Fearless: Sneha Shrestha

Sneha Shrestha ’10, a native to Kathmandu, Nepal, recently received an Advancing Leaders Fellowship from World Learning for her fearless project. With it, she aims to provide a creative outlet for art and culture among young people in Nepal through the Kathmandu Children’s Art Museum (KCAM). This project will support a creative learning space for children as well as an opportunity for them to express themselves and investigate their own culture through art. [excerpt

Face to Face, Carl Beam and Andy Warhol

Keira Koch ’19 examines representations of indigenous cultures in prints and photographs by American artist Andy Warhol and First Nations artist Carl Beam. In this comparative study, Koch considers the topic of appropriation and re-appropriation of Native imagery. Warhol, as a non-Indigenous artist, is using this imagery to highlight the dominant narrative of the American West. Beam, however, incorporates photographs of Native subjects and traditional narratives by re-appropriating those images to tell a distinctly Native narrative. This exhibition invites discussion about the role of contemporary indigenous artists and how indigenous identities are expressed in contemporary art. This exhibition intersects with the issues and methodologies studied in Koch’s individualized major titled “Indigenous Cultures, History and Identity.” In addition to studying aboriginal arts and indigenous communities in Australia during her Junior year, Koch serves as the Co-President of Students for Indigenous Awareness at Gettysburg College.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1027/thumbnail.jp

Traditional Caddo Potter

Although I originally set out to find an art form that I was comfortable with and would be inspired by, for myself, I ended up discovering an ancient art form that would benefit not just myself, but the generations of Caddo people that would come after me. I feel that eventually they will see the benefit from its rediscovery. But also, I quickly realized the need to make public the distinction of our ancient pottery legacy for the sake of those Caddo that would pick up the craft. The Native American art world in the American Southeast is much different from that of the Southwest that I grew up loving. So many Native American artists are confused about what is their tribe’s specific legacy and traditional art form that many claim a broad spectrum of tribes in the region by creating artwork under the umbrella of “Mississippian” or “Southeastern Ceremonial.” It became apparent that the Caddo’s specific and unique pottery heritage is in danger of being misrepresented in the art world and to collectors. Making it all the more obvious was that I found out there was only one active Caddo member practicing pottery making, Jereldine Redcorn. I felt like although she was successful in reviving the lost art of our Caddo pottery, there is only so much one person can do and it was then that I decided that I could help expand and help spread our knowledge and our experiences so that our beautiful pottery tradition could be reborn and survive for all time, rather than become lost again in the earth

Insiders and Outsiders: The Case for Alaska Reclaiming Its Cultural Property

Because of the historically troubling treatment of American Indians by the United States government, the nation’s native populations have been largely unable to control their cultural identities. Cultural property laws provide a framework for transferring stolen art and cultural objects to their native owners in an attempt to return cultural sovereignty to native communities. Despite Alaska’s large and thriving native population, Alaska Natives have trailed behind other states’ native populations in asserting their cultural property rights. This Note considers the current cultural property framework and its evolution in an effort to understand why Alaska Natives are not seeking return of their cultural objects to the same extent as other native groups

Caddo Pottery in Modern and Contemporary Art and Protection of Native American Cultures in Fine Arts by the IACB’s Indian Arts and Crafts Act

Hello, my name is Chase Kawinhut Earles. I was named by Julia Edge, daughter of Pauline Washington, who was the granddaughter of the Caddo chief, George Washington. I recently, well, not that very long ago started creating Caddo pottery with the much appreciated guidance from Jeri Redcorn. I have been an artist all my life, but mostly only a painter, not much clay, sculpture or pottery. I was inspired to create pottery though, but my experiences were with the Southwest and the Pueblo artists, as this is what I grew up around and what I learned. But I never started. I never found any inspiration. I realized one day it was because I am not a Pueblo Indian and creating Pueblo or Southwest pottery would, to me, feel hollow. I would feel as though I was just creating knock-offs or replications, and not truly inspired or authentic art. This beginning is what defines me and my ideas about Native American Art. Jeri Redcorn and I are two of only maybe a few active Caddo traditional potters. As we work to revive our long tradition and heritage of pottery we have started to unfold an ancient legacy that has proven to be very unique among other native cultures

[Review of] Peter C. Rollins and John E. O\u27Connor, eds. Hollywood\u27s Indians: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film

Hollywood inherited conflicting myths of Native Americans: barbaric savages or Noble Savage. Influenced by the latter romantic view, James Fenimore Cooper in print and George Catlin and Edward Curtis in art conveyed to an American public a portrait of a noble but vanishing race of America\u27s first people. The dime store novels and Wild West shows of the late 1800s played with the dueling idea of a noble yet menacing Red Man, and Hollywood picked up this created myth of American Indians which, while ostensibly sympathetic, actually perpetuated stereotypes of a depraved and primitive race. Hollywood then packaged these images, made them her own, and secured for generations of people the predominant image today held of Native Americans. Since, as Hannu Salmi theorizes, movies are the myth by which Americans understand Western history, this is an alarming state of affairs