Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's work uses humor and satire to explore the challenges of Native American coexistence with contemporary American culture and its problematic past. In Ghost Dance Dress the various symbols make reference to an intertribal religious movement that emerged in the late 19th century, a time of violent conflict with white settler society. Their leader, Wokova, prophesied that white settlers would vanish and Native Americans would return to take back their land, reasserting their way of life.
Posted by Rachel Lewis Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Flathead, Native American, born 1940). Ghost Dance Dress, 2000. Oil, collage and mixed media on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dorothee Peiper-Riegraf in honor of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Arlene LewAllen (1941-2002), 2009.79. © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
