5 Plain Questions: Recent Episodes
Joe Williams
5 Plain Questions is a podcast that poses 5 general questions to Native American artists, creators, musicians, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers.
Chris Pappan is an enrolled member of the Kaw Nation and honors his Osage and Lakota heritage. His cited artistic influences are the Lowbrow art movement, Heavy Metal and Juxtapoz magazines, and taps into the American cultural roots of 1970s underground comics, punk, and hot rod cultures. His art literally reflects the dominant culture’s distorted perceptions of Native peoples and is based on the Plains Native art tradition known as Ledger Art.A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and a nationally recognized painter and ledger artist, Chris’ work is in numerous museums such as the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C.; the Tia collection in Santa Fe NM and the Speed Museum of Art in Louisville KY among many other important collections both nationally and internationally. He is represented by Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe NM.Chris is currently a board member of the Illinois State Museum and is a co-founder of the Center for Native Futures, a Native American gallery and studio space in Chicago’sLoop. He lives and works in Chicago with his wife Debra Yepa-Pappan, and their daughter Ji Hae.headshot photo by Tran TranWebsite:http://chrispappan.com/Center for Native Futures Website:https://www.centerfornativefutures.org/Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plainshttps://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=1005
Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore is an independent filmmaker and Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) citizen. She is the founder of The Aunties Dandelion media organization which is focused on revitalizing communities through stories of land, language, and relationships. She spent 15 years in Washington, DC creating films for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and others. And she a fluent Mohawk speaker (ACTFL Intermediate High).Website:https://www.theauntiesdandelion.com/Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/4XI2I2r58vb2kVXRr5mKWbLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kahstoserakwathe/
Secretary Deb Haaland made history when she became the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. She is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican. Secretary Haaland grew up in a military family; her father was a 30-year combat Marine who was awarded the Silver Star Medal for saving six lives in Vietnam, and her mother is a Navy veteran who served as a federal employee for 25 years at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As a military child, she attended 13 public schools before graduating from Highland High School in Albuquerque. As a single mother, Secretary Haaland volunteered at her child's pre-school to afford early childhood education. Like many parents, she had to rely on food stamps at times as a single parent, lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and struggled to put herself through college. At the age of 28, Haaland enrolled at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and later earned her J.D. from UNM Law School. Secretary Haaland and her child, who also graduated from the University of New Mexico, are still paying off student loans. Secretary Haaland ran her own small business producing and canning Pueblo Salsa, served as a tribal administrator at San Felipe Pueblo, and became the first woman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors, overseeing business operations of the second largest tribal gaming enterprise in New Mexico. She successfully advocated for the Laguna Development Corporation to create policies and commitments to environmentally friendly business practices. Throughout her career in public service, Secretary Haaland has broken barriers and opened the doors of opportunity for future generations. After running for New Mexico Lieutenant Governor in 2014, Secretary Haaland became the first Native American woman to be elected to lead a State Party. She is one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress. In Congress, she focused on environmental justice, climate change, missing and murdered indigenous women, and family-friendly policies.
Chief Arvol Looking was born on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. His primary responsibility is serving as the 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe – a role he was given at the age of twelve making him the youngest pipe keeper in Lakota history. As keeper of the sacred Pipe he also serves as the spiritual leader to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nation and advocates for the restoration of the Lakota Nation’s rights to the Black Hills—as guaranteed by the 1868 Laramie Treaty. He grew up in an era of religious suppression, where traditional Lakota ceremonies were outlawed in both the US and Canada from the early 1900’s until the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978. His family was forced to hold Sundance, sweatlodge, vision quests, and healing ceremonies underground for fear of arrest by the police. Arvol’s advocacy of environmental and Indigenous rights and issues has been recognized globally as a recipient of the Wolf Award of Canada, the Juliet Hollister Award, a Non-Governmental Organization with Consultation Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. He is also the author of White Buffalo Teachings and a guest columnist for Indian Country Today. Since 1990, Arvol has also devoted himself to facilitate healing to all people and cultures through several sacred Prayer Rides on Horseback including The Annual Wintertime Chief Bigfoot Memorial Ride to Wounded Knee in order to mend the Sacred Hoop that was broken during the Massacre in 1890, The Unity Ride from B.C. to Six Nations in the early 2000s whose purpose was to heal historical trauma through the land and animals, and since 2005, he has supported and participated on the Dakota 38 Ride that takes place every December from South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to honor the memory of the 38 + 2 Dakota men who died under order of President Abraham Lincoln the Day after Christmas in 1862 in what was the largest mass hanging in U.S. history.
Jewelry making has been a Reano family tradition for over a century. The Reano family legacy started with Jose Isidro Reano and Clara Lovato Reano. Janie Reano is proudly carrying on tradition. Clara introduced her to jewelry making by teaching her to cut olivella shells to create heishe beads. Then progressing to various stones and shells. Eventually, how to grind, sand and polish the beads. Years later, Janie would expandher skills under her Aunt Angie Owen. Learning the skills at creating mosaic jewelry. In 2016, Janie branched out at making her own style of jewelry. The influence of living in "Green" Oregon gave her the idea to recycle the left-over material used in creating necklaces and mosaic inlay. Janie recycled the material by drilling each small piece then tumbling them for several weeks. Then, 'stringing' up beads using sterling silver wire. The jewelry was debuted at the SWAIA Winter Market 2016. These days Janie collaborates with her mother, Rose Reano. She sells her jewelry year-round at the Palace of Governors in downtown Santa Fe and online at www.kewaparrotjewelry.com . She also participates at SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market and Eiteljorg Indian Market and Festival in Indianapolis Indiana.
Brandon Baity is the Interim Executive Director of the Indigenous Association in Fargo, ND. He is originally from the Twin Cities and moved to the area in 2018. He is a descendant of the White Earth Nation, where his Father and Grandmother grew up. Brandon received his undergraduate degree in social work from the College of Saint Scholastica. He is deeply committed to community organizing, art, music, and learning more about his Anishinaabe culture and language and providing opportunities for other Indigenous community members to learn or teach about their culture. He was a founding board member of the Indigenous Association, and has worked toward the organization's goal of uniting, connecting, and strengthening the Indigenous community in the Fargo/Moorhead region since its inception in 2020. Indigenous Association website:https://www.indgns.org/
Cara Romero, born 1977 (Chemehuevi/ American)In a fine art photographic practice that blends documentary and commercial aesthetics, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi Indian Tribe) creates stories that draw from intertribal knowledge to expose the fissures and fusions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural memory, collective history, and futurity.Romero has held solo exhibitions in the US, UK, and Germany. Her recent group exhibitions include Our Selves: Photographs by Women Photographers at the Museum of Modern Art and Water Memories at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2022). Her public art projects include #TONGVALAND presented in Los Angeles by NDN Collective (2021); Restoration: Now or Never with Save Art Space in London (2020), and Desert X in the Coachella Valley (2019). Widely collected, Romero’s photographs are in private and public collections including those at the Denver Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, The Hood Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the MoMA, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the MET. Romero was raised between the rural Chemehuevi reservation in California’s Mojave Desert and the urban sprawl of Houston. She is based in Santa Fe.
Monica Rickert-Bolter is a Chicago-based visual artist of Potawatomi and Black heritage. Her artwork uses traditional mediums, such as charcoal and pastels, graphic design, and digital coloring to create expressive characters and tell diverse stories. After her undergrad, Monica became involved with Native nonprofits, combining her love of art and education to develop youth programs and resources, including illustrating children’s books. She advocates for cultural representation and serves as a consultant for various institutions and organizations. Monica is a co-founder and the Director of Operations at the Center for Native Futures, a Native fine arts gallery that opened in September 2023. Currently, her artwork is featured in exhibitions at The National Museum of the American Indian, The Field Museum, the University of North Carolina Stone Center. Also, she will be collaborating on a public art piece with the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights.Websites:https://www.monicarickertbolter.com/Center For Native Futureshttps://www.centerfornativefutures.org/
Cray Bauxmont-Flynn is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians, with ancestral ties to the Wyandotte, Mohawk, Muscogee Creek, and Chickasaw tribes. He currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, where he has been involved as a Board member and recently as Vice-President. In addition to his involvement in the arts, Cray runs his own interior design firm “Amatoya” and launched his own furniture collection inspired by his Native American heritage and culture, five years ago. In addition - Cray is also host of two podcast shows, one being "Beyond the Art," which is dedicated to the Native American art world. It provides a platform for Native American creative visionaries to share their personal stories and journeys. The other podcast – “Beyond the Design” is focused on the design industry and its various sectors..as Cray calls it the left side of his brain, fulfilling all aspects of his interest and passions.
Debra Yepa-Pappan (Jemez Pueblo/Korean) is a visual artist and co-founding director of exhibitions and programs at the Center for Native Futures (CfNF), a dynamic contemporary art space in the heart of Chicago dedicated to Native artists. Through her artwork and her work at CfNF she is committed to advocating for positive representations of Native people, and providing a safe and welcoming environment for Native artists to gather, exhibit, and be in community with each other.Website:https://www.centerfornativefutures.org/Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/centernativefutures/https://www.instagram.com/yepapappan/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/centernativefutureshttps://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=debra%20yepa-pappan
Contemporary Native American artist Kent Estey is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe in Northwestern Minnesota. Kent’s lineage includes many self-taught artists where black-ash basketry, beading, birch-bark, and fiber artistry were everyday occurrences in his home. Kent’s preferred art form is painting with oils, acrylics, and inks. His paintings reflect feelings and emotions through his use of color and movement on the canvas. Kent says, “a lot of the time, the art happens by listening to my feelings. The colors, movement, and elements fall into place, creating something beautiful and intimately meaningful.” Some of his most recent work incorporates rock, metal, and collage on canvas and board. Kent’s work has been exhibited in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Duluth, Wahpeton, North Dakota, and other regional exhibitions and galleries in Minnesota. Most recently, Kent was awarded the Region 2 Arts Council Artist Fellowship for 2023-2024 and is serving as board chair of the Manoomin Arts Initiative on the White Earth Reservation. Kent has been an educator for most of his life, living and working in his hometown of Naytahwaush, Minnesota.Photo Credit: Jeremy Simonson
This year 5 Scary Questions returns with stories from Kevin Pourier, Tina Tavera, Jeffrey Gibson, Princess Johnson, Candace Stock, Jonathon Thunder, Kalyan Fay Barnoski, Anita Fields, Erin Shaw, Orlando Dugi, Roman Zaragoza, Tom Jones II, Wendy Red Star, Tai LaClaire, Bobby Wilson, Dr. Hollie Mackey, Avis Charley, Janie Reano, Michaela Shirley, John Hitchcock, Cray Bauxmont-Flynn, Debra Yepa Pappan, John Isiah Ppepion, Whitney Johnson, Arik Williams, and Melanie Yazzie.
Michaela Paulette Shirley (Diné), MCRP, is Water Edge clan, born for Bitter Water clan, her maternal grandpa is Salt clan, and her paternal grandpa is Coyote Pass clan. She is a program manager for the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute at University of New Mexico. Michaela is a PhD student in the UNM American Studies Department. Her areas of expertise include urban planning, community development, and Indigenous planning, with research interests in community-school relationships, biographies of landscape, Diné studies, critical Indigenous studies, critical regional studies, and hemispheric Indigenous comparative studies. Michaela presents at conferences offering keynotes, leading workshops/community engagement activities, conducting content analysis of community engagement work, and serves on conference committees as needed. She has published about Indigenous planning, creative placemaking/PlaceKnowing, and Diné-centered arts management. Michaela’s served 5 years as a School Board Member with the Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action, and Perseverance, a steering committee member of the Planners Network, committee member of the National Tribal Brownfields Networking Group, and co-founder of an artist giving circle, Vital Little Plans.Links:http://idpi.unm.edu/about/people/michaela-shirley.htmlLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-shirley-872760b3
Due to technical issues we are unable to post our episode this week. Stay tuned for the Halloween specials coming up in the next few weeks, and an announcement from host Joe Williams in the coming weeks.
Avis Charley (Spirit Lake Dakota / Diné) is a visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Charley is a ledger artist and figurative painter chronicling the evolving Native American identity from pre-reservation period to the present day, from ancestral homelands to the contemporary urban context.Ledger art was Charley's first art form, as she values bringing a woman's perspective into a male-dominated art form. In time, Charley transitioned to oil paintings, centering Indigenous women within modern settings, reflecting the vibrancy of her people's culture. She creates work for future generations as she captures recent stories and experiences.Charley's work is in the permanent collections of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Native American Art.
Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is an award winning writer and 2020-2025 MacArthur Fellow. Her satirical comedy, The Thanksgiving Play, made her the first known female Native American playwright on Broadway at the Helen Hayes under the direction of Rachel Chavkin. Her new plays in 2023 are Wicoun (Cornerstone Theater Company), Democracy Project (Federal Hall), Fake It Until You Make It (CTG Mark Taper Forum), For the People (Guthrie), and the national tour of Peter Pan (Networks). Selected past plays include What Would Crazy Horse Do? (KCRep), Landless and Cow Pie Bingo (AlterTheater), Average Family (Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis), Teaching Disco Squaredancing to Our Elders: a Class Presentation (Native Voices at the Autry), as well as numerous productions of The Thanksgiving Play, making it one of the most produced plays in America. Larissa created the nationally recognized trilogy of community engaged theatrical experiences with Cornerstone Theater Company; Urban Rez, Native Nation, and Wicoun. She and her collaborator, Michael John Garcés, spend years on each project in an Indigenized community engagement process. “The engagement itself is the art form.” These projects have earned them national funding and an appointment to Arizona State University. Larissa’s company with Ty Defoe, Indigenous Direction, recently produced the first land acknowledgement on national television for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and continues to consult for them. They also consult for the largest theater organizations in the country. Larissa also writes in film and television, most recently as a creator for NBC, Disney Channel, Dreamworks, Muse, Netflix and others. She is based in Los Angeles with her husband, the sculptor Edd Hogan, and represented by Jonathan Mills at Paradigm NY. She is especially honored to follow in the footsteps of the last known Native American playwright on Broadway, Lynn Riggs.Photo credit: Conor HorganWebsite: http://www.hoganhorsestudio.com/https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2023-2024-season/for-the-people/IG: https://www.instagram.com/larissafasthorse/
Dr. Hollie Mackey (Northern Cheyenne) is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at North Dakota State University. She recently served as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities. Her scholarship empirically examines the effects of structural inequity in Indigenous and other marginalized populations in educational leadership, law, and public policy using multiple critical frameworks and methodologies. As an experienced policy consultant, public speaker, program evaluator, and community educator, she seeks to use her experiential knowledge as an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne nation coupled with her research, teaching, and service experience to bridge theory and practice as a means of addressing complex social issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Dr. Mackey holds degrees from Montana State University-Billings (BS, MS), University of Oklahoma (MLS), and Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D.).Website:https://holliemackey.com
Bobby “Dues” Wilson is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota artist, dad, and comedian based in Phoenix, Arizona. Bobby was born and raised in the Twin Cities, back when you could still smoke at Ember’s Family Restaurant. Bobby’s family bounced around motels, apartments, Powwows and shelters through his childhood but there’s an olde saying amongst the Siouxan nations: shit happens. Wilson attended the Creative Arts High School where his interests in painting and poetry were heavily encouraged. He participated in youth art programs COMPAS arts in St. Paul, then rode the 16 (94 if you’re cashy) to Minneapolis where he trained mural painting like a champ under Roger and Peyton at Juxtaposition Arts. He painted several murals around the Twin Cities and enough graffiti to catch a couple cases. His visual art work can still be seen at the Minnesota Historical Society (I think) and the Chippewa Tribes building on Franklin. After some heavy life changes that we won’t get into it here (go watch Smoke Signals or something), Bobby found himself alongside the 1491s comedy troupe, traveling all accrosst Indian Country making fun of himself for money. Now Bobby works as a writer/producer on television series like Rutherford Falls, Echo (some MCU stuff?), and the Peabody award winning series, Reservation Dogs. He lives with his family, surrounded by the O’odham nations and urban Navajos who make really good tortillas! Did you know O’odham homies call frybread, “popovers?!” What even is that?!
