The late T.C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo) attended the IAIA after completing a tour of duty in Viet Nam. Cannon’s art is a visual expression of his attempt to reconcile his military service with his Indian upbringing in Oklahoma. A student of the legendary Native artist Fritz Shoulder, Cannon was an accomplished printmaker who explored the contradictions inherent in Indian identity by using contemporary backgrounds for historical figures. A writer of poetry and an admirer of Bob Dylan, Cannon remains one of the IAIA’s most revered students.
In 2019, a major retrospective of Cannon’s work was mounted by the National Museum of The American Indian. The show, titled At the Edge of America, was heralded by the New York Times, and called Cannon “one of the most influential, innovative, and talented Native American artists of the 20th -century.” The Muscarelle is pleased to share four works by T.C. Cannon; none have been exhibited at the museum previously.
T.C. CANNON
American (Kiowa/Caddo), 1946 – 1978
Big Soldier, 1973
Linocut on paper, 7/15
© Joyce Cannon Yi
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment
2012.033
Cannon’s linocut, Big Soldier, presents a powerful image of a Plains Indian warrior from the late 19th century. A large “X” likely represents the warrior’s mark, in place of a signature on a document. Examples of similar markings can be seen on historic treaty documents from that era. A closer look at the buttons on Big Soldier’s vest reveals that the warrior has an association with the U.S. Army. Cannon’s signature design element, shirt sleeves decorated with circles, brings the viewer back to the 1970s. In this masterful image, Cannon reflects on Native warriors who were allies of the American military during the Plains Wars. Cannon may be reflecting on his own U.S. military service in Viet Nam during 1967 – 1968, for which he earned two bronze stars.
T.C. CANNON
American (Kiowa/Caddo), 1946 – 1978
Self-portrait, 1970
Blue ink on paper
© Joyce Cannon Yi
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Julian W. Fore Muscarelle Endowment
2016.227
Cannon’s whimsical self-portrait depicts a youthful artist wearing the aviator-style glasses popular in the 1970s.
T.C. CANNON
American (Kiowa/Caddo), 1946 – 1978
Kiowa, n.d.
Pencil on paper
© Joyce Cannon Yi
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment
2016.228
In his pencil sketch, Kiowa Cannon once again combines contemporary elements with those from the past. However, here the artist’s use of two feathers, signifying honor, strength and success in battle, may be an homage to the logo of the American Indian Movement.
T.C. CANNON
American (Kiowa/Caddo), 1946 – 1978
Turn of the Century Dandy, 1982
Woodblock print, A/P I
© Joyce Cannon Yi
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment
2012.032
This is one of Cannon’s most iconic works. In the Turn of the Century Dandy, the central figure
stands tall against the vivid blue Oklahoma sky, resplendent in Native finery. The term “dandy”
was used in the 18th and 19th centuries to denote a male who placed a great deal of attention on
his clothing and physical appearance. We do not know if Cannon had a particular person in
mind when he created this image; but the pride and confidence displayed by this American
Indian dandy is unmistakable.
This woodblock print was created in partnership with two Japanese artists, woodcutter Maeda
and printer Uchikawa, to print a series of Cannon’s images. However, Cannon’s untimely death
retitled the project a Memorial Suite. This print is signed by Walter Cannon, T.C.’s father, on
behalf of his son.
An enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Julie Buffalohead was born in Minneapolis in 1972 during the intense years of AIM’s activism. A graduate of the Minnesota Institute of Art, she has exhibited her artwork at a number of museums, including the IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe. Known for her traditional use of animal imagery to tell stories, Buffalohead’s visual narratives invite the viewer to enter an indigenous space where animals have mystical power and agency and as a result the entanglements of chaos and life are explored.
JULIE BUFFALOHEAD
American (Ponca), born 1972
Unravel, 2014
Lithograph on Kozo Shi wove paper, 7/8
© Julie Buffalohead
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment
2017.002
Tom Poolaw, grandson of the famous Kiowa photographer, Horace Poolaw, is referencing the tipi painting traditions of his ancestors in this work. The Kiowa were known for decorating the exteriors of their tipis with the war deeds and personal history of the family who resided inside. At the close of the 19th century, anthropologists asked tribal artists to make miniature replicas of Kiowa tipis for museum collections.
THOMAS POOLAW
American (Kiowa/Delaware), born 1959
Autobiograffitipi, 1993
Acrylic on canvas
© Thomas L. Poolaw
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Purchase, Muscarelle Museum of Art Associates
2012.001
Look closely and you will see the canvas is a flattened miniature tipi. Here, Poolaw has updated the traditional Kiowa practice by decorating his autobiographical tipi with The Mont, a favorite restaurant of his, basketball scores and personal moments, such as the birth of this daughter.
