housing, teen suicide, political marginalization through gerrymandering and environmental catastrophe. Outcomes are in equal measure inspiring and heartbreaking.

“The series, we hope, begins to make people aware that there’s no limit to indigenous innovation and impact, and that we hope folks really get to see the breadth and diversity of our indigenous communities and our handprint and where we’re at,” Johns added.

Each episode is Native-directed and the series is narrated by Joy Harjo (Muscogee (Creek) Nation), who served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.

While all stand alone, throughlines are prevalent.

“It’s survival. All of these (episodes) talk about our survival. Our survival physically in terms of health and happiness, and then also our spiritual survival, our culture, our language, all of these things that people are working on that the series talks about, it all has to do with our survival in a good way,” Manuelito Wheeler (Navajo), director of the Navajo Nation Museum, and a featured subject of the “language and artistry” episode for his work with major studios like Lucasfilm Ltd. and Walt Disney Pictures dubbing popular movies into the Navajo language. “When I say in a good way, that’s a common Native phrase, when we ask for things, and we want things, we’re careful about how we ask for them because it’s, ‘be careful what you ask for, you might get it,’ but Natives have an answer for that, we ask for things in a good way. I think that’s what all of our stories are about, we’re asking for things in a good way.”

“Native America” premieres Tuesdays, October 24 through November 14, 2023, from 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.

“The American Buffalo”

Also premiering on PBS this fall is “The American Buffalo,” a new two-part, four-hour film directed by Ken Burns.

Think of this documentary as the opposite of Wheeler’s “a good way.” The history of North America’s largest land mammal, the icon of the Plains, the icon of the West, exposes “a bad way.”

The worst way.

The settler colonial way.

The white man’s way.

The American way.

Much of the buffalo’s story viewers will be aware of, the full depth and detail of the tragedy, however, proves shocking.

The series, in production four years, takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the mammal’s evolution, its significance to the Great Plains and, most importantly, its relationship to the Indigenous People of North America.

“It is a quintessentially American story filled with unforgettable stories and people, but it is also a morality tale encompassing two historically significant lessons that resonate today: how humans can damage the natural world and also how we can work together to make choices to preserve the environment around us,” Ken Burns said. “The story of the American buffalo is also the story of Native nations who lived with and relied on the buffalo to survive, developing a sacred relationship that evolved over more than 10,000 years, but which was almost completely severed.”

The stories of Native people anchor the series, including the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne of the Southern Plains; the Pawnee of the Central Plains; the Salish, Kootenai, Lakota, Mandan-Hidatasa, Aaniiih, Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Blackfeet from the Northern Plains; and others.

The film includes interviews with leading Native American scholars, land experts and Tribal Nation members.

“The story of American bison really is two different stories,” historian Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet of Montana and Métis), says in the film. “It’s a story of Indigenous people and their relationship with the bison for thousands of years. And then, enter not just the Europeans, but the Americans…that’s a completely different story. That really is a story of utter destruction.”

Destruction, waste and obliteration of an animal on a scale not previously experienced in human history. An industrial revolution of killing.

“The American Buffalo” will air October 16 and 17, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS App.

The buffalo’s best hope for survival now rests in the hands of the Native people who so cherished the animal and continue doing so today. “Homecoming,” a new film directed by Julianna Brannum (Quahada band of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma), who also served as consulting producer for “The American Buffalo,” extends Burns’ story to the present by examining the return of the species to Indigenous lands today.

The 18 minute-film takes viewers into the 21st century and examines how the InterTribal Buffalo Council’s Bison Conservation and Transfer Program is supporting buffalo restoration to the Indigenous people whose lives, spiritually and physically, were inextricably linked to the bison for thousands of years.

“Homecoming” premieres on Wednesday, October 18 on PBS.org and the PBS app, and on PBS’s YouTube Channel on November 24.

“The Land Carries Our Ancestors”

Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) curated “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans,” an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. highlighting artworks visualizing Indigenous knowledge of land, landbase and landscape. As the first artist to curate an exhibition at the National Gallery, Smith underscores the self-determination, survivance, and right to self-representation of Indigenous peoples in her selection of artworks.