Migizi Pensoneau is a citizen of the Ponca and Red Lake Nations. He was born and raised in Minnesota and attended school at Wesleyan University and received his MFA in Screenwriting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe NM. Migizi is screenwriter, actor, writer, and producer for film and television, with work for Barkskins, Rutherford Falls, and Reservation Dogs and a founding member of the legendary comedy troop the 1491s. In this conversation we explore his influences and his story from the discovery comedy and B-movies with his brother to the work he is doing today.
Support the Writers Guild of America: https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub
Taietsarón:sere ‘Tai’ Leclaire is a Native American actor, comedian, writer. His short film HEADDRESS that he wrote, directed, and starred in premiered at the 2023 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. He was a Story Editor and actor on the NBC comedy series RUTHERFORD FALLS by Mike Schur, Ed Helms, and Sierra Teller-Ornelas. Tai has been selected as a member of the 2022 Sundance Native Lab and was recently awarded The Indigenous list in Partnership with The Black List. He is a former house performer at Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre. He’s also performed at festivals around the country.
Links: https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub https://www.headdressfilm.com/
Website: https://www.taileclaire.com/
Raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, Wendy Red Star’s work is informed both by her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. An avid researcher of archives and historical narratives, Red Star seeks to incorporate and recast her research, offering new and unexpected perspectives in work that is at once inquisitive, witty and unsettling. Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles. She lives and works in Portland, OR.
Hunter C. Old Elk (Crow & Yakama) is the Assistant Curator for the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wy. Through curation, exhibition development, and teaching, she elevates Indigenous voices in museums and academia. A graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in Cultural Heritage Management, Old Elk holds a BA in history from Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland.
Richard West, Jr. is a founding director and Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Richard West is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. He is also a 2021 inductee in the National Native American Hall of Fame. Prior to his time as the Director of the NMAI and the Autry Museum of the American West, he was an attorney in both New Mexico and Washington D.C. As of 2011 he has served on the board of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, & Museums.
His devotion to community and his incredible vision for leadership has been an inspiration to generations of Native American leaders…and the host of this podcast.
Tom Jones is an artist, curator, writer, and educator, where he is the professor of photography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. Jones’ artwork is a commentary on identity, experience and perception of American Indian communities. For the past 25 years he has worked an ongoing photographic essay on his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. His current work Strong Unrelenting Spirits are portraits of tribal members, which incorporates beadwork directly onto the photographs. Jones co-authored the book “People of the Big Voice, Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1943.” He is the co-curator for the exhibition and contributing author to the book, “For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw” for the National Museum of the American Indian. His current book project is dedicated to Ho-Chunk baskets and their makers. His artwork is in forty public collections, most notably: The National Museum of the American Indian, Polaroid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, The Nerman Museum, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Museum of Contemporary of Native Arts, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Microsoft.
We are on a summer break until June 7th with Tome Jones II and back full time on July 5th with all new episodes to ride us through Season 4. And stay tuned, as HUGE episodes are coming.
Actor, director, & producer Román Zaragoza currently stars in CBS’ award nominated comedy series “Ghosts.” Zaragoza instantly became a fan favorite as Sasappis, a blunt troublemaker who tries to fill eternity by having a little fun & creating some drama. The series debuted on CBS in October 2021 to critical acclaim, with media calling it “charming” (Paste Magazine), stating that a “CBS comedy about the diverse spirits haunting an upstate manor is scary good” (The Wall Street Journal) & declaring that “it’s a superb cast full of fresh faces dropping quotable one-liners left & right” (TVLine). The Television Critics Association Awards also h&ed the comedy two nominations: Outst&ing New Program, & Outst&ing Achievement in Comedy in 2022. “Ghosts” premiered season two on September 29, 2022.In film Zaragoza serves as a producer on the short “This Is Their Land,” which premiered at the Dances with Films Festival in New York City on December 2, 2022. The film takes place during the Modoc War of 1872-73, follows the brave Modoc Civic Leader Captain Jack as he negotiates for peace in his homeland against the U.S. army, & the sacrifices he makes for the sake of his people. “This Is Their Land” is currently on the festival circuit. As a director Zaragoza most recently co-directed a music video entitled “Change Your Name” for artist Raye Zaragoza, one of his two sisters, which was inspired by their mother’s life & the intersectionality of changing names during the immigration process.Born in New York City, Zaragoza was raised in a melting pot of culture. He identifies as mixed race, being of Akimel O’otham & Mexican descent on his father’s side & Japanese & Taiwanese descent on his mother’s side. His father, acclaimed actor Gregory Zaragoza & mother, college business professor Shirley supported Zaragoza’s love for the arts from a very young age, with one of his earliest childhood memories spending time backstage watching his father star in the 1999 Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, alongside the legendary Bernadette Peters. Zaragoza & his family moved to Hell's Kitchen when he was nine, where he would take the subway to school & pass by all of the major Broadway shows, which would become a huge influence on his future career. By the time Zaragoza turned eleven, his parents moved the family to the west coast, settling in southern California where he continued taking acting, dance, singing, & improv lessons. When Zaragoza was fifteen, he began working with Native Voices at the Autry, the only Equity Native American Theatre company. It was there that he met his mentor, R&y Reinholz, who made an influential impact on Zaragoza’s life as well his show “Off the Rails” at Native Voices which was later selected to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.Zaragoza attended Cal State University Northridge where he graduated with a degree in Film Production. He is a proud member of CSUN’s American Indian Student Association & continues his involvement post-graduation. While in college, he took time to go work with the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF - 2017, 2018, 2019) where he was able to further hone his craft. Zaragoza notes that his time working with the company aided in discovering more about his identity, specifically his racial identity, bringing characters to life that were a vessel for Native, Asian, & mixed identities. Upon graduation & finishing his time with OSF, Zaragoza landed his biggest role to date, starring on CBS’ “Ghosts.” Zaragoza writes essays & poetry focusing on mixed representation in film, television, & theatre. On the charity front Zaragoza has supported a h&ful of organizations over the years including Seeding Sovereignty, Black Lives Matter, Return to the Heart Foundation, & IllumiNative, an initiative created & led by Natives to challenge the negative narrative that surrounds Native communities & ensure accurate & authentic portrayals of Native communities are present in pop culture & media.
Orlando Dugi is a Dine fashion designer based out of Santa Fe New Mexico. Self taught and incredibly driven ORLANDO DUGI is a made-to-order fashion brand located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and lead by designer, Orlando Dugi himself. Dugi’s designs are elegant, timeless, and intricate, often involving many hours of hand-embroidery and embellishing. Dugi’s been exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, Wheelwright Museum, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture amongst others. He has received numerous awards and recognition at places like the SWAIA, and Cherokee Art Show, Heard Museum Guild Art Show. This podcast is hosted in part by First American Art Magazine, the leading journal of Native arts, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary covering ancestral, historical, and living arts by Indigenous peoples of the Americas.Website:https://orlandodugi.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/orlandodugi/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/orlandodugi?lang=en
Gerald Cournoyer: Sending A Voice through September 30th, 2023https://plainsart.org/exhibitions/gerald-cournoyer/Northern Plains Summer Art Institute 2023 applications due May 1st 2023https://plainsart.org/northern-plains-summer-art-institute-2023/Indigenous Art Fair Saturday, May 13th, 2023
After moving from Mexico City to the United States, Xavier Tavera learned what it felt like to be part of a subculture- the immigrant community. Subjected to alienation has transformed the focus of his photographs to share the lives of those who are marginalized. Images have offered insight into the diversity of numerous communities and given a voice to those who are often invisible. Tavera has shown his work extensively in the Twin Cities, nationally and internationally including Germany, Scotland, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and China. His work is part of the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Plaines Art Museum, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minnesota History Center, Ramsey County Historical Society and the Weisman Art Museum. He is a recipient of the McKnight fellowship, Jerome Travel award, State Arts Board, and Bronica scholarship.Website: https://www.xaviertavera.com/
Erin Shaw is a painter of borderlands, the spaces between worlds. As a visual storyteller, the child of an Oklahoma farm, Shaw tills the rich soil of dichotomy through her masterful uses of color, iconography, and story. As a Chickasaw-Choctaw artist, she creates in a state of tension, suspended between two worlds where both solemnity and humor pervade her art. She finds that truths are revealed in unanticipated ways, and trickster often appears throughout her work. The artist earned her BFA in studio art from Baylor University and her MFA from the University of Oklahoma. She is Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, AR, an international speaker, and a featured artist in Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art, among other exhibits in the U.S.
Born in Oklahoma, Anita Fields is a contemporary Native American multi-disciplinary artist of Osage heritage. She is known for her works which combine clay and textile with Osage knowledge systems. Fields explores the intricacies of cultural influences at the intersections of balance and chaos found within our existence, explaining that “The power of transformation is realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, landscapes, and figures. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.” In this way, the early Osage concepts of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented throughout her work. Her sculptures have been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, including the 2020-2021 Weaving History Into Art; The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn, Gilcrease Museum, Form and Relation: Contemporary Native Ceramics, Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, the 2018-2020 Hearts of Our People, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the 2018 Art for A New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950’s to Now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.Her work was also included Who Stole the Teepee? at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, New York, and the 1997 Legacy of Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC., Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas. Her work can be found in several collections, such as the Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, the Museum of Art and Design, New York City, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and the Heard Museum, Arizona.Fields was a 2017-2019 fellow with the Kaiser Foundation Tulsa Artist Fellowship program and is currently a 2020-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship Integrated Arts Grant awardee. Fields was the invited artist for the 2021 Eiteljorg Museum of Contemporary Art Fellowship. Fields was recently named a 2021 National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellow and a 2021 Anonymous Was A Woman award. In 2022 she received a Francis J Greenburger award.Website:https://www.anitafieldsart.com/about
Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neet'saii Gwich'in) is a writer/director/producer/actor living on the traditional territory of lower Tanana Dene lands in Alaska. She is humbled to build upon the work of so many other Indigenous creatives that have helped break trail for authentic representation in media. She is a Sundance Film Alum, a Nia Tero Storytelling Fellow, and Emmy-nominated writer and former creative producer for the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series "Molly of Denali". Her short Gwich'in language film "Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr'eedaa", was named one of the 'brightest starts' at ImaginNative Film Festival and can be viewed at Reciprocity.org. She is currently in development for her first feature length film through her production company, Deenaadài Productions.Reciprocity.orgMolly of Denalihttps://pbskids.org/molly
Kalyn Fay Barnoski (b. 1990, Cherokee Nation enrollee, Muscogee Creek descent) is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, curator, and educator from Oklahoma. Centering Indigenous and decolonial methodologies, their work focuses on self-location, community-building, collaboration, and empathy through the use of music, publication, storytelling, and contemporary craft. In every endeavor, they see their practice as a way to find the ways in which we all intersect and to build bridges of understanding between. Their practice is “for you, for me, for us, for we.” Kalyn Fay Barnoski holds an M.F.A. from University of Arkansas (2021), an M.A. from The University of Tulsa (2016), and a B.F.A. from Rogers State University (2012). Kalyn has worked with Peabody Essex Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, Gilcrease Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, Eiteljorg Museum, along with others, and performed, exhibited, and facilitated workshops both nationally and internationally.Links: Websites: https://www.kalynfay.com/https://www.kalynbarnoski.com/Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ojhmBnnR44AHdtGGK8f9q Bandcamp:https://kalynfay.bandcamp.com/IG:https://www.instagram.com/kalynfay/?hl=en
Diana is the Executive Director of the National Indian Education Association out of Washington DC. Through her passion and enthusiasm for supporting Native students, Diana has been a key driver in expanding NIEA's work beyond the halls of the U.S. Capitol to communities across Indian Country. She has helped shaped broader teacher hiring initiatives, created more opportunities for visits to tribal communities, acquired millions in grant funding for NIEA, testified before the US Congress in support of Native education, and inspired professional trust and collaboration among staff, colleagues, organizations and Native nations across the country. Her work has ensured that Native students have the best possible outcomes and educators have the best possible resources to support their efforts. Cournoyer directs the staff in carrying out the organization's Strategic Plan which includes: Advocacy; Building Tribal Education Capacity; Culture Based Education; Skilled Teachers and Leaders; Establishing Educational Standards, Assessments, and Accountability; and Post-Secondary Success.
Diana is the Executive Director of the National Indian Education Association out of Washington DC. Through her passion and enthusiasm for supporting Native students, Diana has been a key driver in expanding NIEA's work beyond the halls of the U.S. Capitol to communities across Indian Country. She has helped shaped broader teacher hiring initiatives, created more opportunities for visits to tribal communities, acquired millions in grant funding for NIEA, testified before the US Congress in support of Native education, and inspired professional trust and collaboration among staff, colleagues, organizations and Native nations across the country. Her work has ensured that Native students have the best possible outcomes and educators have the best possible resources to support their efforts. Cournoyer directs the staff in carrying out the organization's Strategic Plan which includes: Advocacy; Building Tribal Education Capacity; Culture Based Education; Skilled Teachers and Leaders; Establishing Educational Standards, Assessments, and Accountability; and Post-Secondary Success.
