Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
The latest: Pottery as old as the pyramids, free-form jazz merges with tribal tales, and a hand-poke tattoo traditionalist writes a book about her art.
ART: Oldest ceramic tradition featured in new exhibit
Pottery by the Catawba tribe, a unique creation that has evolved in complexity, is currently spotlighted at the Native American Studies Center the University of South Carolina in Lancaster.
The 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, established in 2012, bridges art, archaeology, archives, rare film, folklore, history, and language – and includes the largest single collection of Catawba pottery in existence.
Made by hand-coiling clay that is mixed with Spanish moss, rubbed with smooth stones then fired directly in burning wood pits, the result is an ombre mixture of cream, brown and black. The firing process is precarious because in the pit there is a higher chance of uneven temperatures that cause the pottery to crack or break apart.
“Catawba pottery is the oldest continuous ceramics tradition in North America,” Stephen Criswell, director of Native American Studies and a professor of English and folklore at USC Lancaster told ICT.
“Our late archivist, Brent Burgin, once observed that when the Egyptians were building the pyramids, Catawbas were making pottery. I would add to that when the Magna Carta was signed, when the Revolutionary War and the Civil War broke out, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and probably last week, Catawbas were making pottery.”
The exhibit has exquisite examples along with wall murals and vintage footage of the Catawba people from the early 1900s. Animal shapes of horses, owls, foxes and other regional woodland creatures make their way into the vessels along with regal looking human heads.
“Catawba Indian pottery, while less familiar than its Southwestern counterparts and many other traditional American Indian art forms, is recognized by scholars and collectors as a tradition which often features, paradoxically, strict adherence to tradition and vibrant creativity and innovation,” Criswell said.
“It is an art form that reflects history and heritage, but at the same time offers the best of potters a vehicle for expressing their own individual talents and creativity.”
While the number of Catawba potters is small, around 3,300, he said, “the vitality, quality, and the cultural and historical significance of their work deserve greater public recognition.”
The majority of Catawba now live on or near the Catawba Reservation on the banks of the Catawba River near Rock Hill, South Carolina. Their name means “people of the river.”
MUSIC: Wild jazz meets traditional hymns
A new album, “Sweet Tooth,” from Wabanaki artist Mali Obomsawin combines field recordings, old hymns, stories and Indigenous jazz for a traditional but innovative musical response to colonialism.
Written as a compositional suite, the album blends Wabanaki stories and songs that were passed down in Obomsawin’s family. Field recordings of her relatives at Odanak First Nation tell a larger story of the Wabanaki people, in three movements.
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“Telling Indigenous stories through the language of jazz is not a new phenomenon,” Obomsawin said in a statement. “My people have had to innovate endlessly to get our stories heard – learning to express ourselves in French, English, Abenaki… but sometimes words fail us, and we must use sound. ‘Sweet Tooth’ is a testament to this.”
Her first single, “Odana“, is meditative and mellow.
The second single, “Wawasint8da is a fascinating take on a 17th century Jesuit hymn in Native communities about the “Harrowing of Hell,” an apocryphal story of Jesus traveling to hell to save non-believers. Eerie and free form, it owes much to 1950s experimental jazz with a video set in a church.
BOOK: Model tattoo artist inks identity
A show-stopping sight at Indigenous fashion shows in Santa Fe and Paris, Stephanie Big Eagle, Lakota Sioux, has an unusual look with her long dark hair, big eyes and distinctive facial tattoos.
And now her career as a traditional hand-poke tattoo artist has taken off with the publication of her book, “Thunderbird Rising.”
Her interest in hand-poke tattoos started as a child when she was “kept separated from my Indigenous culture and taught to be ashamed of that side of myself,” she told ICT.
“Despite this, I started my reconnection journey in my early 20s, after my relatives from my Dakota/Lakota side started to appear in my dreams in the form of wonderful and loving visits from an elder,” she said. “These dreams … jump-started my reconnection journey.”
She focused on traditional tattooing, and during a trip to Aotearoa, the Māori word for New Zealand, she met with a ta moko artist to have traditional tattoos placed on her.
She posted her new tattoos online and the positive feedback led her to train with a Los Angeles artist to learn the hand-poke tattoo method. She started her own studio, Thunderbird Rising, in Indianapolis in 2021.
“The hand poke tattoo method is one of the most ancient methods of tattooing in the world,” she says. “It dates back to at least 3,620 years ago, a powerful indication of the history of tattooing that existed in North America far before the era of colonization. Traditional tattoos tell the story of one’s physical, spiritual, cultural, and ancestral identity. You used to be able to look at a person (pre-colonization era) and know what tribe or clan they belonged to, their status within the tribe, their accomplishments, and more simply by looking at their tattoos.”
She says that “colonization stripped most tribes in North America of their tattooing history, forbid its practice, and made those with tattoos a target, particularly those with facial tattoos. Chiefs, spiritual leaders, matriarchs, highly-accomplished warriors, were the most-tattooed, especially on the face.”
She brings her personal journey with hand-poke tattooing to her new book.
“I learned the hard way about how powerful the tradition is, and why a traditional tattoo artist must dedicate themselves to a ceremonial lifestyle to maintain the spiritual power needed to channel and tattoo the designs that are meant for each unique person that comes before them,” she said.
“We have the opportunity now to revitalize an essential part of Indigenous history and culture, and to break down the negative stereotypes associated with tattooing, particularly facial tattooing. Tattooing is at the core of most Indigenous Nations, and modern-day hand poke tattooing by Indigenous artists helps us to start telling our stories and sharing our identity in the same way our ancestors did so that we can reconnect, empower our Nations, and start putting the pieces back together of our own histories.”
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