“I am honored to share these powerful works that demonstrate the vital, ongoing contributions of Native artists,” Smith said. “Breaking the ‘Buckskin Ceiling’ is not a smooth transition, but the National Gallery of Art is engaged with making change in their system of collecting art as well as demonstrating their ability to be more inclusive in their exhibitions. ‘The Land Carries Our Ancestors’ is an example of more parity in their exhibition schedule, and we are very pleased to be a party of this change.”

It’s long overdue.

The National Gallery owns a shameful record of Native American representation. This marks the first exhibition of Native art presented at America’s art museum in 30 years and the first exhibition of contemporary Native art there in 70 years.

Works by an intergenerational group of artists from across the nation span a range of practices, including weaving, beadwork, sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, performance, and video. The exhibition includes several recent acquisitions for the National Gallery’s permanent collection, including works by G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron Clan), Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw), Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians/European descent), and Emmi Whitehorse (Diné).

“The Land Carries Our Ancestors” can be seen at the National Gallery through January 15, 2024, and then at the New Britain Museum of American Art from April 18 through September 15, 2024.

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) — Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories presents new Indigenous perspectives on historic events in early America.

“We look at the way that art can shape and convey stories about history and identity throughout time,” says Dr. Laura Turner Igoe, the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator at the Michener Art Museum.

“Showing it here, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, holds extra meaning,” says Joe Baker, who is an enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians.

“This is our ancestral land, so this exhibit is really about a homecoming,” he says.

Baker is the Co-Curator of Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories, as well as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Lenape Center in Manhattan, New York.

He’s also an artist who made pieces for the exhibition, like the Big House Post, made from a Bigtooth Aspen tree.

“The Big House ceremony was the principal religion of the Lenape,” he says.

Three other Indigenous artists are featured.

Holly Wilson uses sculptures to tell her story with a piece she calls “Bloodline.”

Wilson says she originally created it trying to prove her son’s lineage.

“Each of these logs represents a generation of my family,” she says.

Ahchipaptunhe, a modern native artist, created paintings “made in response to historic Lenape ceramics and baskets,” according to Dr. Igoe.

Ahchipaptunhe says the four works he created are “based on fire, water, earth and breath.”

“From the idea of the life that’s put into the pottery,” he says.

Artist Nathan Young reexamines the Walking Purchase of 1737 in his sound and video installation.

“I really don’t know what things were like for them,” says Young of his ancestors.

However, he says that’s what he would like people to think about, “being faced with being forced to leave,” when viewing his work.

“The exhibition is really intended to be a conversation,” says Baker. “It’s about really bringing back our contemporary voice to this ancestral land.”

You can see Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories at the Michener Art Museum through January 14, 2024.

Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories | Tickets at the Michener Art Museum

Advertisement

Indigenous art and culture on display at Pueblo Center

Two-day festival features dance groups, jewelers, artists and music

Updated: 6:15 PM MDT Oct 7, 2023

With Indigenous Peoples Day coming up on Monday, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is going all out this weekend with its annual American Indian Arts Festival.”We have over 45 artists here selling pottery, jewelry and mixed arts,” said Monique Silva, the center’s director of guest services. “And we also have five dance groups here that are performing from different pueblos and different Indigenous places — not only in New Mexico but in other places as well.”The event raises the profile of the many gifts that Native American culture has given to this place and this country, Silva said.”It’s important for us to celebrate the Indigenous people here and let everyone know who’s coming to visit that we are part of the 19 pueblos. And we open our doors to the people who come visit so they get to know our culture, the knowledge of it, as well as the dances that are part of the culture and, of course, the art,” Silva said.In addition to the weekend festival, the center is having an Indigenous Peoples Day celebration on Monday, and activities and dance performances daily throughout the Balloon Fiesta, Silva said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One of the largest art shows is back in Louisville this weekend.

The St. James Court Art Show returned for its 66th year in a row.

