Native people have inhabited this area we call California for well over a millennia; their stories tell us that they have lived here since the beginning of time. During the mid-20th century, federal relocation programs brought to California many Native Americans from tribal communities across the country. These highly varied tribal communities have maintained distinct languages and cultural practices while forming new intertribal communities.
Within this context, individual identity is both personal and community based. It reflects ceremonial traditions, government-imposed identity, ancestry, and contemporary challenges. Through this exploration, many Native artists present a complicated form of identity through the lens of their artwork.
Kachina Motif , 1971
Patrick Swazo Hinds
Tesuque Pueblo, 1924–1974, Oil on canvas' Patrick Swazo Hinds Family Collection (Photograph by Blair Clark)
Adopted as a young child and raised in Berkeley, Patrick Swazo Hinds attended art school in Oakland, where he first pursued abstract painting. In 1964, he made the decision to add American Indian iconography to his atmospheric abstractions. Looking to his deep roots in the Tesuque Pueblo, here he incorporates Kachina imagery. For Pueblo people, Kachinas are spirit beings that are represented in ceremonial rituals. Carved Kachina figurines are presented to children as reminders of these spirits. Swazo Hinds was a critically important figure in sparking the mid-1960s Native art scene in California. He organized exhibitions at the Oakland Museum and at Kaiser Steel. He showed his own work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.
Cross. Circa 1985
Karuk, Born 1945, Mixed-media assemblage, Collection of Frank LaPena (Photo by Josh Tousey)
“Through my body flows [the] blood of singers and dancers, makers of dance regalia, carvers, and basket makers, gatherers, hunters, and fishermen—all believers in the traditional religion and the old ways. I know I am these people, and I have done all those things before.”
—Brian D. Tripp, 1975
You Should Know My Place, Circa 1985
Brian D. Tripp
Karuk, Born 1945. Mixed-media assemblage, Private Collection (Photo by Josh Tousey)
“Through my body flows [the] blood of singers and dancers, makers of dance regalia, carvers, and basket makers, gatherers, hunters, and fishermen—all believers in the traditional religion and the old ways. I know I am these people, and I have done all those things before.”
—Brian D. Tripp, 1975
Continuum Basket, 2002
Gerald Clarke Jr.
Cahuilla, Born 1967,Compressed aluminum cans, Idyllwild Arts Foundation
This large-scale sculpture references the traditional coiled form of a Cahuilla tray basketry. Such woven trays were originally used both to hold food and in gambling games, where teams competed for good luck with songs and concentration. The work is constructed out of hundreds of individually crushed beer and soft drink cans, a reference to the contemporary issues of diabetes and alcoholism prevalent in Native communities.
Gerald Clarke Jr. lives and works on a family farm on the Cahuilla Reservation and is also a ceremonial Bird Singer. Bird songs recount the creation cycle of the Cahuilla that continue to renew the community.
Untitled (Honoring Tiffany Adams, Traditional Regalia Maker), 2018
Judith Lowry
Maidu/Pit River, born 1948, Acrylic on stretched canvas, Courtesy of the artist (Photo by Akim Aginsky)
This portrait was created to honor Tiffany Adams (Chemahuevi/Konkow Maidu), a California regalia maker, on the occasion of her graduation from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. Tufted feather headdresses like the one Adams wears are typical of several California tribes, including the Maidu. The shape of the abalone necklace pendant references the state of New Mexico, where IAIA is located.
Cigar Store (White) Man, 1995
George Blake
Hupa/Yurok, Born 1944, Carved and painted wood, Gift of Loren G. Lipson, M.D., Crocker Art Museum, 2016.88 (Photo by Matt Patterson)
As early as the 1600s, carved “cigar store Indians” —often cartoonish representations of Native men in Plains-style regalia— appeared in front of American and European tobacco shops, reminding smokers that tobacco originated in the Americas and was first cultivated by Native Americans. Here, the artist humorously inverts this iconic stereotype by carving a “white” man. The figure’s head was modeled after crooner Mel Tormé, and its thin and delicate hands reference the fingers of Balinese dancers. The figure’s generous stomach, tacky plaid jacket, and offering of smokes rolled in white papers, turns the tables on racial profiling.
Vuarneted Indian Cowboy, 1984
Jean LaMarr
Pit River/Paiute, Born 1945, Hand-colored etching and mixed media on paper, Gift of Loren G. Lipson, M.D., Crocker Art Museum, 2017.92.2 (Photo by Josh Tousey)
LaMarr’s images often juxtapose inspirations drawn from two different worlds, the traditional and the contemporary. In this work, the Indian cowboy wears gleaming sunglasses. Vuarnet is a French eyewear brand best known for its stylish sunglasses, which grew popular after the company sponsored the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Vuarneted Indian Cowboy addresses the often complex identity of Native people. While this modern Native American dons the latest fashion, the reflection of the jet and eagle in his sunglasses pays homage to both contemporary and traditional imagery.
