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Description: Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South
In many countries throughout the Americas, movements of cultural recovery and restoration are taking form in the creation of historical districts, the establishment of nature conservancies, and the preservation of archaeological sites. Projects of cultural renewal are also encouraging the teaching of indigenous languages and customs in peril of extinction. The work of museums plays another role in this vital collective endeavor: at the Art Institute of Chicago, our special interest concerns …
Author
PublisherArt Institute of Chicago
PublisherYale University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00064.003
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Acknowledgments
In many countries throughout the Americas, movements of cultural recovery and restoration are taking form in the creation of historical districts, the establishment of nature conservancies, and the preservation of archaeological sites. Projects of cultural renewal are also encouraging the teaching of indigenous languages and customs in peril of extinction. The work of museums plays another role in this vital collective endeavor: at the Art Institute of Chicago, our special interest concerns the conservation, presentation, and interpretation of works of art of the highest quality, as expressive and symbolic forms embodying the ethos of many traditions. Our permanent collections and special exhibitions preserve basic visual documents in the history of the imagination, masterpieces of aesthetic achievement that also portray the deeper patterns of thought, values of life, and visions of human society in the cosmos. Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South seeks to approach the visual arts of early indigenous societies, to recover basic themes of the worldview they portray, and to trace ancient strands of perception and communication and their possible links to traditional life among Native American tribes today.
The appeal of these ancient arts first touched my imagination upon reading Miguel Covarrubias’s classic book The Eagle, the Jaguar, and the Serpent: Indian Art of the Americas in the 1950s as a young man in Guadalajara, Mexico. But it was not until the 1980s that the idea of a future exhibition began to germinate. The civil engineer and surveyor James Marshall had called my attention to the geometric enclosures of Ohio, and we began to commission updated site plans from his survey data, in a long-range project generously supported by Mary Carol Fee. Other museum projects and exhibitions claimed my attention, yet the notion of forming a major exhibition on the ancient Midwest and South gathered strength when, in the spring of 1999, art historian F. Kent Reilly III and archaeologist James A. Brown came to the Art Institute to discuss possible ideas and approaches. These scholars portrayed fresh and imaginative approaches to the field that were being explored in an annual workshop directed by Dr. Reilly at Texas State University. Their ideas have proved fundamental in shaping this project. Our first thanks therefore go to these early participants and supporters.
Our immediate perception was that an exhibition of national significance was really only conceivable in terms of partnerships with people committed to cultural preservation among the Native American communities. At this point anthropologist Garrick Bailey joined the conversation, and volunteered to open the prospect by inviting friends and acquaintances from Oklahoma tribes to meet with us and explore the issues involved in developing a meaningful project. We are deeply grateful for this enthusiastic offer, and for the generous and idealistic support of James N. Wood, former Director and President of the Art Institute, who advanced museum funds to hold a meeting at the University of Tulsa. At this gathering we reviewed earlier Art Institute exhibitions on the ancient arts of the Americas and discussed issues related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), as well as matters of political and cultural significance. The vast lack of knowledge about the early Midwest and South among the public and among the tribes was noted by many. It began to emerge that the project presented an opportunity to develop areas of positive communication and creative action among museum professionals, academic scholars, and tribal preservationists, and it was recommended that further steps be taken to explore these findings. We remain deeply grateful to all who helped shape the project’s inception: Martha Moore Barker (Quapaw/Osage); Turner and Joyce Bear (Creek); Ruthe Blalock Jones (Peoria/Delaware/Shawnee); Durbin Feeling (Cherokee); Stacey Halfmoon (Caddo); Marianne Long (Iowa); Frederick Morris Lookout (Osage); Cindy L. Martin (Choctaw); Archie (Osage/Cherokee) and Ramona Mason (Creek); Henrietta Massey (Sac & Fox); Sandra Kaye Massey (Sac & Fox); Dewayne Mathews (Cherokee/Chickasaw); Ardina Revard Moore (Quapaw/Osage); Anahwake Nahtanaba (Caddo/Choctaw/Chickasaw); Jereldine (Caddo/Potawatomi) and Charles Redcorn (Osage); Knokovtee Scott (Creek/Cherokee); Kevin Smith (Cherokee); Fayetta Glenn West (Choctaw); Olin Williams (Choctaw); and Carrie V. Wilson (Quapaw).
Encouraged by the meeting, we began a series of visits to various tribal headquarters to talk with chiefs, tribal councils, and cultural preservation officials, while also extending invitations and hosting them as visitors to the Art Institute, in order to confer with our director and staff members in the departments of Publications, Conservation, Protection Services, Museum Education, and African and Amerindian Art. These travels and visits continued over the next four years, enabling all participants to understand diverse cultural approaches, requirements, goals, and capabilities. Our special thanks for their valuable council, patience, and optimism go to Stacey Halfmoon and Bobby Gonzalez, NAGPRA Officers, and LaRue Martin Parker, Chairperson, Caddo Nation of Oklahoma; Carrie V. Wilson, NAGPRA Officer, and Tamara Martin, Chairperson, Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma; Joyce Bear, NAGPRA Officer, Turner Bear, Timmy Thompson, Cultural Advisor, A.D. Ellis, Principal Chief, R. Perry Beaver, former Principal Chief, William E. Freeman, Executive Director, Wilbur Gouge, Speaker, and Patricia Wind, Director, Division of Human Development, Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Tarpie Yargee, Principal Chief, and Bill Fife, Tribal Administrator, Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Wesley Lowell, Town Mekko, Delores Herrod, Cultural Preservation Officer, Melissa Harjo, Heritage and Cultural Director, and Corky Allen, Kialegee Tribal Town; Ellis Tillis, Chair, Gail Thrower, Historian-Cultural Preservation, and Robert Thrower, Department of Natural Resources, Poarch Band of Creek Indians; Brian McGertt, Town Mekko, and Charles Coleman, Cultural Preservation Officer, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town; Chad Smith, Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation; Bill Anoatubby, Governor, and Kirk Perry, Administrator, Division of Heritage Preservation, Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma; Gregory Pyle, Chief, Terry D. Cole, Director, and Fayetta Glenn West, Admission Counselor, Heritage Resources Technician, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; and Jerry Haney, Chief, Seminole Nation. Although the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes chose not to participate in the project, we were courteously received in their Anadarko, Oklahoma, headquarters by Garry MacAdams, President, Stratford D. Williams, Vice President, and Virgil Swift, NAGPRA Officer; and are also grateful to Kathryn Redcorn Lynn, Director, Osage Tribal Museum, Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
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Description: Two rectangular gorgets by Unknown
Two rectangular gorgets; Illinois, Brown County. Hemphill site, 1000–500 B.C.; quartz, l. 15.9, 14.9 cm; Cilcrease Museum, Tulsa. Oklahoma. Cat. no. 27.
With these visits in progress and the support of tribal authorities, we applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a planning grant to fund a conference at the Art Institute. The success of this application enabled us to convene a group of distinguished scholars, Native American cultural officials, and staff members from the museum in October 2001. The scholars were already participating in the annual workshop on ancient Mississippian art and culture at Texas State University. The innovative objective of this adventurous group was to explore art historical methods for the interpretation of the imagery as an opening field of inquiry. Their ideas were complemented by the cultural perspectives of the Native American participants, who described the effects of government boarding-school education, the repression of indigenous languages, the erosion and loss of traditional culture, and the urgency of preservation efforts. At this planning conference, museum staff members also portrayed the process of catalogue editing and production, the design and presentation of exhibitions, security measures, and the handling, transportation, and conservation of objects requested as loans. Our special thanks to all who contributed to the success of this planning conference go to Dr. Garrick Bailey, University of Tulsa; Turner and Joyce Bear, Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Ruthe Blalock Jones (Peoria/Delaware/Shawnee), Bacone College; Dr. James A. Brown, Northwestern University; Dr. Carol Diaz-Granados, Washington University; Dr. David H. Dye, University of Memphis; Stacey Halfmoon, Caddo Nation; Dr. Robert L. Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr. Adam King, University of South Carolina; Dr. Vernon J. Knight, Jr., University of Alabama; Dr. George E. Lankford, Lyon College; Dr. Bradley T. Lepper, Ohio Historical Society; James Marshall, registered professional engineer; Dr. David W. Penney, the Detroit Institute of Arts; Dr. F. Kent Reilly III, Texas State University; Stephanie Sick, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Dr. Mark F. Seeman, Kent State University; Dr. Vincas P. Steponaitis, University of North Carolina; Timmy Thompson, Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Chester P. Walker, University of Texas at Austin; and Carrie V. Wilson, Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma.