Joe Autry, 44, has been sculpting since he was 17 years old. He started out in bronze sculpting and for the last 15 years he has made chainsaw wood carving his full-time job.

“I really like extreme things, and, you know, carving with a chainsaw seems pretty extreme, so it’s kind of exciting. It stays exciting,” Autry said. “Every day that I’m carving is exciting.”

He said he saves trees from local developers who are going to turn the trunks to mulch, so that way he can turn the trunks into art.

“A lot of my sculptures are influenced by maybe some mythological stories or legends or different practices,” he said. “I’m also a yoga practitioner, so I’m really interested in eastern philosophies.”

The Louisville native is one of 600 artists at this year’s St. James Court Art Show. This is his third year at the show.

“I guess the most interesting one right now is this cobra over here, it’s my most recent piece,” Autry said. “It’s a nine-foot cobra that I finished a day before the event and so I enjoy that piece the most right now.”

He said it takes anywhere from weeks to months to finish a piece, and when it’s done, it’s bittersweet.

“You know, after every project that, it’s kind of like, oh, it’s over. But then, there’s always a new one that’s coming up on the horizon, just like a sunrise,” he said.

You can find his artwork around the commonwealth in parks and museums.

“Kind of a never a dull moment unless you don’t know how to sharpen your saw,” he said.

You can check out Autry’s work at the art show this weekend. The art show attracts roughly 250,000 people on average every year and admission is free.

#pgevoke-tipform {
margin: auto;
max-width: 300px;
background-color: white;
border: 5px solid #ccc;
border-radius: 5px;
color: #222;
padding: 45px 15px 15px;
position: relative;
font-size: 14px;
font-family: proxima-nova, Arial, sans-serif;
}
.pgevoke-tipform-header {
background-color: #eee;
color: #222;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 14px;
text-transform: uppercase;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
padding: 10px 5px;
margin: 0 auto 10px;
}
.pgevoke-tipform-field {
width: 100%;
margin-bottom:10px;
}
.pgevoke-tipform-field input {
width: 100%;
}

PORT TOWNSEND — “We Are One,” a curated exhibit of Native art, opens today at the Jefferson Museum of Art & History.

The museum at 540 Water St., offers free admission all day beginning at
11 a.m. At 5 p.m., the S’Klallam Singers will kick off the “We Are One” opening. At 7 p.m., refreshments and demonstrations are planned.

Curated by Brian Perry, “We Are One” features the work of four Indigenous artists.

Featured artists are Perry of the Port Gamble S’Klallam — carving and prints; Dan Friday of the Lummi — glass sculpture;

Raya Friday, also of the Lummi — glass and cedar sculpture; and Kelly Sullivan of the Port Gamble S’Klallam — weaving.

Owensboro native and Hollywood-renowned special effects makeup artist Dave Snyder visited the Daviess County Public Library as a featured speaker this week. Snyder’s work transcends Hollywood, but the alien characters he helped create for the 2009 Star Trek film were on display Thursday. 

Owensboro mayor Tom Watson presented Snyder with a key to the city before the event.

“It was a great honor, especially since my father also received a key to the city,” Snyder said. “I want to thank the mayor who took time from his busy schedule to visit me personally.”

The event began with Snyder screening the film, followed by a question-and-answer forum with the audience.

Snyder was born and raised in Owensboro, spending his early adult years at Brescia University and in Lexington studying dental laboratory technology before deciding to venture to Los Angeles. Fascinated by movie monsters as a child and motivated to pursue a career in the industry, he left for Hollywood in 1992. 

“It’s always good to come home and see friends and family,” he said. “This is a different and unique opportunity I’ve been given, and I love being able to share the ‘behind the scenes’ of the industry.”

Snyder has worked on low-budget features, television projects, and full-scale Hollywood feature productions. Some of his more notable features include The Walking Dead, Star Trek, Dancing with the Stars, Austin Powers, and more. 

In 2022, Dave Snyder was awarded an Emmy for outstanding makeup for the miniseries “Pam and Tommy.”  The same year, he received three Guild Award nominations, with another win for “Pam and Tommy.”

