Post by Okwes on May 1, 2006 18:18:22 GMT -5
War and Remembrance
War and RemembranceAn Indian artist's traditional tribute honors Native
American soldiers who served in Vietnam
By Owen Edwards
Related links
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php#related>
www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php>
After the Indian Wars ended on the Great Plains and in the Black Hills
at the end of the 19th century, tribal nations were dispersed, uprooted
or confined to reservations, sovereign in name but severed from
tradition. In that long twilight, the battle feats of the Oglala,
Apache, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Crow and scores of other tribes were
memorialized in their lore, as well as in what are known as honoring
songs. And in art.
The Plains Indians painted memorials to battles on their tepees, some of
which were recorded in photographs made by the likes of Frank Fiske and
Edward Curtis. But as nomadic life gave way to settlements, and
remembrances and memorials dwindled, Indians donned uniforms as soldiers
in America’s wars. Though the Navajo code talkers of World War II
may be the most storied, Native Americans have served with distinction
in all of America’s overseas conflicts.
As a child in the 1950s, artist Emil Her Many Horses, today a curator at
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, saw a
photograph of a Plains Indian tepee, its flaps painted to resemble an
American flag. “For me, it depicted this new role of Indian
warriors in the military,†he recalls. “It inspired me to
do something more contemporary, dedicated to the Native American
veterans of the Vietnam War.â€
In 2001, Her Many Horses, an artist trained both in traditional beadwork
and in doll-making, began the creation of a commemorative tableau
featuring miniature figures of Vietnam-era veterans and the tribal women
who welcomed them home with ceremonies. Even today, these rituals are
not much changed from the days when warriors returned from the Little
Big Horn.
Her Many Horses, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, began attending tribal powwows as a boy. He
admired the hand-adorned outfits worn by tribal dancers, but since he
couldn’t afford to buy these traditional garments, he decided to
make his own. As a teenager, he studied on South Dakota’s Rosebud
Sioux Reservation with renowned bead artist Alice Fish, as well as with
other women whose work she influenced. From them, he learned the
geometric patterns and colors that typify the distinctive style of
Rosebud artists. “Fortunately, these ladies tolerated me,â€
he says, smiling.
It was around this time, in the mid-1960s, that Indian soldiers began
returning from tours of duty in Vietnam to be met by honoring
ceremonies. Charles Pablo, a veteran who lived up to his Indian name,
Takuni Kokipe Sni (Afraid of Nothing), was Her Many Horses’
uncle; Pablo completed three tours in Vietnam. Several decades later, in
2001, the artist drew on memories of Pablo, who died in 1994, when he
created a tableau using animal hide and glass beads that included eight
11-inch-tall dolls and a 30-inch-tall tepee decorated with miniature
helicopters. Her Many Horses incorporated the aircraft because, he says,
“I’ve been told that Vietnam was called the helicopter
war.â€
The artist showed the work for the first time the following year, at the
Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Though it
won first place, the reactions that meant the most to him, he says, were
those he witnessed from visitors to the exhibition. One man returned
repeatedly to look at the dolls. He finally revealed that he was a
Korean War veteran, allowing that to stand as sufficient reason for his
intense contemplation of the work.
Later that year, Her Many Horses’ colleagues at the American
Indian Museum suggested that the tableau should be included in the
permanent collection as a contemporary example of an art form that dates
back hundreds of years. “I’m 51, so I didn’t go to
Vietnam,†he says. “To have a scene of valor painted on
the side of your tepee, you had to have served and done battle.â€
With his tableau, the artist has created an enduring variation on the
traditional honoring ceremony.
War and RemembranceAn Indian artist's traditional tribute honors Native
American soldiers who served in Vietnam
By Owen Edwards
Related links
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php#related>
www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/may/object.php>
After the Indian Wars ended on the Great Plains and in the Black Hills
at the end of the 19th century, tribal nations were dispersed, uprooted
or confined to reservations, sovereign in name but severed from
tradition. In that long twilight, the battle feats of the Oglala,
Apache, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Crow and scores of other tribes were
memorialized in their lore, as well as in what are known as honoring
songs. And in art.
The Plains Indians painted memorials to battles on their tepees, some of
which were recorded in photographs made by the likes of Frank Fiske and
Edward Curtis. But as nomadic life gave way to settlements, and
remembrances and memorials dwindled, Indians donned uniforms as soldiers
in America’s wars. Though the Navajo code talkers of World War II
may be the most storied, Native Americans have served with distinction
in all of America’s overseas conflicts.
As a child in the 1950s, artist Emil Her Many Horses, today a curator at
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, saw a
photograph of a Plains Indian tepee, its flaps painted to resemble an
American flag. “For me, it depicted this new role of Indian
warriors in the military,†he recalls. “It inspired me to
do something more contemporary, dedicated to the Native American
veterans of the Vietnam War.â€
In 2001, Her Many Horses, an artist trained both in traditional beadwork
and in doll-making, began the creation of a commemorative tableau
featuring miniature figures of Vietnam-era veterans and the tribal women
who welcomed them home with ceremonies. Even today, these rituals are
not much changed from the days when warriors returned from the Little
Big Horn.
Her Many Horses, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota, began attending tribal powwows as a boy. He
admired the hand-adorned outfits worn by tribal dancers, but since he
couldn’t afford to buy these traditional garments, he decided to
make his own. As a teenager, he studied on South Dakota’s Rosebud
Sioux Reservation with renowned bead artist Alice Fish, as well as with
other women whose work she influenced. From them, he learned the
geometric patterns and colors that typify the distinctive style of
Rosebud artists. “Fortunately, these ladies tolerated me,â€
he says, smiling.
It was around this time, in the mid-1960s, that Indian soldiers began
returning from tours of duty in Vietnam to be met by honoring
ceremonies. Charles Pablo, a veteran who lived up to his Indian name,
Takuni Kokipe Sni (Afraid of Nothing), was Her Many Horses’
uncle; Pablo completed three tours in Vietnam. Several decades later, in
2001, the artist drew on memories of Pablo, who died in 1994, when he
created a tableau using animal hide and glass beads that included eight
11-inch-tall dolls and a 30-inch-tall tepee decorated with miniature
helicopters. Her Many Horses incorporated the aircraft because, he says,
“I’ve been told that Vietnam was called the helicopter
war.â€
The artist showed the work for the first time the following year, at the
Northern Plains Tribal Arts Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Though it
won first place, the reactions that meant the most to him, he says, were
those he witnessed from visitors to the exhibition. One man returned
repeatedly to look at the dolls. He finally revealed that he was a
Korean War veteran, allowing that to stand as sufficient reason for his
intense contemplation of the work.
Later that year, Her Many Horses’ colleagues at the American
Indian Museum suggested that the tableau should be included in the
permanent collection as a contemporary example of an art form that dates
back hundreds of years. “I’m 51, so I didn’t go to
Vietnam,†he says. “To have a scene of valor painted on
the side of your tepee, you had to have served and done battle.â€
With his tableau, the artist has created an enduring variation on the
traditional honoring ceremony.