Shirley Sneve
ICT
For summer tourists to the southwestern South Dakota, the 58th Red Cloud Art Show is worth the trip to Pine Ridge. Just north of the city limits, the Chatku Arts Center is the showcase of the campus of Mahkpiya Luta Owayawa, formerly known as Red Cloud Indian School.
Tawa Ducheneaux, Cherokee, is a longtime resident of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, serving as the archivist for Oglala Lakota College for many years. This year’s Red Cloud Art Show is the largest to date.
“We have 220 pieces, by 93 artists. The show opened the first Saturday in June.” Ducheneaux said.
It closes August 9, just ahead of the Santa Fe Indian Market, which attracts some of these Northern Plains artists.
June 6 was also move-in day to the new facility, which was two decades in the making.
“This new space has been at least 20 years in the making, in terms of discussions and planning.” Ducheneaux said the collection outgrew its space. “As collections grew to where we are now, with between 12 and 13,000 pieces in our permanent collection, they were not living in an adequate environment. We were in the historic building called Drexel Hall, which is the three story brick building on campus, constructed in 1888. We were caring for our collections to the best of our abilities–in nooks and crannies and closets. It was a fairly stable environment, but not ideal for long term preservation.”
The Center fully embraces Lakota philosophy and views the items in the collection as “relatives.”
“We view all of our pieces as living beings. In this new space, we have a beautiful compact storage space that we are able to house everything in. So all the relatives, in a sense, are in one big room together.” Ducheneaux said.
The name, Chatku Arts Center, was chosen through an extensive community engagement. “Chatku” refers to a place of honor in the Lakota language. In fact, everything in the Arts Center is in Lakota and English.
“Chatku refers to a place of honor for the art we caretake in a space that uplifts and recognizes Native artists and their contributions as cultural bearers, historians and storytellers of our communities.” is part of signage that introduces the public to the space.
“We spent about four months discussing what would be our new name, what would better define who we are and what we aspire to do. Chatku represents a place of honor, seat of honor, whether that be at a camp, or in a lodge at a gathering to discuss and work together. But we also see it as representative of protocol. So it’s ideally how we want to attempt to care for collections.” Ducheneaux said.
While the focus is contemporary art, the collection has a number of historic artworks.
“We have a strong desire to make sure that we care for and honor these works in the very best way we can,” Ducheneaux added. “Everyone who walks in our door, whether that is someone who’s never been to Pine Ridge before, a community member or an artist, that they feel that sense of honor and respect from all of us, and from the feeling that they feel in this space.”
All of the pieces in the Red Cloud Art Show are for sale.
“While this is the only show of the year that supports artists to sell their works, the inception of the gift shop, which began to emerge in the late 1980s has grown.” Now all of it is also for sale online. “Whether that be a sticker, t-shirt, Parfleche, quill work or beadwork–all of those pieces are purchased directly from artists on the spot with a low markup. Artists understand what it means for us to be able to say we’re an economic engine for the community. We support anywhere from 250 to 300 families a year on a regular basis. We’re really proud of that relationship that we have in the community.
It began as the Heritage Center at Holy Rosary Mission in the 1960s. The mission was founded by Jesuits in 1888. Brother C.M. Simon S.J.was instrumental in creating the annual art show, as well as the Heritage Center. He died in 2006, but his dream of economic and spiritual growth for the Oglala Lakota nation lives on.
In a 1990 interview, he said people can’t be saved when they’re hungry.
“First, you have to get them fed. Then you can get them educated. Then you can worry about saving souls,” he said at the time.
The Chatku Arts Center is located at 100 Mission Drive, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, on Highway 18. It’s open Mondays through Saturdays in the summer from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays it’s open from 1 to 5 p.m.