Jonathan Thunder (b. 1977)Thunder infuses his personal lens with real-time world experiences using a wide range of mediums. He is known for his surreal paintings, digitally animated films and installations in which he addresses subject matter of personal experience and social commentary. Jonathan is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, and makes his home and studio in Duluth, MN.He has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM and studied Visual Effects and Motion Graphics in Minneapolis, MN at the Art Institute International. His work has been featured in many states, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and international publications. Thunder is the recipient of a 2020-21 Pollock – Krasner Foundation Award for his risk taking in painting. Since his first solo exhibit in 2004, he has won several awards for his short films in national and international competitions. His painting and digital work is in the permanent collections of multiple Museums and Universities.thunderfineart.comwww.instagram.com/jonthunder/www.facebook.com/JonathanThunder/
Chef Candace was born in Minnesota and lived on the white earth reservation until she moved out east with her mother in 2005. Finishing her culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America she has worked her way down the east coast and is now home in Fargo ND. She move back to the Midwest to be close to family and her culture. Candace moved home to share her passion for food and agriculture and hopefully be a support to those who aim to do the same.BernBaum's Website:https://www.bernbaums.com/
(From the Stephen Friedman Gallery)Jeffrey Gibson’s work fuses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and experience of living in Europe, Asia and the US with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. The artist’s multi-faceted practice incorporates painting, performance, sculpture, textiles and video, characterised by vibrant colour and pattern.Gibson was born in 1972, Colorado, USA and he currently lives and works in Hudson Valley, New York.The artist combines intricate indigenous artisanal handcraft – such as beadwork, leatherwork and quilting – with narratives of contemporary resistance in protest slogans and song lyrics. This “blend of confrontation and pageantry” is reinforced by what Felicia Feaster describes as a “sense of movement and performance as if these objects ... are costumes waiting for a dancer to inhabit them.” The artist harnesses the power of such materials and techniques to activate overlooked narratives, while embracing the presence of historically marginalised identities.Gibson explains: “I am drawn to these materials because they acknowledge the global world. Historically, beads often came from Italy, the Czech Republic or Poland, and contemporary beads can also come from India, China and Japan. Jingles originated as the lids of tobacco and snuff tins, turned and used to adorn dresses, but now they are commercially made in places such as Taiwan. Metal studs also have trade references and originally may have come from the Spanish, but also have modern references to punk and DIY culture. It’s a continual mash-up.”Acknowledging music as a key element in his experience of life as an artist, pop music became one of the primary points of reference in Gibson’s practice: musicians became his elders and lyrics became his mantras. Recent paintings synthesise geometric patterns inspired by indigenous American artefacts with the lyrics and psychedelic palette of disco music.Links: Instagram: @jeffruneWebsites: https://www.jeffreygibson.net/Portland Art Museum: https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/jeffrey-gibson-they-come-from-fire/
Minneapolis-based artist, Maria Cristina (Tina) Tavera investigates the constructions of racial, ethnic, gender, national and cultural identity via numerous mediums including printmaking, installation, and public art. Tavera is a dual citizen with Mexico and the United States. Her artwork focuses on the Latinidad within the United States by examining cultural signifiers determined by our society on how people define themselves and their cultures in everyday life.Tavera holds a Master of Leadership in the Arts from the Humphrey School and a BA in Spanish and BA in Latin American Studies from the University of Minnesota. She has received fellowships and grants: McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, Bush Leadership Fellowship, Shannon Leadership Institute, Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies program, Museum of Modern Art-New York, Forecast Public Art, Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), and Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME). Tavera has exhibited nationally and internationally, and artwork can be found in the collections of the City of Minneapolis Public Art, Weisman Art Museum, Fargo Plains Art Museum, Oglethorpe Museum, Tweed Museum of Art, Minnesota History Center, and the Biblioteca Central de Cantabria, Santander, Spain. Her writings have been published by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, as well as in a book titled, Mexican Pulp Art.Website: https://www.mariacristinatavera.com/IG: https://www.instagram.com/tina.tavera/?hl=enFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/tina.tavera/Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Cristina_Tavera
Kevin Pourier is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, has been carving Buffalo horn on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for about 20 years. Pourier is one of the only artists in the country working in the medium of incised buffalo horn. The works he produces carry forward Lakota artistic practices for creating spoons, vessels and other every day items of sublime beauty from the horns of the revered animal. His carvings reveal the beauty he sees in the world around us, utilizing imagery intent on inspiring thought, growth and creating the opportunity for education. Kevin’s award winning art has been collected by major museums and private collections worldwide. His work has been shown in Paris, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver and Kansas City. He is the recent recipient of the prestigious Best of Show Award at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts show held annually at Santa Fe, NM 2018.Links: Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/kevpourier Twitter: @kevinpourierInstagram: @kevinpourierWebsites: kevinpourier.com
Kay WalkingStick is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is a Cherokee/Anglo landscape painter has had over 30 solo shows in the US and Europe. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, the Museum of Canada in Ottawa, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The Newark Museum in Newark, NJ, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Museum of the American Indian, DC, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore MD, and many other museums across the country. Hales Gallery represents her work in NYC and Europe. WalkingStick was a full professor at Cornell University for 17 years where she taught painting and drawing. She is now an Emerita Professor. She was given an honorary doctorate by both Pratt Institute and by Arcadia University. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts & Science. In 2015 her retrospective of 75 paintings and drawings covering the years from 1970 to 2015 opened at the Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. After closing the exhibition traveled to five venues across the country. The show was listed by Hyperallergic on-line Magazine as one of the best 15 exhibitions to open nationwide in 2016. The NY Times gave the exhibit a full-page review written by Holland Cotter when it was shown at the Montclair Museum. WalkingStick and her husband, artist Dirk Bach, live and paint in a townhouse in Easton, Pa. WalkingStick had an exhibition of her recent landscape paintings at Hales Gallery in February and March 2022. Website: http://www.kaywalkingstick.com/Hales Galleryhttps://halesgallery.com/artists/138-kay-walkingstick/overview/
Thank you for an incredible season.Be sure to check out elevenwarriorarts.com for more details.
Goota Ashoona is is a third generation Inuit artist. She is a multimedia artist, and a part of Canada’s premiere Inuit art family, the Ashoona’s of Cape Dorset. She was born in Cape Dorset and raised in an Inuit outpost camp at Lona Bay on the southwest coast of Baffin Island. She now lives in Winnipeg with her husband, Bob, and twin sons Joe and Sam.
Indigenous Art Fair on Saturday November 19th, 2022.Over 30 artists selling their work and crafts.Food for sale.Free screenprinted shirts designed by John HitchcockDance group demonstrating Northern Plains dance styles.
Liza Black is a citizen of Cherokee Nation. Cherokees have three federally recognized tribes: Eastern Cherokee Band of Indians, United Keetoowah Band, and Cherokee Nation. Cherokee Nation claims Black as a citizen. Cherokee homelands are in the Southeast of what is now called the US, but most of our tribe was forcibly relocated to Indian Territory in the 1830s.Currently at UCLA, Black is completing her book manuscript: How to Get Away with Murder: A Transnational History of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. How to Get Away with Murder provides seven case studies of women and girls, including one trans woman. Although at UCLA, Black remains an Assistant Professor of History and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Indiana University where she is slated to be tenured in spring 2022. In 2020, Black published Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, a deeply archival book making the argument that mid-century Native people navigated the complexities of inhabiting filmic representations of themselves as a means of survivance. Black has received several research grants over her career, including the pre-, doc and post-doc fellowships from the Ford Foundation; the Institute of American Cultures at UCLA fellowship; and the Cherokee Nation Higher Education Grant.Website: https://www.lizablack.com/Twitter:https://twitter.com/_liza_blackPicturing Indians: Native Americans in Filmhttps://www.amazon.com/Picturing-Indians-Native-Americans-1941-1960/dp/149623264X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YKNT0MQ6KIII&keywords=liza+black&qid=1667432077&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=liza+black%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-1
In the final installation of 5 Scary Questions host Joe Williams speaks with friends and family as they share stories from their experiences.
Join us for part two of this star-studded event. Dallas Goldtooth, Raven Chacon, Loren Waters, Jana Schmieding, Chad Charlie, Dakota Mace, America Merideth, Kathleen Ash-Milby, Savannah Tallbear, Tanya RedRoad, and Pte/Buffalo Man returns with another astonishing story.
Part 1 of our annual Halloween series. Our past guests have shared strange and scary stories.
Tanya RedRoad (Little Shell Band of Chippewa Decedent of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa)owns a small catering business Tee's Taco's. She also currently works as the director of Toxic Taters Coalition. She has done advocacy and activism in many sectors that face systemic challenges for Indigenous communities.Those areas include, Domestic and Sexual Violence, Substance Use Challenges, Mental Health Concerns, Public Health initiatives around wellness for women including Native Women Speaking an HIV initiative, Youth programming in community efforts including Founder of FM Healthy Native Kids, ICWA(Indian Child Welfare Act), Land defending and water protection. Tanya does a variety of community work with the Indigenous population to identify gaps and to be a voice to ensure the Indigenous perspective is heard. Tanya enjoys going to powwows, cultural ceremonies and cooking for the community. Tanya appreciates learning other cultures, while sharing hers. But most importantly is a mother of three and an auntie mom to her nephew and niece. Tanya also has two grandsons Ethan and Ezra. FB: https://www.facebook.com/teesfrybreadtacosEmail for events: TeesTacos@gmail.com
Peggy Flanagan is a mom, an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and Wolf Clan. She is the 50th Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, the first Native American ever elected to serve in this role, and currently the highest ranking Native woman elected to executive office in the country.
She is a former State Representative, School Board Member, and non-profit executive, and through all these roles remained a strong advocate for those who have been historically underserved and underrepresented, including children, Indigenous people, communities of color, and working families. In partnership with Governor Walz, she established the Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, which is the first in the Nation. They also successfully passed into state law a mandate for all state agencies to honor a government-to-government relationship with the 11 sovereign tribal nations within the borders of Minnesota, including the requirement for consultation when making decisions which have an impact on the tribal nations.
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LtGovFlanagan Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggyflanagan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyflanagan/
Websites: https://mn.gov/governor/
Ruth Buffalo is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. She is originally from Mandaree. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Si Tanka University and two master degrees from the University of Mary: one in management, another in business administration, and a master of public health from North Dakota State University. Fargo Native American Commission (2017) and is currently on the Board of the National Native Boarding School Healing Coalition. She was recognized by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development as a leader, "40 under 40" in 2017. Ruth has served in various capacities focused on building healthy and safe communities. She was elected into the North Dakota House of Representatives in 2018 and proudly serves the people of District 27 in south Fargo. Ruth is the first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature.
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RuthBuffalo4ND Twitter: @ruth4Nd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rep_ruth_buffalo_/
Websites: https://www.ndlegis.gov/biography/ruth-buffalo
NDWN: https://www.ndwomen.org/
North Dakota Farmers Union: https://ndfu.org/
North Dakota United: https://www.ndunited.org/
North Dakota AFL-CIO: https://ndaflcio.org/
New Leadership Northern Lights:
https://cawp.rutgers.edu/node/2448
Tamara St. John is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of the Lake Traverse Reservation of South Dakota. She is the Tribal Archivist/Curator of Collections and works with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office on Cultural Preservation issues. She has been working on Native American Graves and Repatriation Act issues for the tribe with a long term goal of building a tribal visitor center and museum. Tamara is a Native American genealogist has done extensive research in the history of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota or Oceti Sakowin. She has worked with the Minnesota Historical Society and along with other Dakota Tribes collaborated on the Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota–U.S. War of 1862 exhibition. She worked with North Dakota State University and The Center for Heritage Renewal participating in panel discussions on the Dakota-U.S. War of 1862 and The Massacre at Whitestone Hill. Tamara is a former board member of the South Dakota Humanities Council and works with both South Dakota and North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance organizations. Tamara was elected to the South Dakota State Legislature in 2018, completed her second term with the 2022 Legislative Session and will be running for re-election November 2022. Tamara is currently leading the work to repatriate two Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota children who attended the Carlisle Pennsylvania Industrial School for Indians in 1879. Both Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright are buried at the cemetery in Carlisle, Pa. which is now an active military base. Since 2016 Tamara St. John has worked with other tribal nations to navigate the complex issues that surround the unique issues related to repatriations from Carlisle Indian School cemetery.
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TamaraforSD
Twitter: @tamarajstjohn
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamara_stjohn/
Heather is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe with Lineage to Eastern Shoshone, a mom of two amazing boys, queer and bold in her passion to make a positive impact on the next generations.
Heather has been involved in equity work her entire life; it’s not work that she chose to start at any one specific time. Rather, for Heather, the work of equity is a way of life.
Her formal educational training started with an associate degree in Marketing from Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls, SD. From there, she pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Project Management from MSUM. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Heather earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from MSUM.
Beyond her formal education, Heather has participated in numerous trainings and workshops; a sample of these efforts includes: The Blandin Foundation Community Leadership Training and The Bush Foundation’s BushCon.
Heather has also worked in many facets of equity work within the region. She led the Human Rights Task Force for Moorhead Area Public Schools, served as the Vice Chair of the Moorhead Native American Commission, and developed programming that laid a foundation for the Moorhead School District to hire a Director of Equity and Inclusion position.
In November 2020, Heather was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 4A representing Moorhead, Minnesota. This historic election cannot be underestimated, as she is the first Native LGBTQIA+ woman serving rural Minnesota in the legislature. This momentous accomplishment became a reality due to Heather’s unwavering commitment to foundational issues of education, equity, and healthcare for all.
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Heather4House Twitter: @repkeeler
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather4house/
Kathleen Ash-Milby is Curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum. She has organized numerous exhibitions of Native American art, including Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe). She was previously an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian and curator and co-director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City. Publications include essays in Art in America, Art Journal, and Joseph Yoakum: What I Saw (2021). A member of the Navajo Nation, she earned her master of arts from the University of New Mexico. She is a proud mom and loves her new life in the Pacific Northwest where she lives with her husband, Edward.
NMAI: https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=985
Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe book: https://americanindian.si.edu/shop/publications/books-and-products#6363
Portland Art Museum https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/dakota-modern/
Find Kathleen's publications here: https://www.amazon.com/Books-Kathleen-Ash-Milby/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AKathleen+Ash-Milby
Savannah Tallbear is from the Kaw Nation, Southern Cheyenne and is Oglala Lakota, Savannah primarily works with acrylic and permanent inks. She is inspired by her childhood, heritage and daily life.
She has a presence online as Bears Will Kill You and Bear Hair is OK in various forms, a former college athlete, an advocate for those in need, and is a fantastic jewelry creator and painter. She is an advocate for Native voices and all around a great artist.
Links: Twitter: @bearswillkillu Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearhairok/
Websites: bearswillkillu.redbubble.com
Esty: https://www.etsy.com/people/svntllbr1
Okie Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/okie-podcast-with-savannah-tallbear/id1550490884?i=1000570554022
Art Supply Posse Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/138-savannah-tallbear/id1119393753?i=1000558026546
Jana Schmieding (Mniconjou Lakota) is a writer, performer living and working in Los Angeles. Drawing from her experiences as a Native woman and feminist, Jana uses her creative work and advocacy to move the needle on Native representation in media and entertainment. She performs regularly in LA and hosts a podcast called Woman of Size where brilliant people discuss their experiences with body-based discrimination. Currently, Jana is a writer on the first Native sitcom on network TV, Rutherford Falls, starring Ed Helms, and is an avid bead artist.
Instagram: janaunplgd, womanofsizepod Twitter: @janaunplgd, @womanofsizepod
Chad Charlie is an Afro-Indigenous filmmaker from Ahousaht First Nation. Beginning his career in 2008 as a stand-up comedian and spoken word artist, he now extends the same passion for poetry and humor in his writing for TV and film. Currently he is a writer and actor for the hit television series Reservation Dogs on FX. Chad has directed several short films. The most recent of which, Firecracker Bullets, will be set for 2022 festival season.
IG: chadcharlieee Reservation Dogs: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs Uu?uu~tah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6lemMQmPv0&t=26s
Filmmaker Loren Waters is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe. Focusing her art on the intersection of film and Indigenous storytelling, Loren has a passion for sharing stories that center environmental knowledge and impact. In prior years, Loren worked for the Cherokee Nation Film Office, and documentary-style television show, Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People. Recently, she has been the recipient of the 2020 Next Gen Under 30, while also taking part in fellowships such as 2021 Warner Media Bootcamp, and 4th cohort of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Most recently, Loren was a Line Producer on the 2022 Sundance Film Festival selected short ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught), a film that is part of the Reciprocity Project by Nia Tero at Upstander Project. Recent projects to her experience include Season 1 of Reservation Dogs and the Martin Scorsese directed feature film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Currently, Loren is the Background Casting Director for Season 2 of Reservation Dogs. She is also in development of a short film titled, ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ (Meet Me at the Creek), the fourth installment of a short documentary film series that focuses on tribal environmental professionals. The first two films, celebrating tribal environmental professionals, Polly Edwards and Yvette Wiley, premiered in 2019. The third film, Restoring Néške'emāne, screened at festivals such as deadCenter Film Festival, LA Skins, Durango Independent, and recently won Best Short Documentary at North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival.