The third group to which we owe a special debt of gratitude are the curators, conservationists, and staff from museums, state archaeological parks, and national historical monuments who have generously lent the objects featured in this catalogue and exhibition: Dr. Richard A. Diehl, Director, Alabama Museum of Natural History; Dr. David Thomas, Curator, and Kristen Mable, Registrar, American Museum of Natural History; Dr. Barbara Sirmans, Director, and Yvonne Crumpler, Librarian, Special Collections, Birmingham Public Library; Dr. Jonathan King, Curator, North American Indian Collection, British Museum; Dr. Susan Kennedy Zeller, Assistant Curator, Arts of the Americas, Liz Reynolds, Registrar, Dottie Canady, Assistant Registrar, and Ruth Janson, Rights and Reproductions Manager, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Dr. David W. Penney, Curator, and Michelle S. Peplin, Associate Registrar, the Detroit Institute of Arts; Dr. Jonathan Haas, Curator, American Indian Collections, and Dorren Martin-Ross, Registrar, Department of Anthropology, the Field Museum; Lonice D. Barrett, Commissioner, Becky Kelley, Director, Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites Division, Linda W. Bitley, Curator of Collections, Lawrence Blankenship, Dr. Debbie Wallsmith, Dr. John Morgan, and Dr. David Crass, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, State Parks and Historic Sites; Dr. Randy Ramer, Curator of Anthropology, Dr. Daniel Swan, former Senior Curator, and Joan Thomas, Registrar, Gilcrease Museum; Bill Long, Museum Coordinator, Hampson Museum; Dr. Steven A. LeBlanc, Director of Collections, Genevieve Fisher, Registrar, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University; Dr. Terrance J. Martin, Curator of Anthropology, Illinois State Museum Research and Collections Center; Dr. Michael D. Wiant, Director, Dickson Mounds Museum, and Dr. Karen Poulson, Senior Staff Archaeologist/Cultural Resource Manager, Archaeological Research Inc.; Dr. Alex W. Barker, Curator of North American Archaeology and Chair, Milwaukee Public Museum; Quintus H. and Mary H. Herron, Founders, and Dr. Henry Moy, Director, Museum of the Red River; Dr. Deborah Edmond Scott, Chief Curator, and Julie Mattson, Associate Registrar for Loans and Exhibitions, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Dr. Martha Potter Otto, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio Historical Society; Susan M. Taylor, Director, and Maureen McCormick, Chief Registrar, Princeton University Art Museum; Brent R. Benjamin, Director, Dr. John Nunley, Curator, Department of African, Oceanic, and American Indian Art, and Jeanette Fausz, Registrar, Saint Louis Art Museum; Dr. Carol J. Valenta, Senior Vice President, and Melinda Frillman, Collections Manager, St. Louis Science Center; Superintendent Woody Harrell, Shiloh National Military Park; W. Richard West, Director, Dr. Bruce Bernstein, Assistant Director for Cultural Resources, and Erik Satrum, Assistant Registrar-Loans, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian; Dr. Cristían Samper, Director, Dr. Bruce D. Smith, Director, Archaeobiology Program, Deborah Hull-Walski, Collection Manager, Susan Crawford, Registrar, David Rosenthal, Museum Specialist/Archaeology, and Amy Putnam, Program Assistant, Collections & Archives Program, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History; Dr. Stephen Cox, Senior Curator, and Ronald M. Westphal, Registrar, Tennessee State Museum; Dr. Johnnie L. Gentry, Jr., Director, Dr. Michael Hoffman, Curator of Anthropology, and Mary Suter, Curator of Collections, University of Arkansas Museum; Dr. Thomas E. Emerson, Director, Dr. Laura Kozuch, Curator, and Dr. Kenneth B. Farnsworth, Senior Research Editor, Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dr. Jefferson Chapman, Director, Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee; Professor Mark S. Weil, Director, and Sara Rowe Hignite, Registrar, Washington University Gallery of Art; Dr. Richard Burger, Director and Professor of Anthropology, and Dr. Roger H. Colten, Collections Manager, Anthropology Division, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
