The recent infusion of cash in Indian country is doing wonders for some artists and arts programs, but most have yet to see any benefits of tribal capitalization.
One place where Indians are doing it right is at the Pueblo of Pojoaque, just outside Santa Fe in northern New Mexico.
Pojoaque devotes a sizable chunk of its gaming money to promoting established and emerging Pueblo artists and collecting their work, and to teaching studio arts to Native students. Under the visionary leadership of Pojoaque Lt. Gov. George Rivera, the Poeh Cultural Center and Museum soon will have a children’s museum, a library and archives building and an amphitheater and plaza for public lectures and cultural presentations.
Poeh exhibits work by such accomplished Pojoaque artists as potter Melissa Talachy and by renowned artists of all the Pueblos, including Cochiti painter Mateo Romero and Santa Clara sculptor Roxanne Swentzell.
The Poeh Museum just opened with a superb exhibit of Swentzell sculpture – 21 exquisitely quirky clay and bronze figures – that dominated the fine arts scene during the week of Santa Fe Indian Market in August. In addition to being an artistic success, the exhibit was a financial hit. Also a show for sale, all the work sold (and at high-end prices by any standard) before the preview reception was over. The exhibit, “Juggling Worlds,” continues through Nov. 14.
Not all Native American artists or arts institutions are so fortunate.
A lucky few Native artists are rich, very rich. Some others, who also count themselves as lucky, make a living as working artists. Most, however, struggle to make an occasional sale and live far below the poverty line.
Only a handful of Native people in the written, performing, music or film arts even make a living from their creative work. Private, state and federal arts funders are notoriously stingy about the numbers and amounts of grants, fellowships and support for Native people in any of the arts, and funding for Native arts education is almost non-existent.
Nearly all Native artists are dependent upon non-Native collectors, patrons and institutions for commissions and other support. Native people, businesses and nations are becoming collectors and supporters of Native arts, too, albeit much more slowly than the rate of growth of the Native economy and luxury class.
At the same time, Native artists are most generous in their donations to Native and non-Native groups for benefit auctions, raffles, posters, concerts, presentations and publications.
But Native artists often are disappointed when they look to Native nations and organizations for support.
There is a tribal casino in the Pacific Northwest that features two totem poles at its public entrance. Both are made by a white man. In a part of the world where Indian totem carvers abound and excel, it is nonsensical to give such an opportunity to a non-Indian copy artist over an expert in tribal arts and culture.
Beyond the professional insult, that decision took food away from the family of an Indian artist and precluded collaboration by tribal artists or involvement by children and other community members.
Many tribal leaders are being advised (usually by non-Indians they pay to opine on tribal philanthropy) to give money to socially acceptable and financially secure non-Indian arts projects, in order to gain non-Indian support for Indian gaming operations. The local symphony, ballet and other European cultural arts expressions may be deserving of support (the benefits and ethics of buying protection and social standing aside), but why should they be funded instead of Native artists and arts projects?
Native nations should subsidize Native plays, films, books and other artworks and promote them in Native cultural centers, galleries and shops, and use their political clout to get non-Natives to do the same.
Native nations also need to instruct their casino and tourist shops to get rid of the Indian kitsch and rubber tomahawk junk. Not only does this stuff reinforce the usual stereotypes that we are trying to stop, but the practice of Indians selling it plants a new image of us as mercenary and hypocritical.
It is long past time for all Indian and non-Indian venues, including federal museums and shops, to review their inventories and displays, clearly delineating between items that are made by Indians and those that are not. More than a nicety, it is a requirement of law to not palm off work by non-Indians as Indian-made. Part of promoting Native arts is not pushing work by pseudo-Natives.
Some Native nations recognize and reward their arts and culture experts as Cultural Treasures, Master Artists and Doctors of Wisdom, and insist that educational institutions and others accord appropriate respect for these designations and degrees. More Native nations should follow their lead.
Wealthy Native nations can help less prosperous ones by establishing and investing in Native artist communities and cooperatives in traditional and contemporary arts throughout Indian country. There are numerous successful models worldwide for single arts disciplines and for multi-discipline/cross-cultural artist communities, but only a very few Native American artists have been included in existing domestic or international artist communities.
There are some arts promotion activities that could make money for tribal economies. For example, Native nations could commission Native artists to create a series of commemorative stamps for sale internationally to collectors. Some small countries make a high percentage of their yearly income from collector editions of stamps.
Choctaw Nation could commission its master beadworker Marcus Amerman to produce a series of beaded portraits of great Choctaw leaders and events.
Muscogee (Creek) Nation could employ the talents of Kenneth Johnson and other fine Muscogee artists to present the ancient designs and symbology they are revitalizing in their artwork today.
Susanville Rancheria would have an extraordinary range of work from its fine art daughters Jean LaMarr and Judith Lowry.
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe would have years of stamps with original sculpture from the Houser/Haozous family alone.
Follow the Pojoaque path or blaze your own trail. Promoting and investing in the national Native arts economy is all part of nation building, and it’s all good.
Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, is president of the Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for Indian Country Today.