Website: https://lorenwaters.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorenkaseyjewelry
IG: https://www.instagram.com/lorenkaseyjewelry/
Dallas Goldtooth is a Dakota actor, comedian, stage performer and public speaker from the village of Cansayapi within the territory of the Oceti Sakowin people. He has performed on FX’s Reservation Dogs, Comedy Central and the BBC. He is a film producer, playwright, and published poet. He is also a Dakota language activist, cultural teacher, dedicated father and loving husband.
Indigenous Environmental Network website: https://www.ienearth.org/ Dallas Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dallasgoldtooth Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallasgoldtooth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/dallasgoldtooth 1491s: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1491s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1491s/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/1491s Reservation Dogs: Website: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RezDogsFX Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rezdogsfx/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RezDogsFX
Buffalo Man is a South Dakota Hall of Fame artist with music featured in the motion picture ‘Doe Boy’ by Chris Eyres and the Emmy nominee Amazon Prime series ‘Bosch’. He continues to grow his musical repertiore with 3 released EPs and a multitude of singles that can be found on all major streaming platforms.
His motivation to create music that is poignant and diverting stems from being born and raised on the Ihanktonwan (Yankton) lands of South Dakota. Sharing their personal love of music his parents, Beverly and Greg Zephier, introduced musical production to him and his siblings with the creation of the band ‘Indigenous’. Buffalo wrote, recorded, and performed with his siblings from 1988 until 2006 touring across the US, Canada, and into Europe sharing the stage with well known artists such as BB King, Bob Dylan, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr., and many more.
In 2006 Buffalo initially created ‘Disciples of Sound’ until transitioning into ‘Black Owl Society’ in 2010. Performing and recording with a range of talented musicians until being joined full time by his sister and drummer, Good Eagle Woman, in 2018.
With the creation of ‘Black Owl Society’ he opened the doors to writing music that carried the weighted words of his origins. Lyrics inspired by uniquely indigenous stories, experiences, and emotions carried on resonant guitar, powerful drums, and deep deferential bass, ‘Black Owl Society’s’ music will give listeners a fully enlightening experience.
Website: https://www.blackowlsociety.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrb_VgiP_uzpYi6cbwtypLA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/black_owl_society/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackowlsociety Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rmeXrlla5JybotaFe65o1
Recorded live on May 14th 2022, Isanti played a live session for listeners of 5 Plain Questions. Set List: Now Or Never 2:18 On The Brink 5:14 Leaves Me Down 7:49 Lakota Woman Blues 11:32 Bittersweet Serenade 14:14 Bliss 17:26 Intensified 20:15
Kenton James (Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska/Cheyenne River) is a musician based out of Flandreau, SD. He started garage rock band the Lilacs in 2004 with his brother Keldon James. In 2012 he formed Sons of Sans Arc with brother Keldon and his wife Elisabetta Giomo-James (Montebelluna, Italy). From 2012-2019 Sons of Sans Arc toured the upper Midwest and in 2018 toured Italy behind their 2017 EP Vital Signs. Sons of Sans Arc are currently on hiatus. In the Fall of 2019 Kenton released an album Isanti under the name Isanti and would follow up with Songs from Plum Tree Lane (2020) and Isanti II (2021). Isanti was intended to be a studio project only however, in November of 2021 Kenton was joined by drummer Jacob Vande Vegte, guitarist Cain Rotert (Turtle Mountain), and bassist Kamp Kirsch to start playing live shows with Isanti. Currently, Isanti is recording a 4th studio album due out in September 2022.
Kenton is also a baker of Napoli style pizzas and does sales on weekends. He hopes to hit the pow wow trail with his pizzas soon!
IG: Isanti: https://www.instagram.com/isanti_band/ Sons of Sans Arc: https://www.instagram.com/sons_of_sans_arc/
Stuart James is a hip hop artist born & raised in Saint Michael on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota. Hip hop has always been a voice for the oppressed. Life on the reservation can be ugly & beautiful at the same time and Stuart encourages listeners to find the good in every situation regardless of how difficult life gets. Stuart is a boxing coach, community organizer & songwriter among other titles. Stuart founded the Tiwahe (Family) clothing brand & Tiwahe Day which is a family day for the youth and community of the Spirit Lake reservation.Tiwahe Day consists of a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, live music and free cookout. Stuart hopes to bring this event to more communities in the future whether it is on the reservation or not.
Stuart was recently featured in a full length documentary titled Oyate, presented by Films With A Purpose in association with Irrelevant Media & Lakota People's Law Project. Oyate has been nominated for Best Film at the Big Sky Film Festival in Montana and has received the 2022 Audience Choice Award at the North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival in North Dakota. Stuart's music helped bring the film an interesting perspective through the form of hip hop which brought a modern voice to the documentary.
In the future Stuart hopes for people on every reservation to strive for healthy and positive lives and the music is the driving force of that goal. The big picture is very important but we must also take care of ourselves before we can help anyone. "I know we want change and we want to beat the odds but we should start by cleaning up the trash in our yards". Stuart understands it is a long road to healing but as long as we make steps every day our people will start to come together and work towards a better life for our future generations.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008180656153 IG: https://www.instagram.com/stuartjamesmusic/
Call for Stories. If you have a scary story, incident, something you can't explain share you story with us. We will select 20 stories from our listener audience to share with everyone.
Email me, Joe, at 5scarystories@gmail.com and if your story is selected we'll connect and record our story in August! Good luck and I can't wait to hear from you!
5scarystories@gmail.com
We're off this week. Please think about a scary story you wish to share with the Joe in the podcast and be on the lookout this summer for a link to share your story in the upcoming 5 Scary Questions episodes in October!
Dallas Goldtooth is a Dakota actor, comedian, stage performer and public speaker from the village of Cansayapi within the territory of the Oceti Sakowin people. He has performed on FX’s Reservation Dogs, Comedy Central and the BBC. He is a film producer, playwright, and published poet. He is also a Dakota language activist, cultural teacher, dedicated father and loving husband.
Indigenous Environmental Network website: https://www.ienearth.org/ Dallas Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dallasgoldtooth Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dallasgoldtooth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/dallasgoldtooth 1491s: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1491s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1491s/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/1491s Reservation Dogs: Website: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RezDogsFX Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rezdogsfx/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RezDogsFX
Jana Schmieding (Mniconjou Lakota) is a writer, performer living and working in Los Angeles. Drawing from her experiences as a Native woman and feminist, Jana uses her creative work and advocacy to move the needle on Native representation in media and entertainment. She performs regularly in LA and hosts a podcast called Woman of Size where brilliant people discuss their experiences with body-based discrimination. Currently, Jana is a writer on the first Native sitcom on network TV, Rutherford Falls, starring Ed Helms, and is an avid bead artist.
Instagram: janaunplgd, womanofsizepod Twitter: @janaunplgd, @womanofsizepod
Chad Charlie is an Afro-Indigenous filmmaker from Ahousaht First Nation. Beginning his career in 2008 as a stand-up comedian and spoken word artist, he now extends the same passion for poetry and humor in his writing for TV and film. Currently he is a writer and actor for the hit television series Reservation Dogs on FX. Chad has directed several short films. The most recent of which, Firecracker Bullets, will be set for 2022 festival season.
IG: chadcharlieee Reservation Dogs: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs Uu?uu~tah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6lemMQmPv0&t=26s
Filmmaker Loren Waters is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe. Focusing her art on the intersection of film and Indigenous storytelling, Loren has a passion for sharing stories that center environmental knowledge and impact. In prior years, Loren worked for the Cherokee Nation Film Office, and documentary-style television show, Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People. Recently, she has been the recipient of the 2020 Next Gen Under 30, while also taking part in fellowships such as 2021 Warner Media Bootcamp, and 4th cohort of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Most recently, Loren was a Line Producer on the 2022 Sundance Film Festival selected short ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught), a film that is part of the Reciprocity Project by Nia Tero at Upstander Project. Recent projects to her experience include Season 1 of Reservation Dogs and the Martin Scorsese directed feature film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Currently, Loren is the Background Casting Director for Season 2 of Reservation Dogs. She is also in development of a short film titled, ᏗᏂᏠᎯ ᎤᏪᏯ (Meet Me at the Creek), the fourth installment of a short documentary film series that focuses on tribal environmental professionals. The first two films, celebrating tribal environmental professionals, Polly Edwards and Yvette Wiley, premiered in 2019. The third film, Restoring Néške'emāne, screened at festivals such as deadCenter Film Festival, LA Skins, Durango Independent, and recently won Best Short Documentary at North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival.
Website: https://lorenwaters.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lorenkaseyjewelry
IG: https://www.instagram.com/lorenkaseyjewelry/
Sylvia Houle is an emerging Anishinaabe contemporary artist residing in Rolette, North Dakota. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Born and raised far away from her indigenous roots along the Northern California Coastline, she didn’t have the benefit of the traditional teachings of her father’s people and would often feel out of place but did not understand why until many years later.
Sylvia’s work represents a visual map of various things that flow through her mind, influenced by colors, nature, people, thoughts, emotions, and cultural teachings; all these things she processes through different art mediums, mainly soft pastels. A couple of her main themes she likes to explore are reconnecting to her Anishinaabe heritage and portraiture. The artist herself explains, “I want to share my knowledge and experiences with others in my version of visual storytelling; to give folks encouragement to engage in their creative evolution, conduct soul searching for themselves, and never stop seeking knowledge.”
Even though Sylvia has been creating most of her life, she didn’t start taking her art more seriously until not long after she arrived in North Dakota in 2017. Eventually, Sylvia would like to continue her college education to become an Art Therapist and a Professional Artist.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sylviahouleart/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/sylviahouleart/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/soft-pastel-portrait-by-sylvia-houle--320318592242181590/
Penny Kagigebi, White Earth Ojibwe (1st generation descendant)
A lifelong resident of Becker County, Penny has always lived on or adjacent to White Earth Reservation in Northwestern Minnesota. This is where she gathers traditional foods, mashkiki-medicine plants as well as materials for making quillboxes.
In 2014, she achieved a tremendous goal to go learn quillwork and quillbox construction from renown Ojibwe artist Melvin Losh. Today Penny makes what she calls “slow art” – durable quillboxes painstakingly produced through uncountable hours and intense attention to detail. She has been told her work demonstrates an ethereal quality, allowing one to hold the sacred beauty of the natural world in the palm of their hand.
Birchbark basketry, ribbon with appliquéd beadwork bags, beaded earrings and appliquéd mural blankets round out her creative work for ceremonial gifting. At all times, Penny’s commitment to the thriving and vibrant lives of her community and relatives push her to learn and pass these teachings on.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quill.everlasting.1 Contemporary Indigeneity: https://www.unl.edu/plains/contemporary-indigeneity
Dakota Mace (Diné) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on translating the language of Diné history and beliefs. Mace received her MA and MFA degrees in Photography and Textile Design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BFA in Photography from the Institute of American Indian Arts. As a Diné (Navajo) artist, her work draws from the history of her Diné heritage, exploring the themes of family lineage, community, and identity. In addition, her work pushes the viewer's understanding of Diné culture through alternative photography techniques, weaving, beadwork, and papermaking. She has also worked with numerous institutions and programs to develop dialogue on the issues of cultural appropriation and the importance of Indigenous design work. She is currently a grad advisor in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the photographer for the Helen Louise Allen Textile Center and the Center of Design and Material Culture. Her work as an artist and scholar has been exhibited nationally and internationally at various conferences, collectives, museums, and galleries, including: Textile Society of America, Weave a Real Peace, Indigenous Photograph, 400 Year Project, Wright Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, Kemper Museum of Art, and the Wallach Art Gallery.
Website: https://www.dakotamace.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/dmaceart/
Brad Kahlhamer’s (b. 1956 Tucson, AZ) art lives at the crossroads of real and imaginary worlds. Born to Native parents and adopted by a German-American family, he was raised in Arizona and Wisconsin and spent his early adulthood as a musician living on the road before settling in New York City. Shaped by this nomadic history, Kahlhamer’s work explores the particularities of the American landscape: the desert ecology of the Southwest, the parks and waterways of the upper Midwest, and the gritty streets of the urban Northeast—often fusing references to multiple regions within a single work of art. Similarly, Kahlhamer draws from a broad array of artistic sources, from Native American aesthetics and Abstract Expressionism, to graffiti and popular culture. Even his references to Native culture cut across tribal traditions, as Kahlhamer views himself and his art as “tribally ambiguous.” Kahlhamer’s art explores notions of cultural hybridity and the experience of navigating multiple communities, as well as the representation and appropriation of Native culture.
Kahlhamer lives and works in New York City and Mesa, Arizona. His work has been included in national and international group exhibitions, at institutions including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aspen Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). His work has recently been shown in solo exhibitions at the Joslyn Museum, Omaha; Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; and Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden.
Swap Meet at Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum https://smoca.org/exhibition/brad-kahlhamer-swap-meet/
Brad Kahlhamer: 11:59 to Tuscon at the Tuscan Museum of Art https://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/exhibition/brad-kahlhamer-1159-to-tucson/
Brad Kahlhamer: Fort Gotham USA at Garth Greenan Gallery https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/brad-kahlhamer
Brad Kahlhamer: A Nation of One at Plains Art Museum (2019) https://plainsart.org/exhibitions/brad-kahlhamer/
America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) is the publishing editor of First American Art Magazine and an art writer, critic, visual artist, and independent curator, whose curatorial practice spans 28 years. She earned her MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and taught Native art history at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe Community College, and Cherokee Humanities Course. Northeastern State University named Meredith its 2018 Sequoyah Fellow. Based in Norman, Oklahoma, Meredith serves on the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council board and the collections and acquisitions committee of the First Americans Museum foundation.
First American Art Magazine Website: https://firstamericanartmagazine.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericaMeredithArt
Raised on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Tyrel is a Hunkpapa Lakota and Ihanktowanna Dakota, with German descent. His upbringing with the strong influence of his Lakota and Dakota ancestry and culture shapes his photography and art.
He seeks to raise and empower Indigenous voices across the continent known as North America. He has re-purposed photography, long a tool used to create monolithic caricatures of Native peoples and “poverty porn,” to more accurately show the lifeways of people as they live and not as idealized or romanticized images.
Website: https://www.istamaza.com/ IG: ista_maza
Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache) is a professor of Gender Studies and core faculty with the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental program at the University of California, LosAngeles.
Mithlo’s curatorial work has resulted in nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. A life-long educator, Mithlo has taught at the University of New Mexico, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Santa Fe Community College, Smith College, California Institute of the Arts,Occidental College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Her 2020 book Knowing Native Arts was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Mithlo’s research addresses the pressing need for accurate and sensitive information for and about American Indian communities using institutional critique, curatorial strategies and arts analysis. She is concerned with the unequal application of resources in the arts and culture field and the outmoded theoretical frames of analysis that tend to describe, but fail to analyze the wealth of knowledge inherent in Native arts production and circulation.