Quick-to-See Smith’s combination of abstract elements and representational imagery communicate her connectedness to generations of both the past and those generations to come. An accomplished artist, Quick-to-See Smith’s work consistently addresses the differing perspectives between American Indians and Euro-Americans on the natural environment, history and the construction of community. Acknowledging and celebrating the received wisdom of ancestors, this work declares that the transmission of indigenous knowledge is possible, if we are willing to listen.
JAUNE QUICK-TO-SEE SMITH
American Indian, born 1940
The Ancestors Speak of Death and Laughter , 2003
Charcoal and pencil
© Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York Muscarelle Museum of Art
Purchase, Gene A. and Mary A. Burns Art Acquisitions Fund, Julian W. Fore Muscarelle Endowment, and Vinyard Acquisitions and Conservation Endowment
2008.201
Andy Warhol’s interest in the iconography in the American West is evident in these two images. Blending western subjects with his signature contemporary style, Warhol depicts Sitting Bull, an historic figure, and Russell Means, a contemporary charismatic figure of the artist’s day. Warhol invites us to come face-to-face with difficult episodes of American history by reflecting his images of these two Indian warriors.
ANDY WARHOL
American, 1928 – 1987
Russell Means, 1976
Offset lithograph, signed poster
© 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Gift of Michael V. Smith
SC-001-2009
The offset lithograph of Russell Means was created for Warhol’s The American Indian series, with financing from Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. The choice of Means, a founding member of the American Indian Movement, speaks to the Warhol’s support for the Red Power activism of the 1970s.
ANDY WARHOL
American, 1928 – 1987
Cowboys and Indians (Sitting Bull), 1986
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
© 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. 2014.006
The Sitting Bull image is an “extra” out of the Cowboys and Indians Series, from 1986. Sitting Bull (Tatnka-Iyotanka), a Hunkpapa Sioux spiritual leader, was present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, where Lt Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry under his command lost their lives. Sitting Bull fled to Canada after the battle but returned to the United States and surrendered in 1881. Orlando Goff photographed the Native leader in a frontier studio in North Dakota, capturing the man’s dignity and strength. Warhol drew on Goff’s original black and white photograph of Sitting Bull in making his print. However, Warhol imbued the image with color and spiritual power.
The desert background in Cara Romero’s deeply engaging digital photograph, TV Indians, is the real homeland of the artist’s Chemehuevi community. Her composition permits us to engage with the landscape in an intimate manner, while the artist’s friends and family members, wearing traditional Chemehuevi cultural clothing, stand in opposition to portrayals of Native people on the television screens set up behind them. Romero’s photograph forcefully challenges the stereotypes of Indian people who reside in the imagination of the non-Indian public as creations of Hollywood.
CARA ROMERO
American (Chemehuevi), born 1977
TV Indians, 2017
Digital photograph
© Cara Romero
Muscarelle Museum of Art
Acquired with funds from the Board of Visitors Muscarelle Museum of Art Endowment with additional funds from Ann Marie Stock and David Brashear
2019.022
A careful look at the images on the TV screens reveals several well-known images, including the classic photograph from the Occupation of Alcatraz, proclaiming, “YOU ARE ON INDIAN LAND.”
Painted during an on-campus visit to William & Mary in 2014, at first glance, Bunky Echohawk’s Freshman 15 may seem like a portrayal of a cartoon character. However, closer look tells us what is on Echohawk’s mind. This work is about food sovereignty for present-day Native people. The date 1491, displayed between two ears of corn, is an ironic gesture suggesting that the process of colonization impacted American Indian self-sufficiency with devastating results on health and the well-being of the wider Native community. Echohawk is asking all of us to reflect on issues of food sovereignty in our post-colonial world.
BUNKY ECHO-HAWK
American Indian (Yakama/Pawnee), born 1975
Freshman 15, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
© Bunky Echo-Hawk
Gift of the artist
2016.226
Kitti von Kann, a portraitist who specialized in oils, was known for painting some of Washington, D.C.'s most notable citizens. Her painting of Thomasina E. Jordan captures the Wampanoag leader, known for her boundless energy, in an elegant seated pose.
KITTI VON KANN
American, 1916 – 2008
Portrait of Thomasina E. Jordan, n.d.
Acrylic on canvas
© Artist’s Estate
Loan from a private collector
A dedicated Indian activist, Thomasina Jordan (Red Hawk Woman) worked tirelessly on behalf of tribal sovereignty for Virginia Indians. A charismatic leader, and a Wampanoag tribal member, Thomasina was sensitive to the onslaught of colonialism that Native people in the east endured for more than four centuries. She chaired the Virginia Council on Indians for several years working to promote educational, health and economic opportunities for indigenous citizens in the Commonwealth, but most of all, federal recognition for Virginia Indians.
In 2017 the 115th U.S. Congress passed the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act, H.R. 984. This bill granted federal status to six Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern