#native perspective

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Anishinaabe artist Jim Denomie’s painting depicts the attack dogs that were let loose upon protestors at Standing Rock in a more demonic manner, and one of the men wears a shirt with the Cleveland Indians’ mascot on it. The background of the painting features an American flag flying proudly from a bulldozer, the cherry on top of a painting that taps into the racialized violence at Standing Rock.

Denomie, Jim. “Dog Day Afternoon,” 2018. 

Regan, Sheila. “An Indigenous Artist Captures the Racial Violence at Standing Rock.” Hyperallergic, 7 February 2019, https://hyperallergic.com/482973/jim-denomie-standing-rock-paintings-bockley-gallery/.

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Charles Rencountre is pictured with LaDonna Brave Bull, alongside his statue Not Afraid to Look, that he completed in October 2016 on a hill above the Sacred Stone campsite. The statue is based on a Lakota effigy pipe from the mid-nineteenth century called Not Afraid to Look the Whiteman in the Face.

Chaisson, Clara. “A Statue at Standing Rock Sends a Powerful Message of Resistance.” NRDC, 23 November 2016, https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/statue-standing-rock-sends-powerful-message-resistance.

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Gregg Deal talks about stereotypes, indigenous art being informed by a Western buyers’ market, and how even the most gruesome stories of indigenous culture matter whether or not non-Natives want them to. In regards to our perspectives of important American figures who were actually responsible for wrongdoings towards Natives, he says, “When we omit things from history, then we immediately give value to those things.” (5:15) He ends the talk hoping he has shared new stories, shocking stories with the audience, and that if they choose to do nothing with the information they have been given regarding indigenous history and culture, they are complicit in the actions of those who came before them.

TEDx Talks. “Indigenous In Plain Sight | Gregg Deal | TEDxBoulder.” Youtube, 26 June 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3FL9uhTH_s.

[kierstenasbillchowdigitalarchive]

“Under capitalism, neither Democrat nor Republican can save Indigenous lands or Black and Indigenous lives. The continuation of state-sanctioned racial terror against Black and Native people, from police violence to energy development, from one administration to the next demonstrates only radical change in the form of decolonization, the repatriation of stolen lands and stolen lives, can undo centuries of settler colonialism.”

Nick Estes

Another quote from Nick Estes’ Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance, it articulates that for any real change to happen, it must occur through decolonization, which is highly unlikely since settler colonialism has been deeply ingrained in our state for hundreds of years.

Estes, Nick. Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. Verso, 2019.

[kierstenasbillchowdigitalarchive]

This work alludes to the number of treaties and agreements that have been broken by the government. The image is rather disturbing, and the text references the number of men, women, and children that were massacred during Wounded Knee (300+). This piece, although created some thirteen years before the events at Standing Rock, strangely mirrors the horrific events and cruelty that occurred. 

Longfish, George. “Winter Still-Life Landscape, S. Dakota,” 2003.

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George Longfish (Seneca/Tuscarora) takes traditional Sioux beadwork and references the Transcontinental Railroad with this long beaded chain. He taps into the history of how European settlers once settled the East Coast, and how as they moved further inland, Natives were pushed farther and farther west. This is a visual commentary on the coercive nature of European settlers, which echoes the behavior of the U.S. government in the Standing Rock protests.

Longfish, George. “Beaded Journey to the Homeland,” 2004.

[kierstenasbillchowdigitalarchive]

By following its own legal traditions, the arc of the Western moral universe never bends towards Indigenous justice. At best, it ignores it. At worst, it annihilates it.

Nick Estes

This quote from Nick Estes’ Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance puts very bluntly how indigenous rights are not acknowledged unless it is in a destructive manner. 

Estes, Nick. Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. Verso, 2019.

[kierstenasbillchowdigitalarchive]

In this video, Dallas Goldtooth explains the native prophecy of the Black Snake that serves as an aspect of the motivation for the protests at Standing Rock.

Bioneers. “The Prophecy of the Black Snake.” Youtube, 4 December 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKKlx33B99I.