Bicentennial Indian, 1975
Fritz Scholder
Luiseño, 1937–2005, Color lithograph, Gift of Lorillard, New York City, Crocker Art Museum, 1975.28.12 (Photo by Josh Tousey)
This lithographic image was created shortly before the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial. It depicts a seated American Indian with quilled hair and feather wand, an American flag draped across his lap. The lithograph’s irony lies in its relationship to stereotyped images of Betsy Ross (1752–1836), who is said to have sewn the first American flag for George Washington in 1776, though there is no evidence that she actually did so. Scholder plays with the notion of Ross’s sewing the “first flag” while Native Americans are this country’s first inhabitants. Historically, one is idolized, the other isn’t. Fritz Scholder helped revolutionize the field of American Indian art with his ironic and politically charged imagery.
Pima Sandwich, 2016
Richard Bluecloud Castaneda
Pima Maricopa from Salt River Reservation, Born 1970, Mixed-media photograph; archival pigment transfer on aluminum and mixed media, Gift of Loren G. Lipson, M.D., Autry Museum of the American West. 2017.34.1
This work includes both photographic and sculptural elements. The photograph features a partial self-portrait of the artist on the left and a fragment of a historical photograph of a Pima warrior on the right. The combination of these two figures from different time periods suggests the continuity of Pima people and culture. The sculptural abacus at the bottom of the piece—fashioned from discs cut from deer antlers—is meant to suggest the complicated tracking of blood quantum in contemporary Indian identity politics. Born in California, Castaneda co-founded San Francisco’s Indigenous Arts Coalition, which has helped organize exhibitions for the current generation of Bay Area Indian artists, who are often of mixed heritage. He has also offered workshops for urban American Indian youth.
911, from the Kinky Kachina Series, 2001
Mooshka (Kevin Cata)
Tewa/Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), 1965–2018, Leather; fabric; wire; gas mask; baby shoes, Collection of Christopher Robinson-Cata, San Francisco
Mooshka’s most recognized series of artwork references kachinas, or ancestral spirit forms that link the physical world with the spiritual. After being diagnosed as HIV positive, art became part of Mooshka’s therapy. In a desire to get up and moving, he began making art made from a wide variety of found objects. The artist channeled his energy into the creative process and began exploring his neighborhood and junkyards for discarded parts to include in what he called his Kinky Kachina dolls. Mooshka, who was involved with the Native American AIDS project in its early years, wrote that these works show his “spiritual sexuality.”
Master, from the Kinky Kachina Series, 1999
Mooshka (Kevin Cata)
Tewa/Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), 1965–2018, Leather; rubber; metal; feathers; polymer clay; wire, Collection of Christopher Robinson-Cata, San Francisco
Mooshka’s most recognized series of artwork references kachinas, or ancestral spirit forms that link the physical world with the spiritual. After being diagnosed as HIV positive, art became part of Mooshka’s therapy. In a desire to get up and moving, he began making art made from a wide variety of found objects. The artist channeled his energy into the creative process and began exploring his neighborhood and junkyards for discarded parts to include in what he called his Kinky Kachina dolls. Mooshka, who was involved with the Native American AIDS project in its early years, wrote that these works show his “spiritual sexuality.”
Horny, from the Kinky Kachina Series, 1998
Mooshka (Kevin Cata)
Tewa/Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), 1965–2018, Wild-boar tooth; burlap; leather; rope; metal; wire, Collection of Christopher Robinson-Cata, San Francisco
Mooshka’s most recognized series of artwork references kachinas, or ancestral spirit forms that link the physical world with the spiritual. After being diagnosed as HIV positive, art became part of Mooshka’s therapy. In a desire to get up and moving, he began making art made from a wide variety of found objects. The artist channeled his energy into the creative process and began exploring his neighborhood and junkyards for discarded parts to include in what he called his Kinky Kachina dolls. Mooshka, who was involved with the Native American AIDS project in its early years, wrote that these works show his “spiritual sexuality.”
Pecker, from the Kinky Kachina Series, 1999
Mooshka (Kevin Cata)
Tewa/Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), 1965–2018, Burlap; polymer clay; leather; rope; hair; metal; wire, Collection of Christopher Robinson-Cata, San Francisco
Mooshka’s most recognized series of artwork references kachinas, or ancestral spirit forms that link the physical world with the spiritual. After being diagnosed as HIV positive, art became part of Mooshka’s therapy. In a desire to get up and moving, he began making art made from a wide variety of found objects. The artist channeled his energy into the creative process and began exploring his neighborhood and junkyards for discarded parts to include in what he called his Kinky Kachina dolls. Mooshka, who was involved with the Native American AIDS project in its early years, wrote that these works show his “spiritual sexuality.”