Snyder was among the last artists to construct Leonard Nimoy’s ears as Spock. He’s also produced makeup designs for Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Jackie Chan, and many more celebrities. 

Snyder aspires to return to Owensboro next year to screen the Star Trek film.

Monday is Indigenous People’s Day. It’s a day of celebration of America’s first inhabitants and an acknowledgment of the history of displacement and violence.

Susan Mullins Kwaronhia:wi is a Mohawk from the Kahnawake reserve in Canada.

She’s a folk artist who works with students to instill Native American traditions and values that she says she’s lucky to inherit from her ancestors, pass it down and preserve its significance in American history. She tells those stories through art, music and dance.

Mullins Kwaronhia:wi is the arts community representative on the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission board. She is also a Kentucky Colonel.

Mullins says, for her, it’s a day of healing and moving forward.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re a storyteller and Indigenous People’s day tells a more positive and more accurate tale of Native Americans. You’re now seeing more proclamations across the country, including President Biden’s. What comes up for you when you see these institutional shifts?

You know, as a people, we weren’t recognized in this country, we weren’t granted citizenships, or were even allowed to vote. Even though we were here. In 1924, Congress didn’t enact the Indian Citizenship Act law, stating that we had to be in the United States to be recognized. Born in the United States, obviously, we were born here. Even after this act passed, states still barred us from voting.

The government, and the people, the white people considered us members of an alien, uncivilized and unethical race. So with all of our trials and tribulations, we were accepted in around 1957, with just a few states still not allowing us. It was funny because we were the first people in this country, and the last to be recognized as citizens having a day representing Native Americans in this country we occupied when the Europeans arrived. Remember, we were here and still are, and I’m not complaining, I’m not angry. This is history. I love this country, and I will do everything I can to support it. The past is the past, but we can learn from it.

Music is such a vital part of your work in educating and passing down those traditions. You teach kids how to sing “Amazing Grace” in Seneca, also the song sung along the Trail of Tears you said. Tell me more about that.

My story was that I heard and like I say, I can’t say that it’s what really happened. But this is the story, I told that the ship that was carrying the slaves in the United States, the captain fell down and broke his legs. And the slaves brought him to his quarters. And everyday they would come and take care of him and feed him and clean him. They would be singing this song in their language. Well, the melody, he didn’t understand what it was.

So he called an interpreter. And when the interpreter told him what the song was, when he got to the Americas, he set all those slaves free. So consequently, they mingled with the native tribes. Some of them went further, some of them started their own communities, but a lot of them stayed with the natives, and taught them that song too. Because that was they weren’t hardship on the ship. And you know, because they were all chained up together with no place to go.,

So then it was told that this song also was sung on the Trail of Tears.

And you tell the story before you teach them the song. How have people reacted to that?

So when we sing that song, the first verse is always in a very nice, smooth way. But the second verse comes in because people started dying. And so that verse kind of gets you more emotional about it, and I feel bad because I do put that in there. When I’m singing, I almost sound like I’m crying at that verse. I saw one guy cry, you know, and I felt bad, but I just wanted to let them realize, what it was and what it was about.

How have you seen Kentucky evolve when it comes to acknowledging its Native American history?

When we started coming, they thought even up until that time, that there were no natives ever living here. They only came here to hunt because this was sacred land. They said, Oh, no, they just brought their dead here to bury them in the sacred land.

So you mean, our Mohawk people, the Iroquois people that lived in New York State and up in Canada, when somebody died, we pull them all the way down while they were rotting by horseback, which probably took about three or four weeks or five weeks or even a month to get here and then bury them here? No, we were here. And it has been proven now and as as the years went by, since I was here, it’s being more accepted.

There is in Indigenous People’s Day celebration Saturday from 1:00-5:00 p.m at Bellarmine University’s Cralle Theatre. 

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

We encourage you to enable Javascript to enhance your enjoyment of our website.

For the first time in Gaslamp history, a small business is owned and operated by a Native American. Ruth-Ann Thorn, a member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, celebrated the opening of Exclusive Collections gallery on Sept. 15. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by several council members, from tribes and the city alike.

