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(Northern Plains emphasis)
A short commentary on Indigenous
culture, as represented through art ...
To appreciate, and not just
collect our art, you may want to learn why and how
it was created. The artists aren't just
painting pictures, carving sculptures, or creating
quilts and beadwork. They are depicting who
they are, their artistic expressions formed by
personal experiences, familial teachings, and tribal
traditions.
A traditional symbol in the Plains Indigenous
culture is the revered medicine wheel. The wheel
represents the unending circle of life, with no
beginning and no end. Its quarter segments represent
the components of our existence that, through
combination, form our beliefs, our values, our
identity. It represents the four directions; the
four races; the four virtues; the four
characteristics that define us as individuals; and,
the four elements. Four directions have meaning far
beyond compass points of W-N-E-S. Four races indicates the
Indigenous people value diversity. The four virtues
are Courage, Wisdom, Generosity, and Fortitude --
key virtues in any society. The four characteristics
are Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul (Compassion).
The four elements are Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.
The following few paragraphs
represent my
personal opinions, stimulated by a cigarette
advertisement inserted in a popular magazine I
subscribe to. A portion of the ad is shown at
left. Including it on this Culture page is
appropriate because the image trades on the positive
image many
European, African, and Asian Americans have of Indigenous people of America, in general,
and the Lakota / Dakota culture in particular.
However, the converse isn't necessarily true, at
least with respect to the invasion of European Americans, whose
soldiers "conquered" Indigenous American warriors
only after hundreds of battles spanning more than 50
years.
In
selecting four iconic images (top left) to
symbolize Northern Plains Indigenous culture, we purposefully
omitted an image of
the canupa (referred to by some as the chanupa
or calumet), but known as the "peace pipe" to
most of us. Most pipes are
comprised of pipestone, mined from quarries 50 miles
from here in Pipestone, Minnesota, and fitted with cottonwood
pipe stems. The pipestone pipe is
sacred in the Lakota and Dakota traditions, so it
is not respectful to include it here as an icon.
Yet, the advertisement above seeks to exploit our limited and stereotyped awareness of the traditions of
Indigenous cultures by trading on the iconic power
of the pipe, headdress, feather, and color red, as
associated with America's Indigenous people. The "American
Spirit" is one we "nuevo Americans" should be
ashamed, not proud, of.
The
Indigenous cultures nearly were destroyed, 150 years
ago, with the emigration of European
settlers, because their introduction of deadly
viruses created a pandemic among the millions
of Indigenous people who lived sea-to-sea across
North America. Their land was illegally
taken, East to West, slowly but inexorably. Their source of food, the buffalo, was
nearly wiped out when the buffalo were slaughtered,
initially to provide food for railroad workers and soldiers,
fur for coats and hats, but then, unfortunately, simply
for sport. Vast herds of as many as 60 million
buffalo were killed off to the point of extinction.
The Indigenous peoples' own symbol of strength and grace, the
American eagle,
was nearly exterminated. The Indigenous
people's way of life,
which included moving their tipis to keep their camps "sweet" and
to accommodate the changing seasons and food supply, was forever
changed as they were duped into signing bogus
"treaties", and then herded by Government soldiers
onto reservations, which in some ways were simply
large outdoor prisons.
The pipe may be
iconic for us, but it is revered by the Lakota
and Dakota people. For those of you who have
visited our gallery, you know we do have a few pipes
for sale. We display and treat them
respectfully, with the pipestone bowl
separated from the stem. Still, from time
to time we have an Indigenous person express strong
disagreement with our having the canupa for sale.
Their point of view is legitimate. But -- and
this may simply be our rationalization -- the
pipe has great artistic, historical, cultural, and
spiritual significance. In the gallery, we
treat the pipes as a work of art, as
well as a traditional ceremonial object.
For those of you who haven't seen
a canupa as a work of art, a photo is included
below.
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