No Place Like Home, “Hōlyulkum”, 2018
Jamie Okuma
Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock, Born 1977, Beadwork on Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, John S. Knudsen Endowment Fund, Crocker Art Museum, 2018.89
Giuseppe Zanotti (born 1957) is an Italian footwear designer. Here, Jamie Okuma has transformed a pair of Zanotti’s shoes by covering them with glass beads in the image of a rattlesnake, a reference to her Ancestors’ use of rattlesnake imagery. The words in the design refer to her family’s ancestral land and her clan. The ruby color of the shoes and the work’s title directly relate to the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, in which ruby slippers have the magical power to transport the wearer back home. The use of the rattlesnake imagery, and acknowledging her home (La Jolla Indian Reservation) in her language, provides us with clues to Okuma’s interpretation of “seeing red”: a fierce and undying love of home and family.
Naomi, 2018
Cara Romero
Chemehuevi (Southern Paiute), Born 1977, Photograph, Collection of the artist
A former director of the Chemehuevi Cultural Center, Cara Romero was raised on the Chemehuevi Valley Indian Reservation and is a renowned feminist photographer who addresses cultural appropriation and stereotypes. She has said that this image is about “creating a self-representation of California Indians that we never experienced growing up.” The woman in the photograph recalls an imaginary action figure, here wearing First Californian traditional clothing flanked by cultural accessories. The Chumash clothing the woman wears was created by Northern Chumash artist Leah Mata-Fragua and modeled by her daughter, Naomi.
Nobody’s Pet Indian, 1991-1993
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
Diné/Seminole/Muscogee, Born 1954, Three mixed-media prints. Courtesy of the artist
This work challenges the idea of “blood quantum” as required by the 1990 federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which states that artists who self-identify as American Indian must present documentation of their Native bloodlines to qualify for funding and exhibition opportunities. Tsinhnahjinnie’s self-portrait triptych incorporates imagery that references both tattoos and bar codes, suggesting that viewers should consider the difference between an identity based in ancestral culture and one that reflects the goals of commodification.
Grandmother River Dream —Paxaayt’ Tookor, from the Living Proof series, 2008
Mercedes Dorame
Tongva, Born 1981, Photograph
Courtesy of the artist
In this series of photographs, Dorame documented the interior in her own home, on the walls of which she projected old photographs of her family. Here, she projects an image of her grandmother on a window curtain. By bringing the past and the present together, she creates intergenerational continuity. Dorame is of Tongva ancestry, a tribe of the Los Angeles region that is not federally recognized and that is without reservation land. As a result, Dorame looks for visual ways to make connections with her Indian identity and to reanimate her family history.
The Restoration, 2006
Lewis deSoto
Cahuilla, Born 1954, Duratrans transparency and lightbox, Museum purchase; Forrest and Shirley Plant Fund with contributions from the Anorcase Foundation Crocker Art Museum, 2011.66 (Photo by Jesse A. Bravo)
“The underlying Western iconography is undermined by the reference to the “New World” Pontiac named after the Obwandiyag leader who led the attack on Fort Detroit after the French ceded control to the British and General Amherst who led a cruel campaign against all Native people under his purview. The “Restoration” is not a literal restoration of a car but the restoration of the consciousness of Native history. The “grand prix” in this sense is control of the lands ceded by the Natives to the French and then the British and Americans. The tapestry on the left is sourced from a photography of Martin Luther King leading a March during 1964, the undercurrent reference to the subjugation of non- white peoples.”
-—Lewis deSoto (2005/2020)
Untitled (Cuneiform Series), 2014
Spencer Keeton Cunningham
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Born 1983, Ink on paper, Private collection (Photo by Art Ventures Gallery)
Cunningham’s work addresses Indigenous rights and identity, as well as environmental and social justice issues. The title of this series, Cuneiform, refers to one of the earliest systems of writing, which was developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (the area known today as southern Iraq). In this ink drawing, the artist invented his own language of contemporary pictograms, including skateboard and teepee imagery, which speaks to his own experiences and identity.
When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California was organized by the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, with support from the United Auburn Indian Community. This presentation at the Autry has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Autry Museum of the American West acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). We recognize that the Autry Museum and its campuses are located on the traditional lands of Gabrielino/Tongva peoples and we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
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