“It’s my great honor and privilege to be here opening a gallery in the historic Gaslamp, in a place where at one time we were not allowed to step foot into this region— and we’ve come a long way,” Thorn told a crowd of supporters.

Sycuan acquired the U.S. Grant Hotel in 2003 but since it is operated by the Marriott, Thorn is the first Native operator for a small business in the area.

“This is not a win just for me or for this gallery. It’s a win for all Native people,” Thorn said.

Thorn has operated many art galleries across the region since her first gallery opened in La Jolla in 1998. At one point, she was operating multiple locations at once before choosing to downsize so she could focus on moving to the reservation to serve her people and care for her dad. Her one remaining gallery was in Solana Beach, but for the last five years she has looked for places in the Gaslamp where she believes exposure will help sell the eclectic art from world-renowned artists that fill her collection. It was this spring that she found an available location and moved in.

“Gaslamp is the hub of San Diego,” Thorn explained in an interview. “It just felt like that would be a really great place to be able to interact with people from all over San Diego and then all over the world.”

City councilman Stephen Whitburn thanked Thorn for seeing the potential of the neighborhood.

“I really appreciate your investing in the Gaslamp,” Whitburn said. “I think you’re gonna find this to be a very successful business as we continue to have more and more people patronize in this area. So on behalf of the City of San Diego, it’s taken too long, but welcome to Downtown San Diego.”

Thorn shared the history of Indigenous people not being allowed in Downtown public spaces for many years. “There were signs posted saying, ‘Indians: $25 a head. Dead or Alive.’”

California’s 1850 Act for the Governance and Protection of Indians allowed for any Native person deemed a ‘vagrant’ to be pressed into indentured servitude and sold at a public auction as well as the sanctioned kidnapping of Native children.

Reservations were created around this time that Jamul Indian Village Chairwoman Erica Pinto described as unbuildable without economic opportunities.

“Welcome back to your land,” Pinto declared.

The Native people who remained near Downtown for jobs largely resided in a village led by Florida Canyon Kumeyaay Band until the village was demolished to make way for the creation of Balboa Park ahead of the 1915 California-Panama Exposition. It was still many years before Native Americans were allowed to open businesses.

“I’m standing here with a tribal member who is opening her own business. Who thought I’d live to see that? Many wonders of the world that I have witnessed. I have seen women empowered. Seen my people empowered. That’s the biggest goal of all,” said Rincon Council woman Laurie Gonzalez.

The gallery is located in one of the oldest structures in the Gaslamp. The one-story brick building at 621 Fifth Ave. in Victorian commercial style architecture was built around 1880 as the Combination Store, according to Gaslamp historian Sandee Wilhoit.

“The building I’m in right now was the very first mercantile in the Gaslamp… the very first store in San Diego ever created,” Thorn said. “I think it’s kind of funny that I’m in that store now doing business as a Native.”

The gallery is host to a variety of artists from Thorn’s own mother Gloria Lee, who is a top seller, to rock n’ roll artist Stickman, who will appear live at the gallery on Oct. 6th and 7th to showcase his music-based visual art.

“I’m Native American, but I think my personal philosophy on art and just on living is that everybody is invited,” Thorn said. “We we were trading with people from all over the world for 23,000 years. So my feeling is if you go into the gallery, you’ll notice there is such a vast variety of art. And I do that purposely.”

She is one of the few gallerists in the world allowed to sell Dr. Seuss art. Tom Everhart’s Snoopy art is also in the collection. Thorn highlights a few native artists, Lee, Jason Salazar and Votan Henriquez among them, with central placement.

Not all items are limited to flat canvases. Steve Barton’s wavy frames with ocean scenes, Nic McGuire’s glass art, and Paul Lotz’ fantasy sculptures are also included.

“Art is for everyone,” Thorn declared, inviting people to walk through the gallery or attend special events.

Exclusive Collections is open from 1 to 9 p.m. each day. Call (619) 756-8996 for more information or visit ecgallery.com.