Reconsider Columbus Day Video & Time Magazine Photos

         The Reconsider Columbus Day video was first presented to this class as part of the reasons for the development of "Welcome To Native America" Project. The message of the video is to reconsider Columbus Day, and petition for a nationally recognized Indigenous Holiday. Again, this is an example of a mutual feeling that there hasn't been enough recognition and respect by government authorities or educational institutions of the first indigenous people before the arrival of Columbus, a part of history that has been tried to be overlooked or erased.

          Part of the message says "...It happened a long time ago. But remaining neutral? And pretending like it didn't happened? Or that it doesn't still impact us today?..." delivers their strong beliefs that this first step in America's history (Not just the United States) had a complete impact on its future and peoples.

Such impacts for example is the lack of federal funding in Native reservations in the state of Montana for example, for educational programs in high schools, adequate medical hospitals, job opportunities, and other important neglects. 

Time Magazine's website illustrates these problems through a photo series, a photo reads:

"Richard Littlebird is a 47-year-old freshman at the college. Inspired by the possibilities of education, he has enrolled in the school in spite of his age and two children. Though he is unsure of what career path he will follow, he vows to come back to the reservation and try to improve life there." It may be safe to say that if there is a lack of recognition in the history of Native people in the past and how we were treated, then until this day there is still a lack of recognition in the present into what are the things we need. Whether its in the U.S or other countries that still have Native American populations in their own backyard.

Take the time to see Time's Magazine's Photos here:

Montana Tribal College

Take the time to see Reconsider Columbus Day video here:

Reconsider Columbus Day

Compassion Assignment: "Empathy Virus" Analysis

Carl Scrase, creator of the "Empathy Virus" is an artist who "People kept telling [him] that art can't change the world; so [he] stopped calling what [he did] art...". It seems that Carl has passed through the same topics of what can be considered art.  According to the sample photos of his work, he seems to replicate what viruses look like or how they seems to make people feel. His personal project has evolved into a collaborative one because of simple reasons such as not wanting to work alone, and making his projects grow into something bigger. He is interested in working with other artists to gain a broader perspective, where he is currently working, in Australia, it seems they can gain more recognition as a whole than individually.
I am on the same process of making my personal project evolve into working with other older and more experienced teachers, the three maps uploaded before were actually given to me by a professor who works with SUNY. I will meet other individuals who seem to have an interest i my project, and work on it to attract a broader audience.

5 Word In Class Assignment

My partner for this assignment was Michael, he worked on words that responded to him based on what he had seen so far of my developing project. His words were:

• Cultural
• Insightful
• Maintain
• Significant
• Dignity
• Pride
• Sacred
• Mindful

        The word that I finally decided to work with was "Pride". At the beginning of this project that started several months ago, it initiated as an educational piece. A map that would illustrate all the Native American indigenous people that existed throughout the Americas before the 15th century, not just modern day "The United States of America". I thought it was important to have a visual representation of such information inside a store where there are different hand made artworks from diverse indigenous backgrounds. The setting of such store with Native crafts, jewelry, ceramics, and clothing always lent itself with a similar question by customers such as: "These products are all hand made from real Native American people right? Not like from Mexico or Peru?" The map became a form of response or solution to these similar questions that were basically asked on a daily basis. 

        "Pride" comes to mind because it reminded me of my initial response to these remarks or questions. This project is a very intimate and personal one, perhaps it was my "pride" that unconsciously drove me to educate myself about all the Native people that I could find information about. Unfortunately,  the media in the United States or Europe has taught people how to think about Native American people in a very stereotypical way, a narrow view on where they are from, how they dress, what languages they should speak, what they look like or even how they live. 

          Charles C. Mann, author of the book 1491 "New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus", wrote the following:

"For almost five centuries, Holmberg's Mistake--the supposition that Native Americans lived in an eternal, unhistoried state--held sway in scholarly work, and from there fanned out to high school textbooks, hollywood movies, newspaper articles, environmental campaigns, romantic adventure books, and silk screened t-shirts. It existed in many forms and was embraced both by those who hated Indians and those who admired them. Holmberg's Mistake explained the colonists' view of most Indians as incurably vicious barbarians; its mirror image was the dreamy stereotype of the Indian as a Noble Savage..."

           The term "Pride" is a simple but personally complex term for my project because its what partially drives the evolution of my work. It seems important to me to educate those who wish to learn, but I myself have to learn where I came from, and where we are going as a proud cultural indigenous nation.

Map References

I've found these maps, they are all different in terms of showing which Native American Nations existed before. They all have something unique, I will explain in class how I wish to combine these three maps into my project and its evolution.

Artists References: Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Diego Rivera,Oswaldo Guayasamin

For my thinking process, I thought it would be important to find what other visual artist have said about  Native American history and its people. This would help me clarify my thoughts and help me create a more personal message, a more intimate point of view. I thought it would be interesting to see what other artists from North, Central, and South America have said. I came across artists such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Diego Rivera,Oswaldo Guayasamin.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is a Native artist from the Flathead Nation in the U.S. Diego Rivera was a Mexican Muralist artist who was married to Frida Kahlo. Oswaldo Guayasamin was an Ecuadorian painter from parents of Quichua descent. 

Personal Questions:

“What are other visual artists saying about the history of Native American indigenous people? How are they exploring it and how are they executing it through their artwork?

Sample Work:

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

State Names

Diego Rivera

History of Mexico,

From the Conquest to the Present Day (detail) 

Oswaldo Guayasamin

These three different artists from three different continents have different artistic styles and forms of execution. However, their history relate to the same events of the past, and somehow are all talking about the same negative effects that colonization had on Native people and their future descendants.

Online Research Tools: Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian is an interesting website that involves and relates to the idea I had about my project eventually developing into an online website. This is an amazing source of information for me because it includes information about all the Native people by regions. Including textual information on geographical locations, and even sample of artwork by region; such as the Natives from the Southwest, the Andes, the Amazon and others.  

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian include this map on their website because it explains the Americas geographically, showing the vast differences in terrestrial conditions. This of course has an affect on architectural, agricultural, and cultural differences.  This is something I would like to further explore for my project. On the bottom of this post there is a link to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian website. Feel free to check it out.

Infinity of Nations- Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

The Evoluiton of "Welcome to Native America" Draft 1

My project will continue evolving as I continue to complete research from a variety of maps I have come across by other artists. For the most part I believe the project would first have to develop as much as it can from a Print medium, I would eventually like to create a website that Illustrates all the tribes in one place. Perhaps open links to all these cultures and photographs, and information of their current status or if they still even exist.

As part of my thinking process this is my 1st draft to condensing my idea into a one sentence thesis concept.

“Welcome to Native America” is a socio-political commentary for the initial purpose of cultural & personal identity, but to also gain recognition about the large populations of Native indigenous people throughout the Americas.

Welcome To Native America Map

My personal project "Welcome to Native America" is a map I made for the simple reason of wanting to learn more of the Native American populations before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. According to a variety of text and literary sources I have come across, the populations in Pre-Columbian "Abya Yala" (Now known as the Americas) could have reached as many as 100 million people. To the viewer I ask the question "How Many Are Left Today?" Do you know?