Museums are not the only sources of important objects featured in this project. There are also many private lenders, who by enthusiastically explaining their collections to us, brought years of expertise to bear in the selection of works. Theirs has been an activity of searching for and selecting the finest pieces; and scholarship in this group is also not lacking, as seen in Dr. Kent Westbrook’s Legacy in Clay: Prehistoric Ceramic Art of Arkansas, Roy Hathcock’s The Quapaw and Their Pottery and Ancient Indian Pottery of the Mississippi River Valley, and David Lutz’s monumental The Archaic Bannerstone: Its Chronological History and Purpose from 6000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. Among the collectors to whom we owe special thanks are the Charles L. Adam Family, Missouri; Tommy Beutell, Tuckasegee, North Carolina; Tommy W. Bryden, Springfield, Illinois; James F. Cherry, M.D., Fayetteville, Arkansas; Arthur Cushman, M.D., Old Hickory, Tennessee; Steve and Susan Hart, Huntington, Indiana; Edward Harvey, Lompoc, California; Roy Hathcock, West Plains, Missouri; James and Elaine Kinker, Hermann, Missouri; David Lutz, Newburgh, Indiana; Terry W. McGuire, Chicago; Maury Meadows, Bethany, Missouri; Bobby Onken, Edwardsville, Illinois; Anthony Patano, Chicago; Jonnie and Kent C. Westbrook, M.D., Little Rock, Arkansas; the Willis Family, Tennessee; and an anonymous collector.
Other scholars contributed their expertise to the project in diverse ways, and we are especially grateful in this respect to Dr. Eugene M. Futato, University of Alabama Office of Archaeological Research; Dr. Timothy Perttula, Archaeological and Environmental Consultants, LLC; Dr. N’omi B. Greber, Curator of Archaeology and Supervisor of Archaeology Collections, Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Kelvin Sampson, Exhibits Department, Dickson Mounds Museum; Julie Droke, Registrar/Repatriations Specialist, and Dr. Don Wyckoff, Associate Curator, Archaeology, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma; Dr. Barbara Purdy, University of Florida; Dr. Mark Norton, Pinson Mounds; Dr. Steve Black, Dr. Darrell Creel, T. Clay Schultz, Dr. Dee Ann Story, Dr. Pauline Turner Strong, and Dr. Samuel Wilson, University of Texas. We thank Melinda Blustain and Dr. James Bradley for their effort on our behalf, although the Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, decided against lending objects from Etowah to the exhibition.
New photographs were needed for almost every object in this catalogue, and we must express our admiration and thanks for their excellent work to John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler, New York City; Dr. David H. Dye, Memphis, who also took admirable views of Cahokia, Moundville, and Etowah; John Pafford, Eva, Tennessee; and Robert Hashimoto of the Art Institute’s Imaging Department. Special thanks also go to Ann S. Merritt, Chicago, for the preparation of maps.
It is especially important to note our appreciation to funders without whose major support the exhibition and this book would have been impossible: the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Boeing Company, the Community Associates of the Art Institute, and the Thaw Charitable Trust. The exhibition and catalogue proposals could never have been successfully prepared without the highly competent and purposeful help of Karin Victoria, Emilie DeAngelis, and Jennifer Hamilton of the museum’s Department of Government and Foundation Relations. I am also extremely grateful to Lisa Key, Vice President for Development, and to Amy K. Radick of the museum’s Corporate and Foundations Relations office.