Order her book here: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496202123/
Website: https://nancymariemithlo.com/
Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Renaissance Society, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, REDCAT, Vancouver Art Gallery, Ende Tymes Festival, and The Kennedy Center.
As a member of Postcommodity from 2009-2018, he co-created artworks presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Carnegie International 57, as well as the 2-mile long land art installation Repellent Fence. A recording artist over the span of 22 years, Chacon has appeared on more than eighty releases on various national and international labels. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America. Since 2004, he has mentored over 300 high school Native composers in the writing of new string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). Chacon is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition, the Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award, and in 2022 will serve as the Pew Fellow-in-Residence. His solo artworks are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, a various private collections.
Website: www.spiderwebsinthesky.com IG: Ravenchcn Twitter:@Raven_chacon
Tessa Sayers grew up in Washington State on a small llama farm. She is a certified Native artist with her tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa from North Dakota. She has worked within Indian Country for 20 years. While obtaining a B.A. in Sociology with a focus in Native American studies from Western Washington University, she was the Co-Director of the Native American Mentoring Program at WWU and spent time on the Lummi Reservation tutoring and mentoring youth. In 2005, she moved to Utah, attaining an M.Ed. in Educational Psychology at the University of Utah. From 2007 to 2010, Tessa was the high school counselor at NAYA ECA, a Native American high school in Portland Oregon. She then transitioned to the Nike World Headquarters at Nike N7, a brand within Nike that inspires and enables Native and Aboriginal youth to be physically active. After meeting her husband, she moved back home to Port Orchard, Washington and became the Marketing Manager for the Kitsap Regional Library. Currently, she is the Director of Marketing and Program Development for the American Indigenous Business Leaders, overseeing marketing and student mentoring. She is also owner and designer of her own brand, Soul Curiosity, inspiring healing through art. Her evenings are spent in the country with her husband and their two fur babies Tule and Rollo, farm cat Boo and 6 chickens.
Website: https://www.mysoulcuriosity.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/soulcuriosity/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mysoulcuriosity
Dakota Hoska, is citizen of the Oglála Lakȟóta Nation, Pine Ridge (Wounded Knee). She joined Denver Art Museum in 2019 as the Assistant Curator of Native Arts. Previously, she worked as a Curatorial Research Assistant at the Minneapolis Institute of Art for four years and during that time, Dakota completed her MA in Art History, focusing on Native American Art History at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN (2019). She also completed two years of Dakhóta language classes at the University of Minnesota (2016), and received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2012). Dakota’s curatorial work allows her to pursue her passions of working closely with her Native community while being continually surrounded by and learning about beautiful artwork.
Whitney Fear is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She was born and raised on the Pine Ridge reservation, where her family has a small cattle operation. After finishing high school in 2005, Whitney moved to the Fargo-Moorhead community where she discovered a drive to pursue nursing as a career. She worked as a nurse in Emergency Medicine, Mental Health, and Community Health. While working in Homeless Health Services at Family Healthcare Whitney made the decision to pursue advancement of her nursing education to expand the services that she could offer for patients. Whitney completed her Master’s of Science in Nursing in August 2019 and is an ANCC board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). Whitney currently works at Family HealthCare in Fargo, ND. Her clinical specialties are trauma related disorders, substance use disorders, perinatal psychiatry, harm reduction and LGBTQ-2S emotional health. Whitney feels that an integral part of fulfilling the responsibilities of a nurse should include advocacy for issues such as health equity and social justice. Whitney serves as a board member for Indigenous Association. She is the current Chairwoman for the Fargo Native American Commission. In her free time Whitney enjoys spending time with her children (twins, Isabella and Remy), painting, creating traditional beadwork/quillwork and being outdoors.
SHIFT Podcast webpage: https://www.shiftnursing.com/
John Isaiah Pepion is an acclaimed artist, muralist and educator who is a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation in northern Montana. His plains graphic art combines traditional design and contemporary illustrations to create a signature look that is instantly recognized throughout the country. John considers his art journey as ceremony because his understanding of his past, family, and culture grows with each piece he creates. “Through my art,” he says, “I find personal healing, cultural preservation and a deeper connection to place.”
A descendant of Mountain Chief, a Blackfeet leader who preserved history through numerous winter counts, John aspires to have a positive impact on his community though his art activities and beyond.
When not creating art, John is an active public speaker and educator who has traveled the country speaking at public schools, organizations and with groups of aspiring artists. He holds formal degrees in Art Marketing and Museum Studies from United Tribes Technical College and the Institute of American Indian Arts, respectively.
In 2018, John began working with Native-owned Eighth Generation and their Inspired Natives Project with the goal of increasing his business capacity. His goal is to bring his cultural art to market while maintaining control over the stories embedded within it.
Webpage: https://johnisaiahpepion.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.pepion IG:https://www.instagram.com/johnisaiahpepion/
Neal Ambrose-Smith is a descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana, is a contemporary Native American painter, sculptor, printmaker, and Professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has also developed an app Artist Ideas with 100 ideas for making art, available for Android and Apple. His work is included in the collections of many national and international museums and institutions, including the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Galerie municipale d’art contemporain in Chamalières, France, and Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. He received his BA from the University of Northern Colorado and MFA from the University of New Mexico. Website: https://indianspacepainters.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/nealambrosesmith/
Whitney, Artist Statement and Bio Thematically I am a narrative artist. Images are appropriated from either the Powwow interlaced with Hollywood or from the indigenous people of Turtle Island and filtered through my point of view to tell the tale of the coming of the Europeans, small pox, and the near annihilation of the people of this region. These historic and grand cultures were all but decimated in a few short years and those left standing were cheated of their traditions, religion,and freedoms. But, the ancient voices were not silenced and the drumbeats are strong again. The celebration of the Powwow is one public declaration of the strength and tenacity of the indigenous cultures of this continent. Hollywood finds a place in the images but as an interloper and with tongue-in-cheek humor. Both the Powwow and They Came mezzotints are born from research, developed with a lot of wishful thinking, and then filtered through a contemporary point of view. I am intrigued by societies rich in imbedded belief systems and texture of ritual. I am fascinated by the way groups, historically and contemporarily, structure the day upon ceremonies, beliefs, and rituals. I appropriate interesting images or concepts from these various cultural fabrics, add a bit of contemporary color, and weave it all into my idea of story telling. Although seemingly disparate, work created from childhood memories and from adult research spring from similar place. In both the images and my remembrances are appropriated and darkened with contemporary political meaning. The narrative is realized in the mezzotint processes and printed on Hahnemuhle copperplate paper. Whitney is professor emeritus who lives in her studio. Her mezzotints have traveled throughout North America and Europe; and to Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, Nicaragua, and Russia. Her work was given one of four international awards at the International Mezzotint Festival in Ekaterinburg, Russia in 2019. Exhibitions in 2021 include: Indigenous: The Contemporary, Watersmeet, MI (award); Ink Only III – PaperWorkers, Birmingham, AL (award); National Juried Exhibition. Norfolk, VA (award); 62nd Midwestern Exhibition. Rourke Museum Moorhead, MN (award); Mapping Narratives: New Prints 2021/Winter Exhibition. International Print Center, NY, NY; Gala Exhibition and Auction. Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND; Third International Biennial Exhibition. Yerevan, Arminia; Print Club of Rochester 2021 Exhibition. RIT City Art Center, Rochester, NY; Cimarron National Works on Paper, OSU; Indianapolis Art Center’s Exhibition “Women’s Work” Indianapolis, IN; 2021 Delta National Small Prints. Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas; Webster Arts’ Under Pressure National Exhibition, Webster Grove, MO; Parkside National, Parkside, WI; America’s Paperworks 2021 NAC, MSU, Minot, ND; 57th JFAA Annual Art Exhibition. The Arts Center, Jamestown, ND (award); Prairie Village Arts Council State of the Arts Exhibition. Kansas. Hand Magazine. November Issue; Exhibizone 5th International Smart Online Group Exhibition, Canada and Heroes and Legends an online Exhibition, Ontario, Canada: Exhibitions thus far scheduled for 2022 include: Northwest Arts Center’s INT'L Paperworks 2022, Minot State University; Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, Bradbury Art Museum, Arkansas State University; 2022 PrintAustin 5x5 Exhibition, Austin, TX; Women’s Printmaking Invitational 2022, Kent State University, Four Rivers Print Biennial, Southern Illinois Printworks at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL. She has a solo exhibition schedule for 2023 in Ohio. Website: https://www.lwhitneystudio.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/lwhitneystudio/
Vincent Schilling, Akwesasne Mohawk, is an enrolled member of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, is an award-winning author that is currently working on a book commissioned by Random House / Viking about Native American Boarding Schools. He is the founder and editor of Native Viewpoint at www.NativeViewpoint.com. Vincent is also an award-winning producer, journalist and public speaker, in addition to serving as the current Executive Vice President and co-owner of Schilling Media, Inc. a Native American owned media and media relations corporation.
He is a U.S Army veteran that trained as a 91-A combat medic and 92-B medical lab specialist and served at Letterman Army Medical Center. He later became a commissioned officer and served as the battalion chemical officer for the 1-143 Field Artillery battalion in Walnut Creek as a lieutenant.
He is the former Associate Editor for Indian Country Today. He contributed thousands of articles to the publication for over 16 years. As a content media producer, Vincent help to orchestrate video content for news for over 16 years. In addition to the above organizations, he has contributed video media content to Marvel, NBC, Dateline, Now This News, CBC, APTN and more.
In 2011, Vincent was given a human rights award in the city of Virginia Beach by the Virginia Beach Mayor for programs created about Native American issues in the Hampton Roads region.
He is also the former host of Native Trailblazers, an online Indigenous radio program that aired every Friday at 8 P.M. on www.blogtalkradio.com/NativeTrailblazers from 2010 to 2020 which was nominated for an Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award for “Best Aboriginal Music Radio Station / Program.”
He was given a Bronze Editorial Excel Award for the Winds of Change "Conflict on the Mountain" article featured in the Spring 2011 issue. As a public speaker, Vincent has shared his experience and expertise with public, governmental and private entities to speak about diversity in the workplace and in schools to overcome the stereotypes of Native American people today.
'I enjoy writing profiles on successful and inspirational people. I want to uplift with my writing. Every word I write - I write with the cognizance that hopefully, someone somewhere will make a change for the better--no matter how small--to improve their own lives.'
Follow him on Twitter and all other social media at @VinceSchilling. https://beacons.page/vinceschilling
Webpage: NativeViewpoint.com Webpage: schillingmediainc.com
Twitter: @VinceSchilling TikTok: @VinceSchilling Instagram: @VinceSchilling YouTube: @VinceSchilling
In 2019, Joy Harjo was appointed the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold the position and only the second person to serve three terms in the role. Harjo’s nine books of poetry include An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, and She Had Some Horses. She is also the author of two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, which invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road. She has edited several anthologies of Native American writing including When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through — A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, and Living Nations, Living Words, the companion anthology to her signature poet laureate project. Her many writing awards include the 2019 Jackson Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the Ruth Lilly Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the 2015 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and holds a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. A renowned musician, Harjo performs with her saxophone nationally and internationally; her most recent album is I Pray For My Enemies. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Website: https://www.joyharjo.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyharjoforreal/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyHarjo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyHarjo
Get ready for season 3 of 5 Plain Questions podcast coming in February. With all new guests and a few surprises. You won't want to miss our exciting season with more amazing people doing amazing things for their communities. Be sure to subscribe and give us top ratings where ever you get your podcasts.
A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman was born and raised in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Cooking in kitchens across the United States and Mexico for over 30 years, Chef Sean is renowned nationally and internationally in the culinary movement of Indigenous foods. His primary focus is the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. His extensive studies on the foundations of Indigenous food systems have led to his deep understanding of what is needed to showcase Native American cuisine in today's world. In 2014, Chef Sean opened the business, The Sioux Chef, designed to provide catering and food education in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. He and his business partner, Dana Thompson, also designed and opened the Tatanka Truck, which featured 100% pre-contact foods of the Dakota and Minnesota territories. In October 2017, Sean and his team presented the first decolonized dinner at the prestigious James Beard House in Manhattan. His first book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook for 2018 and was chosen one of the top ten cookbooks of 2017 by the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Smithsonian magazine. That same year, Chef Sean was selected as a Bush Fellow and received the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. Chef Sean currently serves on the leadership committee of the James Beard Foundation Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans and was recently awarded The Ashoka Fellowship. In July 2021, Chef Sean and Dana opened Owamni by The Sioux Chef, Minnesota’s first full service Indigenous restaurant, featuring healthy Indigenous food and drinks. Since its opening, Owamni has received rave reviews from around the globe. The Sioux Chef team continues with their mission to help educate and make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through their non-profit arm, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS) and the accompanying Indigenous Food Lab professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NĀTIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.
Websites: The Sioux Chef: https://sioux-chef.com/ NĀTIFS: https://www.natifs.org/ Food Labs: https://www.natifs.org/indigenous-food-lab Owamni: https://owamni.com/ Facebook: The Sioux Chef: https://www.facebook.com/thesiouxchef NĀTIFS: https://www.facebook.com/NATIFS.org/ Owamni: https://www.facebook.com/owamni/ Instagram: The Sioux Chef: https://www.instagram.com/siouxchef/ NĀTIFS: https://www.instagram.com/natifs_org/ Indigenous Food Labs: https://www.instagram.com/indigenousfoodlab/?hl=en Owamni: https://www.instagram.com/owamni/?hl=en Twitter: The Sioux Chef: https://twitter.com/the_sioux_chef NĀTIFS: https://twitter.com/natifs_org Owamni: https://twitter.com/owamni?lang=en Youtube: Indigenous Food Labs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdVMZLJ-VQ1TR6puA1QzSw
Julie buffalohead. She is a citizen of the Ponca Tribe out of Oklahoma, and is a visual artist living in St. Paul Minnesota. Julie received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1995 and her MFA from Cornell University in 2001.
Buffalohead creates visual narratives told by animal characters that embody human traits, freewill and individuality. She connects the mythical with the ordinary and the imaginary with the real, offering a space to which viewers can bring their own experiences. She coaxes us to discover additional layers of meaning–social, historical, political, personal – using metaphor, wisdom, and wit.
Website: https://www.juliebuffalohead.com
Rosy Simas is citizen of the Seneca Nation of Indians. She is a transdisiplinary artist and founder and Artistic Director of Rosy Simas Danse.
Active since 1992, her projects merge decolonized physical movement with mixed media, sound and objects for stage and installations.
I had first become associated with Ms. Simas from an exhibition here at the Plains in 2019. Her work was unlike any of the other artists in the space, where her performance video, We Wait In The Darkness, with these beautiful maps and overlays on them filling a wall in the exhibition.
Her work combines themes of personal and collective identity with family, matriarchy, sovereignty, equality, and healing.
Thoughtful in her responses, and relatable experiences makes this interview so interesting.