Also at the Art Institute, my special thanks go to the exceptional staff of our Publications Department under Susan F. Rossen, Executive Director. Taking an extraordinary interest in this subject, Associate Director Robert V. Sharp was inspired to read extensively in the field and to travel to relevant sites and collections. This more than prepared him to coordinate and edit the contributions of our nineteen authors. His impressive knowledge proved invaluable to the shaping of this book from the overarching issues to the smallest details. I am deeply grateful to him and to those colleagues who assisted him: Sarah E. Guernsey, who applied the highest standards in overseeing this book’s production; Annie Feldmeier, who coordinated the photo editing with patience and care, assisted by Shaun Manning; and Lisa Meyerowitz, who ably assisted in the demanding editorial process. Thanks also to Gigi Bayliss and Elizabeth Reese Baloutine for their drawings; to Jeff Wincapaw of Marquand Books for his elegant book design; to the staff of Mapping Specialists in Madison, Wisconsin; and to Pat Goley of Professional Graphics, Rockford, Illinois. We are also grateful for the support of our copublishers at Yale University Press. We are delighted with the original watercolors of five major archaeological sites by Steven Patricia, and are grateful for plans of many other sites by James Marshall and Tom Goeke. In our Department of Conservation, Barbara Hall, Suzanne Schnepp, and Emily Dunn Heye brought their highest skills to the inspection and care of objects on loan from many sources. Nenette Luarca, Leah Bowe, and R. Maria Marable-Bunch of the Museum Education Department traveled to Oklahoma to work with educators from many tribes in preparing our school educational booklet and materials; the creation of this illustrated text for wide distribution in schools and community centers is one of our most important project achievements. Mary Sue Glosser also imaginatively organized presentations by notable Native American authors and artists during the exhibition in Chicago. Julia Perkins ably assisted with her customary good humor, optimism, and idealism in the early stages of this project, as did Clare Kunny. Essential audience evaluations and focus group meetings were skillfully conducted by Judith Krajnak. We also owe heartfelt thanks to the experienced financial management and advice brought to bear throughout our preparations by Dorothy Schroeder, Assistant Director for Exhibitions and Budget. Due to the bottomless patience and long experience of Mary Solt, Darrell Green, John Molini, and the Packing Staff, and of Craig Cox and the Installation Staff of the Registrar’s Department, arrangements were made for the safe transport and presentation of the works of art. Our special thanks for excellent design go to Lyn DelliQuadri, Joe Cochand, and the staff of Graphic Design and Communication Services. To Eileen Harakal, Vice President for Audience Development and Public Affairs, and her staff; to Ray Van Hook, Executive Director of Protection Services, and his staff; and to William D. Caddick, Director of Physical Plant, and his staff, we also express our very warm thanks. Our audiovisual staff member Jim Currie traveled to Oklahoma to obtain camera interviews, festival scenes, and other film footage, working with Bill Foster to produce a vital exhibition video.
In our Department of African and Amerindian Art, I wish to thank Dr. Kathleen Bickford Berzock, whose sound advice has been invariably supportive; Barbara Battaglia, who has managed the office and so ably attended to its myriad and exacting tasks, including typing of manuscripts, organizing and meticulous ordering of files, reminders of appointments, general efficiency, and invariable courtesy with the many who have worked with us during the past five years on this project; Chester P. Walker, Special Projects Exhibition Assistant, who brought special knowledge and skills as a doctoral candidate in archaeology to bear in organizing the diverse information required for this complex project; and Raymond Ramirez, Departmental Specialist, who patiently and with inexhaustible good humor and admirable foresight oversaw the demanding process of installing and deinstalling the exhibition.
Finally, I especially wish to thank my wife, Pala, for all her invaluable artistic insight, encouragement, and unyielding support in Chicago and on our various travels in quest of the ancient Midwest and South.
Richard F. Townsend, Curator
Department of African and Amerindian Art
Acknowledgments
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