Check out the following websites: Website: https://www.rosysimas.com/ Rosy Simas Danse Website: https://rosysimasdanse.com/ All My Relations (A Place of Rest) website: http://www.allmyrelationsarts.com/yodoishendahgwageh/ Native Arts and Cultures Foundation website: https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/rosy-simas-2
John Little, PhD (Standing Rock Dakota), is a scholar, historian, filmmaker, and mentor. His presentations and research focus on Native student retention and success in higher education, decolonizing work in the university, cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots, Lakota and Dakota music, and Native American Vietnam veterans, looking at the fact that Native Americans serve in the military at a higher per-capita rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. Dr. Little received his PhD in History from the University of Minnesota and is passionate about changing the way history is written about Native peoples. He is currently the Director of Native Recruitment and Alumni Engagement at the University of South Dakota. Previously, he was the Director of the 7th Gen Summer Program, a Native American college readiness program for high school graduates in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He is the co-director, alongside his brother Kenn, of the 2017 award-winning film, “More Than A Word.” The documentary goes inside the movement to change the name of the Washington R*dskins football team as well as what’s at stake in contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots.
You can reach him at: john.little@usd.edu
More Than A Word film: http://morethanawordfilm.com/ Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A86QFzzp7s8
We're off this week but we want to thank everyone for the amazing and overwhelming response to our 5 Scary Questions podcast from last week. This encourages us to keep going and creating great content that you all keep coming back for. Our podcast family is growing and we are looking forward to what is coming next. See you next week!
Join us this week as we celebrate the Halloween season with true life scary stories from our past guests from the 5 Plain Questions podcast. We have a collection of different stories, all very scary and all very true. We thank Dwayne Wilcox, Roy Taylor, Falcon Gott, Vanessa Short Bull, Matt Barse, Gerald Cournoyer, and Arik Williams for sharing these intense and very real experiences.
Subscribe to AV's Black Coffee Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPtGj_bhe2HRhHiqRtWgkQ
Follow on Instagram! Dwayne Wilcox: IG: https://www.instagram.com/dwayne.wilcox.505/ https://www.morningstargallery.com/gallery-artists/dwayne-wilcox-bio
Matt Barse: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lowdownent/ https://www.lowdown-entertainment.com/
Falcon Gott: IG: https://www.instagram.com/___fal_con___/ https://www.falcongott.com/
Vanessa Short Bull: IG: https://www.instagram.com/vanessashortbull/
Gerald Cournoyer: https://geraldcournoyer.artspan.com/thumbnail_list.php?mgd_id=14442
Roy Taylor: IG: https://www.instagram.com/indigeneity_rising/ https://www.kfai.org/personality/roy-taylor/
Roy Taylor (Pawnee, Choctaw) is with White Eagle Arts, Entertainment & Media out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is host of Indigeneity Rising on KFAI Fresh Air Community Radio 90.3 FM.
He is a: Stage, Film, Commercial Actor Performance Storyteller Voice Over Narrator Spoken Word Artist Emcee, Moderator, Host Radio Broadcast Journalist Public Speaker, Presenter Spokesman, Representative, Advocate Humorist, Comedian Playwright, Screenwriter...he does it all!
Over 25 years experience in public, non-profit, government work at the local, national and global level. Graduate of the amazing University of Oklahoma. Married, two adult children and two school age grandchildren.
Find KFAI online: https://www.kfai.org/program/indigeneity-rising/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/indigeneityrising/
Melanie Yazzie is Professor of Art Practices and Head of Printmaking at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Her works belong to many collections such as: the Denver Art Museum, Anchorage Museum of History & Art, the Art Museum of Missoula, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Kennedy Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and in countries such as, New Zealand, France, Russia, Canada, Estonia, Northern Ireland, Korea, China, United Kingdom, and Australia. She is known for organizing print exchange projects that connect communities across the world. She makes prints, sculptures, paintings, does surface design and jewelry design. She has been represented by the Glenn Green Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1994.
Reflecting on the recent Wokiksuye remembrance of Robert Penn by the Dahl Art Center, Joe Williams is calling art Indigenous storytellers to start telling and representing their own stories such as Robert Penn's.
We messed up last week. We uploaded the unedited clip for the episode instead of the episode that was produced. Since we don't have an intern to blame and fire, and Joe would mean no staff would be on the podcast we will have to just offer our apologies for the mix-up. Please enjoy this redux episode of Keith Braveheart on Oscar Howe.
I want to introduce you to Angela Two Stars. She received her BFA in drawing from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. Angela is a Dakota from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Sisseton South Dakota.
She currently lives in St. Paul Minnesota and the first Indigenous artist to install work at the Minneapolis Sculpture in conjunction with the Walker Art Center. Her work will be an interactive space where you can move through the space and see and hear Dakota words in it’s Native place.
This work will be open to the public on October 9th of 2021. I encourage you to make a trip to this location and see this amazing piece. Who knows, you just may see me there as well.
Let’s jump into this interview with Angela.
website:
http://www.angelatwostars.com/
Mary V. Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota) is the co-founder and creative director of Racing Magpie, a collaborative space with a Native art gallery and artist studios in Mnilúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwah (Rapid City, SD). She received her bachelor’s degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts and MFA from the University of the Arts, both degrees are in museum studies with an emphasis in exhibition design and planning. Mary is currently a doctoral candidate at Saint Mary’s University, exploring Lakota women’s leadership. Mary has held curatorial positions with The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School and The Indian Museum of North America at Crazy Horse Memorial.
Racing Magpie website: https://www.racingmagpie.com/
First Peoples Fund Website: https://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/
Ann-erika White Bird is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She has a bachelor’s degree in English, Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has published poetry in various online platforms and anthologies. Her artwork is part of the permanent collection at the Denver Art Museum; one of her pieces travels in the permanent collection with the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS) in an exhibition called “Emergence”. She believes her most valuable contributions to the beauty of this world are her two children, Josh and Osina. Ann-erika is from St. Francis, South Dakota originally but sets up her tipi in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she resides with her two children and a four-legged, barking addition named Brownie Bear.
Emily Arthur (Eastern Band Cherokee descent) is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as Chair of the Printmaking Area within the Art Department where they will host (SGCI) Southern Graphics Council Conference in March 16 – 19 2022 titled Our Shared Future.
Arthur received an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and has served as a Fellow at the Barnes Foundation for Advanced Theoretical and Critical Research, Pennsylvania. Additional education includes the Rhode Island School of Design, University of Georgia and the Tamarind Institute of Lithography at the University of New Mexico.
Arthur is awarded to the Notable Women in the Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts and has been nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant. She is the recipient of a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant provided by the State of Florida and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, Chazen Museum of Art, Minneapolis Museum of American Art, Tweed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Autry National Center of the American West and the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM.
Arthur’s work is included in the recent 2020 book, Knowing Native Arts (Lincoln): University of Nebraska Press, by Nancy Marie Mithlo as well as Dr. Mithlo’s forthcoming book titled Visualizing Genocide co-authored with Yve Chavez, Ph.D. Arthur is also a co-curator and co-author of Re-Riding History: From the Southern Plains to the Matanzas Bay, edited by Phillip Earenfight, PhD. (The Trout Gallery: Carlisle, PA, Fall 2018).
Arthur has served as an International Artist in Residence in France and Japan with artists from the Diné/Navajo Nation and as part of the 2011 Venice International Print Studios where she exhibited at the University of Ca” Foscari on Occasion of the Venice Biennale 54th International. International permanent collections include the nations of Iceland, Russia, Estonia, Ireland, France, Italy United Kingdom, India, Argentina, New Zealand, and Japan.
Arik Williams is a Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Dakota living on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota.
Arik is gaming field agent with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. But this seemingly dedicated civil servant has a a back story and creative side that is so fascinating. He was the youngest DJ at KSWS 89.3 FM radio station in the late 1990s and early 2000s and later KXWS 89.9 FM, a tribal radio station at the Sisseton Wabpeton Oyate. His music knowledge, his cultural respect is so on par with any radio personality you’ll see in films today. He was a combination of John Trudell’s Randy Peone in Smoke Signal or Northern Exposure’s Chris Stevens portrayed by John Corbett. An Encyclopedia of music and pop culture yet thoughtful and well read, Arik was one of the most brilliant radio DJs ever to come out of South Dakota.
An internationally exhibited artist, Marwin Begaye examines the issues of cultural identity through the intersection of American Indian and popular cultures. His ongoing research investigates the technical processes related to printmaking and construction of mixed-media art. He has received numerous awards as an Artist in Residence and through juried exhibitions, often negotiating the cultivation of his own skills and opening doors for his students. His work has been featured in numerous publications and he maintains an active exhibition schedule, featured in exhibitions in New Zealand, England, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Siberia and Estonia.
Website: https://marwinbegaye.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/printmakingpapa/
Cameron Ulrich is a Cherokee Professional Theater Artist and Educator. Cameron has over 40 years of theater experience acting, directing, fight choreographing and producing theater. Cameron Holds a M.F.A. in Theater Direction from the University of South Dakota. He has worked as an educator for 28 years as a secondary teacher and adjunct professor. He is a Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Muddy Water Theater in St Louis, Missouri. Currently he teaches Theater at McCluer High School in Florissant Missouri.
https://www.hybridpress.net/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/hybridpress/
https://watermarkartcenter.org/bury-the-hatchet-prayer-for-my-pah-be-john-hitchcock/
John Hitchcock, born in Lawton Oklahoma, he is of Kiowa and Comanche decent. He’s a printmaker, musician, an educator, his CV is as long and adventurous as they come. He has been an artist in residence in Shanghai, China, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, and Argentina, and has exhibitions across this country. He received his BFA from Cameron University in Lawton Oklahoma, his MFA in printmaking and photography at Texas Tech University, and is currently the Associate of Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
But what makes John so interesting is his ability to collaborate. He’s got his disarming manner to him that draws you to him. Almost everyone I know has interacted with him, and vice versa.
Kaitlyn Jones is a Diné artist from New Mexico. Now attending the Institute of American Indian Arts, she is entering her junior year and is excited to continue her studies as a BFA major with a focus on painting.
She just completed her first year as a counselor at the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute after attending the program three years previously as a student.
After graduating, Kaitlyn plans to pursue her MFA so she can begin teaching a younger generation of artists on her reservation and create more community art. Her own work focuses on combing aspects of her contemporary Indigenous identity with the past in hopes of better representing her peers.
Tylar Larsen is Bdewakantunwan Dakota from Cansayapi (Lower Sioux Indian Community, MN). He attended the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute for two years as a student, and just completed his first year as a counselor. The OHSAI led him to the University of South Dakota, where he is an honors student currently studying psychology and public health. He plans to return to his community after obtaining his degrees to work combating the effects of historical or inter-generational trauma. Being 19 years old, he looks to the future and hopes to be a good relative for all the relations he has made so far, and all of those to come.
Join host Joe Williams as he sits down with Gerald Cournoyer and Inkpa Mani as they discuss Indigenous art education, the future, importance, and relevancy of Indigenous art education. It's an hour of shared stories and an insightful conversation you don't want to miss.
Let's listen to the story of Oscar Howe through the voice of John Day. Recorded in June 2002. We apologize for the recording quality, not the best recording from 2002, but the quality of the content is what this is about.
On the 30th anniversary of the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute, host Joe Williams reflects on his association of the program starting in 1993 in a deeply personal story and tribute to the program and artist, friend, and mentor Robert Penn.
Prairie Rose Seminole is a citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes of ND, descendant of the Sahnish/Arikara, Northern Cheyenne and Lakota Nations.
Seminole serves as a political consultant and coach, and policy analyst. They also serve as an Indigenous theological advisor and speaker. More recently,Prairie Rose Seminole served as the American Indian Alaska Native Program Director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serving American Indian, Alaska Native communities around the United States as an educator, and advocate, deconstructing colonial systems of oppression.
Seminole lives and works from White Shield ND, with her partner, their ten horses and seven country dogs.
Seminole has served on the Fargo Human Relations Commission in Fargo, the Midwest Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and currently sits on the advisory council to the Olamina Fund and the boards for Humanities North Dakota, I Vote For, the Midwest Advisory Council for the Innocence Project, board member for the Native American Coalition of North Dakota.
Lyle Hudson is an educator, he's a citizen of the Navajo Nation, or more accurately, the Diné. A first grade teacher from a family of educators. He's an individual who practices gratitude the first spouse we've had on the podcast. Lyle has dedicated his career to not just educator our youngest of students, but to model what it is to be a great role model.
Don Anderson is a citizen of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, he’s a Behavioral Health Professional at Circle of Nations School in Wahpeton ND. He’s of the very few Native American men in the United States that has his bachelors of Social Work.
Don is one of the most remarkable individuals I know. In my past work career working at Circle of Nations School we addressed numerous complicated and hard situations. His approach to problem solving came from a place that you cannot learn in school. His youth, his background, and his training makes him one of the most valuable community members I know.
We will not have an episode this week due to the passing of my father, Joe Williams. We'll be back next week with more new episodes.
Joe Williams Waćiŋyaŋpi Wicaśta Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Dakota 28 September 1934 - 10 May 2021
Athena LaTocha, born in Anchorage Alaska, and currently living in New York City, this Hunkpapa Lakota and Ojibwe artist creates artwork that fills entire walls that are large enough to hold her unique peaces. Two years ago I was fortunate enough to witness a landscape she created for the Plains Art Museum in a residency she created. But when I say landscape, this isn’t a traditional Romanticism one would assume, but a created from a perspective and use of material one would not expect to see.
But what makes Athena so interesting, is the way she looks at the world beyond what is just there. It’s hard for me to articulate so let’s jump into this interview with Athena.
Links: https://athenalatocha.com/home.html
https://plainsart.org/exhibitions/athena-latocha/
https://www.fridmangallery.com/land-escape
https://mailchi.mp/nyfa/nyfa-news-law-and-the-arts-a-free-resource-series?e=afe0c02aae
I want to introduce you to Waŋbdí Wašté. This Ihanktonwan Nakota is a citizen of the Yankton Sioux Tribe is a musician and filmmaker. Now, it is said that the backbone of any band is the drummer. They keep that beat that can either make or break any band, and as Ringo Starr once responded if he wanted a metronome, “He was the metronome! That means that Waŋbdí was the backbone to the greatest Native American rock band that ever was, Indigenous. But to limit our perception of her as just an musician falls short of her creative world. She is an artist, a filmmaker, a producer, and activist. She is a member of Black Owl Society, a blues/rock band that was created by her brother Buffalo Man in December 2010, with a focus on creatively bringing more awareness about indigenous oppression.
I am so honored and so excited to share with you this most unique conversation with Waŋbdí.
So let’s jump into this interview with Waŋbdí.
Your link to Black Owl Society: https://linktr.ee/Blackowlsociety
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackowlsociety IG: https://www.instagram.com/black_owl_society/
Micheal Two Bulls is a mixed media artist. He's a graduate of IAIA in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a CAIRNS Research Fellow, and a member of The Wake Singers.
Join us in this fantastic 1/2 hour.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mtwobulls/ The Wake Singers on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thewakesingers/ The Wake Singers on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEqoJbGexePR-mlf0b7ArEQ
I want to introduce you to Andrea Carlson. She’s a citizen of the Grand Portage Ojibwe, and is a painter & screen printer based in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota, though currently lives in Chicago Illinois. She received her bachelor of arts at the University of Minnesota in 2003 and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2005.
I think what makes Andrea so interesting is her ability to address the relationships of Indigenous artists and museums. She recognizes and addresses the historic problems that institutions like museums with their colonial roots and their detrimental effects on Indigenous people, but also how Indigenous artists are now taking control of the narrative and reshaping the art landscape. She also talks about the concept of Indigenous Futurism, which I find so absolutely incredible.
You can find a link to her current works and representation at Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Link: http://www.bockleygallery.com/artist_carlson/index.html
Craig Howe, founder and Director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS), earned a Ph.D. in architecture and anthropology from the University of Michigan. He served as Deputy Assistant Director for Cultural Resources at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Howe has authored articles and book chapters on numerous topics, including tribal histories, Native studies, museum exhibitions, and community collaborations. He has developed innovative tribal histories projects and creative museum exhibitions, lectures on American Indian topics across the U.S., and provides professional development and cultural awareness training to schools and organizations. Howe was raised and lives on his family’s cattle ranch in the Lacreek District of the Pine Ridge Reservation where he is designing and building Wingsprings, an architecturally unique retreat and conference center that is featured in New Architecture on Indigenous Lands. He is a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
You can find CAIRNS at the link below. https://www.nativecairns.org/
BIO: Marty Two Bulls Sr. is a member of the Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He spent his childhood in Rapid City, S.D. It was at the Rapid City Central High School’s student newspaper the Pine Needle, that Two Bulls first started drawing editorial cartoons. Marty studied commercial art at the Colorado Institute of Art. Two Bulls worked television, commercial printing, and newspapers. He would become the graphics editor at the Rapid City Journal and later The Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Leaving newspapers he returned to college to finish his BFA degree at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, N.M. His work focuses on issues of political interest to Native American peoples who have been historically persecuted and marginalized by the dominant culture, which has reduced them to a minority in their own lands. Two Bulls embraced a growing readership of non-Natives cultivated through social media, in the hope that one Lakota man’s point of view will bring a better understanding and support for issues that affect Native American Indians. Marty currently works as a freelance artist, graphic designer and political cartoonist.
m2bulls.com https://www.patreon.com/m2bulls https://www.facebook.com/martytwobulls https://www.gocomics.com/m2bulls https://www.instagram.com/m2bullz https://twitter.com/m2bulls
Access to the Northern Plains Summer Art Institute 2021 application:
https://plainsart.org/northern-plains-summer-art-institute-application/
Access to the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute 2021 application:
https://www.usd.edu/fine-arts/art/ohsai-registration
And good luck!
Oscar De Leon is a Mexican-American filmmaker based out of Fargo, ND. He often operates under his artist name, “Guero,” which roughly translates to “white boy”, a nickname he grew up with. De Leon has been working independently since the age of 18, eschewing film school to pursue his passions. He has since gone on to write, direct, and edit award-winning short films and documentaries.
As an artist, De Leon changes styles depending on the subject he’s working on. His portfolio includes a vast array of work ranging from personal music projects, podcasts, commercial writing, and screenplays.
In 2014, he and Kevin Ackley created Chamber Six Media, a media group doing both commercial and artistic work that serves as a form of expression for both artists. Together they have had success as independent filmmakers with their work being accepted into international film festivals.
Chamber Six Media: http://www.chambersixmedia.com/
The Human Family: https://www.human-family.org/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/fargoguero
Cannupa Hanska Luger is a New Mexico based multidisciplinary artist who uses social collaboration in response to timely and site-specific issues. Raised on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, he is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota and European descent. Luger produces multi-pronged projects that take many forms—through monumental installations that incorporate ceramics, video, sound, fiber, steel, new media, technology and repurposed materials, Luger interweaves performance and political action to communicate stories about 21st Century Indigeneity. This work provokes diverse audiences to engage with Indigenous peoples and values apart from the lens of colonial social structuring, and often presents a call to action to protect land from capitalist exploits. He combines critical cultural analysis with dedication and respect for the diverse materials, environments, and communities he engages. Luger is a recipient of a 2021 United States Artists award, 2020 Creative Capital Fellow, a 2020 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, the recipient the 2020 A Blade Of Grass Artist Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art and the recipient of the Center For Crafts inaugural Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship for 2020. He is the recipient of a 2019 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants, a 2019 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Honoree and the recipient of the Museum of Arts and Design’s 2018 inaugural Burke Prize. Luger has exhibited internationally including venues such as the Gardiner Museum, Washington Project for the Arts, Art Mûr, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, among others. He lectures, participates in residencies and large scale projects around the globe and his work is in many public collections. Luger holds a BFA in studio arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. www.cannupahanska.com @cannupahanska #cannupahanskaluger
Website: www.cannupahanska.com Gallery: https://www.garthgreenan.com Social media: IG @cannupahanska #cannupahanskaluger
Upcoming exhibitions: https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/each-other https://mesaartscenter.com/index.php/museum/art/exhibits/cannupa
Current projects you must check out:
STTLMNT: https://www.sttlmnt.org Future Ancestral Technologies: http://www.cannupahanska.com/fat Do It: Home: https://curatorsintl.org/special-projects/do-it
Laura YoungBird completed her BFA, MA & BS for Art Education from Minnesota State University Moorhead. She is the former Director of Native American Art Programs at Plains Art Museum. She also taught art at Circle of Nations School in Wahpeton ND, as an Artist-in-Resident for the North Dakota Council on the Arts and Fargo Public Schools. Laura has received several awards including a 2018 First People’s Fund–Artist in Business Fellowship, Artist Initiative Grants in 2009 & 2013 from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a Jerome Fellowship in 2003 to work & study with master potter, Richard Bresnahan at St. John’s University, MN. She recently received an Artist in Residence Fellowship from the Institute of American Indian Art, Santa Fe, NM. Laura has a Masters in printmaking and is a practicing artist working in mixed media-drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramics. Her work has been shown in numerous regional and national galleries and exhibitions.
Photo Credit: Ann Arbor Miller
Jeremy Red Eagle is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. He lives in the Enemy Swim District and for employment he currently oversees the Dakota Language Institute for the tribe. This position is a great honor for him. For the past ten plus years, he has been working diligently to learn the Dakota language from various tribal elders in order to pass it and the culture on through teaching cultural activities to both young and old. An artist steeped in the Dakota language and culture, he is a recipient of the Minnesota Historical Societies Artist in Residence for 2019/2020 and now a fellow from the First Peoples Fund as well as a recipient of various other honors. The foundation of Jeremy’s artwork is the Dakota culture finding expression through genuine love for his people.
Denise is an enrolled Citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Belcourt, North Dakota. She has been involved in education for forty-four years as an Elementary teacher, Principal, and professor, earning her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees from University of North Dakota. Dr. Lajimodiere is a retired Associate Professor from the School of Education, Ed. Leadership program, North Dakota State University, Fargo. She is one of the founders of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (N-NABS-HC). Denise is a poet – Dragonfly Dance; Thunderbird; Bitter Tears; His Feathers Were Chains (Oct. 2020), Children’s book author, Josie Dances (In press, 2021, and academic book author, Stringing Rosaries: The History, The Unforgivable, The Healing of Northern Plains Boarding School Survivors (2019). Denise is a traditional Jingle Dress dancer, Ojibwe Birch Bark Biting artist, and lives in a cozy cottage by a lake on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.
deniselajimodiere.com (website)
Dragonfly Dance book: https://www.amazon.com/Dragonfly-Dance-American-Indian-Studies/dp/0870139827/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Dragonfly+dance%2C+denise+lajimodiere&qid=1612899628&s=instant-video&sr=1-1
Stringing Rosaries book: https://epayment.ndus.nodak.edu/C22800_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=9430&SINGLESTORE=true
His Feathers Were Chains book: https://epayment.ndus.nodak.edu/C22800_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=10486&SINGLESTORE=true
Josie Dances (children's book): https://www.mnhs.org/mnhspress/books/josie-dances
Facebook page about my birch bark biting art: https://www.facebook.com/birchbarkbiting
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith calls herself a cultural arts worker. She uses humor and satire to examine myths, stereotypes and the paradox of American Indian life in contrast to the consumerism of American society. Her work is philosophically centered by her strong traditional beliefs and political activism. Smith is internationally known as an artist, curator, lecturer, printmaker and free-lance professor as well as a mentor for she believes that Giving Back is a life philosophy. She was born at St. Ignatius Mission, raised by her father who was an illiterate horse trader, she had her social security card at age eight when she started work as a field hand year round, she worked as a waitress and in the canneries through high school. Smith earned an Art Ed degree at Framingham State, MA (now University) and a Master’s in art at the University of NM. Before completing her degree, Smith began exhibiting in NY at the Kornblee Gallery and organizing Native exhibitions. Smith organized and curated over thirty Native exhibitions in 40 plus years. Smith has given over 200 lectures at museums and universities internationally and has shown in over 125 solo exhibits and over 650 group exhibits. Her work is in collections such as Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, Quito Ecuador; the Whitney Museum NY; the Walker, Berlin Museum of Ethnology, Germany; University of Regina, Canada; the Museum of Modern Art in NY. Smith holds 5 honorary degrees and numerous awards such as: 1987 Academy of Art and Letters, Purchase Award, NY;1995 Painting Award, Fourth International Bienal, Cuenca, Ecuador S.A.; 1996 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award; 1997 Women’s Caucus for Art, Lifetime Achievement; 2005 New Mexico Governor’s Award; 2011 Inducted into the National Academy of Design; 2012 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Living Artist of Distinction; Honorary BA Degree, Salish Kootenai College, MT; 2018 Montana Governor’s Award; 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award in Printmaking, Southern Graphics Council International; 2019 Murray Reich Award, NY; 2020 United States Artists Fellowship. 2021 Brazilian Biennial.
Vanessa Short Bull is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. She is a direct descendent of Chief Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Little Wound, and the Ghost Dance leader Short Bull. She is a graduate of the University of South Dakota. She has served as the Co-chair for the Native Research Network. She was board member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Research Review Board and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, SD Affiliate. She was previously a Nike-endorsed fitness athlete for the N7 shoe. She resides in Philadelphia, PA. She was the former Miss SD USA 2000 and Miss SD 2002. She has competed at both the Miss USA and Miss America Pageants. She is the first woman in South Dakota to garner both titles and was the first Native American to win both state titles. Vanessa is also a classically trained dancer. She studied Dancing at the University of Utah, Ballet West Conservatory, and School of Cleveland Ballet. She was featured in the American Indian College Fund’s campaign Have You Seen a Real Indian and in the book Real Indians. She served as an officer in the Army Reserve Medical Service Corps. Her parents are Thomas Short Bull, President of Oglala Lakota College, and Darlene Short Bull, a retired Indian Health Service RN with over 30 yrs of service. Her husband, Major Christopher Gorham, is an entomologist with the Defense Logistics Agency, prior active duty Army officer, currently serves with the Army Reserves Medical Readiness Training Command, Ft. Dix, NJ.
Dedra Zephier is a citizen of the 3 Affiliate Tribe in North Dakota, and was born and raised in North Dakota.
She was the first Native American who graduated from the North Dakota State College of Science’s Culinary Arts program. She has worked for nearly a decade as a chef in the Fargo Moorhead area.
Inkpa Mani is a young Dakota Artist working in the Northern Plains. He received his Bachelors of Fine Art from the University of South Dakota in 2019 and is working on his Dakota Teaching Certificate and Business Administration Degree at Sisseton Wahpeton College. He has been accepted to the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art for fall 2021.
Inkpa was born in the Twin Cities and shortly after his family moved to a small village in Chihuahua Mexico. When he was in 4th grade his family permanently moved back to Minnesota just off the Lake Traverse Reservation. Living in his traditional homelands has influenced the way he looks at art and wanting to depict an authentic Dakota perspective of contemporary life.
Inkpa is a painter, sculptor, researcher and activist. His interest in academics, Dakota traditions and contemporary life are major themes of his work. Inkpa uses Dakota and Western theories of art to create works that help tell stories of his community. His work tells stories of survival, brilliance and hope that he sees in his people.
Inkpa currently works as a Geography and Immersion teacher at Tiospa Zina Tribal School on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Inkpa Mani has been working on a group show on the Oceti Sakowin Creation story which will open fall of 2021 and is preparing to sculpt a 10 ft. stone sculpture in Sisseton South Dakota next summer.
Artist Reyna Hernandez utilizes mixed media across disciplines to investigate the concept of identity hybridity in relation to her Indigenous bloodlines and westernized arts education. Reyna attempts to investigate her place in the world while examining the complex connections between western discourse, epistemic violence in academia, and her own sense of Dakota identity. Reyna has exhibited work throughout the United States, and was selected as a featured artist in I AM: Exploring Identity Through the Self-Portrait, an exhibit in association with the 2015 Guerrilla Girls Take Over the Twin Cities. She was the recipient of the Oscar Howe Curatorial Fellowship in 2015 and has continued to discuss her research while visiting colleges and classrooms around the U.S. Reyna has spoken on panels and exhibited work at All My Relations Art in Minneapolis MN, and won 2nd place mixed media at the 2016 Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show. She has served as a visiting artist at New Mexico State University (2019) and Colorado College (2018), where she held her first solo exhibit in the college's Coburn Gallery. Hernandez is Ihanktonwan Dakota (Yankton Sioux), and received her B.A in English and B.F.A in Studio Arts at the University of South Dakota in 2016. She is currently working on a community-based mural project in Vermillion, SD where she also lives and works. ◦
Matt Barse is a Wichita/Kiowa/Dakota screenwriting and filmmaker residing in Norman, OK. He developed his creative skills at the University of Oklahoma and is a current candidate for a Bachelor’s in Art. Technical know-how was achieved at Oklahoma City Community College with a Certificate of Mastery in Digital Cinema Production as well as an Associate in Arts. Matt has found time to produce short and feature-length narratives and documentaries, using life experiences to create unique and relatable works of art, which can be described as "fact-based fiction." Barse has worked with many creative professionals in the filmmaking world to help bring his vision to life.
Elizabeth “Liz” Skye is Oglála and Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Elizabeth is 23 years old and is the third youngest daughter of Mary DeCory and Martin Skye. Liz grew up in north central Sioux Falls, South Dakota where she graduated from Lincoln High School. As a young child, she was very excited to learn about art, her culture, and the cultures of others. Her senior year of 2015, she was accepted to USD where she began training for a BFA with specialization in ceramics. Accompanied by minors in art history and psychology, Skye researched topics related to contemporary indigeneity, representation within history, feminism, and settler colonialism.
Her work implores techniques inspired by Oscar Howe, while also being inspired by artists such as Egon Schiele, James Luna, Virgil Ortiz, and her contemporaries such as fellow muralist painter, Reyna Hernandez, past OHSAI students, and Instagram artists. Skye is very much drawn to urban art such as graffiti and hip hop culture— evidentiary in her color usage and visual language.
Michael LeBeau, MD, serves as the president of the Sanford Health Bismarck region, overseeing the administration of health services and is responsible for the successful planning and implementation of operational and strategic goals for the Bismarck region.
Dr. LeBeau has been with Sanford Health for more than 10 years. He began at Sanford as a physician specializing in kidney care as a nephrologist. Prior to his current role, he served on the Sanford Board of Trustees and was a physician leader as the vice president of clinics.
Dr. LeBeau graduated from the University of North Dakota, and completed his residency in internal medicine at Gunderson Lutheran Medical Foundation in La Crosse, Wis. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and serves on the board of trustees for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine alumni foundation.
Ciciley Littlewolf is a proud citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. She received two bachelor's degrees first from the University of South Dakota in Criminal Justice and in Zoology from North Dakota State University. She went on to get her Doctor of Medicine from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health sciences.
She is currently in her 2nd year of Internal Medicine Residency with the University of North Dakota in Fargo, ND.
Dr. Littlewolf currently serves in the North Dakota Army National Guard. She entered the Army as an enlisted soldier and served as the capacity of Combat Medic and after graduating from medical school she got her direct commission and currently holds the rank of Captain.
Mariah Cooper is a 4th year medical student in the INMED program at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. She is a citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and grew up on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation, near Hayward, Wisconsin.
Her biography is as follows.
Boozhoo! My name is Mariah Star Cooper and my Ojibwe/Anishinaabe name is Waabizhiiquay. I am an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and grew up on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation, near Hayward, Wisconsin. My family is from the New Post community. I had the honor of representing my tribe as a youth ambassador by being Jr. Miss Honor the Earth and Miss Honor the Earth. I graduated as Valedictorian from Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe High School and attended the University of Wisconsin - River Falls to earn my Bachelor of Science in Biology, with emphasis in Biomedical Sciences. In my undergraduate career, I attended the Native Americans into Medicine Program at the University of Minnesota, Four Directions Summer Research Program at Harvard Medical School, Andrew W. Mellon Summer Internship in Conservation at the National Museum of the American Indian and Smithsonian Institution, and the Visiting Summer Research Program at Harvard Medical School. I am a third-year medical student at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences and am in the process of earning my Doctor of Medicine degree. Miigwetch!
Kristal Hudson is a Navajo fourth-year medical student at the University of North Dakota, currently finishing up her rotations in Fargo, ND. She has earned an Associates of Science from San Juan College in addition to Bachelor of Science in Biology and Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry with a Minor in Music from the University of New Mexico. Originally from Farmington, NM where most of her upbringing was on and off the Navajo Reservation. She enjoys hiking, reading, planting/gardening, and trail running.
Mylan Panteah is a current scholar in the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIPP) at the University of Connecticut. He finished his didactic and clinical rotations at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine in May 2019. He is originally from the Navajo Nation, born in Gallup NM, and is an enrolled member of the Navajo tribe but recognizes hi father's Zuni half as well. This current academic year at UConn he has joined the lab of Indigenous scientist Dr. Leslie Caromile, Eastern Band Cherokee descent, whose lab concentrates in Prostate Cancer research; projects include 3D-bioprinting, molecular data analysis, and health disparities research amongst BIPOC and LGBT community. Mylan is currently applying to Family Medicine Residency programs and plans to practice back home upon completion of both his research and physician training programs.
Instagram: @myley2424
Dwayne Wilcox “is entirely self taught--learning from friends and family. ‘I lived in Washington, DC for a few years and I managed to go through every museum archive I came across that contained ledger art. Ledger art had such a deep feel and I found it the most versatile of all Lakota arts’” (George E. Foster, Jr. Gallery of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, sponsored Harwood Museum).
“Dwayne “Chuck” Wilcox has been a full-time artist since 1987, but has always been a lifelong producer of art. While he has no formal art training, Chuck had his first commissioned art piece in 1974, which eventually lead to a full time career.
He “is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota and was born in Kadoka, SD 1957. His family is from Wanblee, SD, and he attended Crazy Horse High school. Following graduation, Chuck enlisted in the military for four years. His wife was a career military member and they have lived in Colorado, South Carolina, Maryland and Montana.
“Chuck’s chosen medium is ledger paper, the first paper to make it’s way to the Great Plains in the 19 century. He uses this medium to convey, in the most contemporary way, a living culture through humor, dance, or vices of the modern times. His goal is to share a continuing view of how natives see the European culture and to reverse the paradigm" (Dog Hat Studio www.doghatstudio.com).
Wilcox also teaches children at the Red Cloud Indian School's Heritage center: "On a recent winter afternoon, Red Cloud fourth grader, Nevaya, sat drawing out a story on lined ledger paper, a well known Oglala Lakota ledger artist Dwayne Wilcox sat nearby, guiding her. . . See more
"My friends and family influence my work by the way they communicate and tell a joke or a story. In the Lakota way, humor is medicine and helps us heal. That is why there are such figures as the Sacred Clown. My drawings are meant to reflect that kind of humor and the traditional lifeways. This is what I see as everyday life" (Artist's Statement in Moving Walls, 19, Open Society Foundation).
Kayla Aubid, an enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has devoted her career to the arts as a curator, educator, equity advocate, and arts administrator. She holds a BA in psychology and American Indian studies from St. Cloud State University. She currently serves in the role of Community Learning Catalyst with Arts Midwest continuing to live and work in 1855 Treaty Territory in Grand Rapids, MN. Previously, she worked as Gallery Director with the MacRostie Art Center. She has curated and organized contemporary art exhibitions in Grand Rapids, MN and Rapid City, SD. Aubid has been in-residence at the Banff Centre, is a Commissioner for the Grand Rapids Arts and Culture Commission and a Trustee for the Blandin Foundation.
Joseph Allen has been creating and exhibiting his art for over 30 years. His photographs are in the collections of the Weisman Art Museum, the Minnesota Historical Society and the C. N. Gorman Museum, at UC Davis. He is a past recipient of a McKnight Photography fellowship, an alumnus of Intermedia Arts’ Creative Community Leadership Institute, a 2012 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow.
He is currently director of the Gizhiigin Arts Incubator in Mahnomen, MN—a project of the White Earth Nation’s economic development division. Gizhiigin supports Indigenous artists by providing services and resources to advance their artistic and entrepreneurial goals. Joseph serves on the board of directors of the Plains Arts Museum and is a former board member of the Region 2 Arts Council. Born in Eagle Butte, SD, Joseph is a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate. He also a descendant of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation where he lives in the Sugarbush Township.
Follow Wade on IG: https://www.instagram.com/wade_patton/ http://wadepatton.com/
From Wade Patton:
The spare beauty of the prairie resonates in my work. I’m an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation surrounded by a rich culture of music and art. After obtaining a BA in art from Black Hills State University and having a solo exhibit at the Sioux Indian Museum in Rapid City I decided to move away. It took leaving South Dakota for me to find the voice in my most recent body of works. Yet, while pursuing other art opportunities on the east coast, I longed for home. Living on the east coast, I began expressing what I missed, the beauty and splendor of the Black Hills and the skies of South Dakota. I started to draw landscapes and clouds, as a reminder of home. Something clicked, not only in my artistic expression, but with collectors and galleries. Their response was unexpected, but welcomed. I started sending work back home for exhibits and to galleries, and was getting recognition. I realized how much I needed to return, I missed my family and I needed to pursue my art in the place where I find the most inspiration. That decision brought me straight into the thriving Native art scene that clearly wasn't here when I left. Interestingly, when I moved back people would say, ‘Oh, you’re the cloud guy!’. People didn't know me, but knew my work. I’m reacquainting myself with the land and my ancestry. This is most prevalent in my new works and it’s exciting for me as an artist to look forward to the future in the works that I’ll produce. Since being home, I have been more involved in the art scene, involved with the community more and have gained more respect with my art. I have been able to be here and explain more on a one on one basis with people which is essential for an artist to sustain themselves with their art. “With the elegant line and an almost hypnotic use of pattern, Patton draws the viewer into his interpretation of the natural elements and seasonal changes of the land. His mastery of graphite evokes the subtlest of phenomenon and his spare use of color is inspired by beadwork, orchestrates the prairie grasses, stormy skies and then power of the buffalo.’ -Deborah Mitchell, Director APEX Gallery
Award winning artist Hillary Kempenich, is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Kempenich is an established studio artist and advocates for the Arts, Education, Social Justice, and Indigenous Human Rights issues. Raised on the Turtle Mountain reservation, Kempenich continues to advocate for better educational and cultural standards for our Native Indigenous people, and for all people, through her artwork in urban communities. Kempenich comes from a family of strong artist abilities, of which are strong influences within her work. While holding on to the ties to the Turtle Mountains, Kempenich works on developing her trades with her own personal style. Kempenich’s heritage is blended from various tribes, including the Anishinaabe, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cree and Dakota. Kempenich acknowledges traditional elements influenced by her tribal lineage, yet is not tied to a dated or romanticized portrayal of her people. Creations may vary in mediums and techniques, Kempenich views herself as a storyteller of both the people and places she comes from… which is unique, traditional and modern.
http://www.hillarykempenich.com/
https://timesevents.nytimes.com/finishthefight
https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Fight-Brave-Revolutionary-Fought/dp/035840830X
Ashley Pourier (Oglala Lakota), Curator of The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School. Born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After undergrad, Ashley then returned home to serve her community. Her time with the Center has allowed her to support local, Native artists, while continuing to focus on museum studies, collections management and historic and contemporary Native American arts and culture. Ashley serves as a member of the Dahl Art Center Advisory and Exhibit Committee, she has judged numerous art shows and competitions and volunteers for arts and culture events.
Jennifer Martel is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Reservation, resides and works on the Standing Rock Reservation. She is currently the Coordinator of the Sitting Bull Visitor Center at Sitting Bull College. She has visitors/tourists from all over the world come through the doors. She has gained knowledge and understanding through grant writing and giving opportunities to the communities and surrounding communities offering art and food classes. Having a good rapport with Native artists locally, nationally and internationally through networking and resourcing. Always seeking to help the community of artists as well as spring up new artists. Helping in the community is where you will find her working with the Youth, Elders or an event she has helped coordinate. As Native and artist rights activist, community leader, grant writer and educator, and a public speaker for the relatives. She has worked for the college the past 17 years and has a BS in Business Administration/Management with SBC/Oglala Lakota College.
Jennifer White is a painter and owner of Post Pilgrim Art Gallery in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jennifer, or J-White as she’s known in the art community grew up in Yankton, South Dakota. And like many Native Americans had to find her own personal identity between the Native and non-Native community.
Through this experience she has carved out her own space, created her own opportunities, and is the definition of cool for all that know J-White.
And that’s what makes her so interesting. Jennifer has a resilience in her that is not just both strong and powerful, but allows her humor and good-natured way to shine through. And she’s a light worth moving towards.
Jennifer White grew up in Yankton SD. She traveled between her parents and maternal Grandmother during the school year and her paternal extended family in Mission SD during the summers. During White's upbringing there were many challenges set forth by both her home and social environments. In school she was one of four Native families that attended grade school. It was here White's first recollection at the age of 8 that she knew she was 'different' with the simple phrase "You're pretty for an Indian". Followed by her fifth grade year of being called a "nigger" on the school bus on her way to a slumber party. White's life at home didn't allow for conversation to explore these experiences due to alcohol and drug abuse by overworked parents. These moments in White's life led her to the conclusion that self help was more that likely the only avenue to learn to cope and handle outside influences on her development as a young person. Art was a major outlet for White during these times. The one place nobody had to know what exactly was being said but was appreciated by others. Art created a sense of self worth for White. Being self taught with minor training in high school and one year of college, left a lot to be desired in regard to treating art as a disciplined career choice. But by taking the stand of turning life around not just for her but for her children, White made the choice to turn her outlet into a career in 2008. White's work is a narrative of her trials and tribulations through painting. Just like White, the influence of growing up in a non-Native and Native community is represented in her work. She continues to be inspired by both cultural experiences and is proud of both. White strives to bring a new voice to Native work and not be influenced by the ideals and expectations of non-Native teaching in regard to anything. Her drive to get the urban Native youth community to engage in being proud to be Native but not letting it define them is an awesome experience. The artist community has always welcomed her into the inner workings of how to engage with museums and art market circuits. (Native and Non-Native Alike) The artists that have nurtured White through her journey have done so by sharing their experiences not just through art but laughter. Native humor is raw with emotion but honest in meaning. Every artist has a different story but White takes one lesson from all of them collectively....'You will always be a student of life and it is our responsibility to document all of it through Native eyes."
Jennifer White Post Pilgrim Art Gallery Owner/Artist
Karen Goulet currently resides in Bemidji Minnesota. A member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation, and having received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she has been showing her work nationally and internationally for over two decades.
Her journey to the art world has been one of a traveler, living in multiple places, living a full life that at times, seems like it resides outside the art world.
And that is what makes Karen so interesting. She’s experienced life outside the studio. She’s formed strong relationships with the likes of Gail Tremblay, Truman Lowe, and Frank Big Bear just to name a few.
Anna Johnson is an emerging Native American artist who currently resides in Fargo, North Dakota. Anna received her BFA from North Dakota State University and is a painter, printmaker, and master of mixed media. She’s collaborated with the City of Fargo and has a number of her works on public display throughout the metro.
A part of what makes Anna so interesting is her completely relatable experience of living both on and off the reservation, and experience the pressures of being a young Native American in the 21st century, let alone the pressures of being an artist.
Legendary artist Don Montileaux in our current episode of 5 Plain Questions. He’s an inspiration and a founding member of the Dream Catchers Artist Guild.
Roger Broer is a legendary artist, he’s a member of the Oglala Lakota nation, adopted and raised in Nebraska, a veteran who after his service in the Air Force received his Bachelor of arts degree at Eastern Montana College.
Roger has been a fixture in the Northern Plains Native American art scene for over 40 years. His artistic skill, his approach of self-respect, and dignity has been a shining example to Native American youth for generations.
Keith Braveheart is a young and leading artist in South Dakota who currently resides in South Dakota. Keith received his bachelor's degree at the American Indian Arts Institute in Sante Fe NM, and his MFA at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion SD.
Currently, he is teaching at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
He currently serves on the South Dakota Arts Council and will be an instructor on the upcoming Northern Plains Summer Art Institute A part of what makes Keith so interesting is his honest reflection and active gratitude he carries with him when he speaks. With dignity and a humbleness he’s always a pleasure to speak with.
Falcon Gott is a young filmmaker currently out of Fargo, North Dakota. His work with the Plains Art Museum and the MMIW movement is putting him on the map for Native American filmmakers of the next generation.
Marty Two Bulls Jr. earned his BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, and currently is a faculty member at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota.
A part of what makes Marty so interesting and worth listening to is he’s representative of many young and rising artists from Indian Country. He comes from a family of artists, his father, Marty Two Bulls Sr. is an accomplished artist, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Dyani White Hawk earned her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2008. She’s a recipient of the 2019 United States Artists Fellowship inVisual Art, 2018 Nancy Graves grant for Visual Artists among many other grants and fellowships. Most notibily, she recently received the Star Tribune’s 2019 Artists of the Year, in which she shares this recognition with five other Indigenous artists in Minnesota. A powerful lineup that includes: Julie Buffalohead, Andrea Carlson, Heid E. Erdrich, Louise Erdrich, and Delina White.
What makes Dyani so interesting and worth listening to is her disciplined approach to intentional planning and mapping of her path. A powerful lesson young artists need to listen to.
Gerald Cournoyer is an Oglala Lakota artist from Marty, South Dakota, Gerald is the art director at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Following in the Northern Plains Indian art traditions of Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota) and Fritz Scholder (Luiseño), Gerald has blended his cultural and artistic backgrounds to connect with his students throughout his career.
5 Plain Questions proposes questions to Native American artists, creators, writers, movers and shakers, and culture bearers, and introduces you to the world around you. Produced by Eleven Warrior Arts LLC in conjunction with Plains Art Museum.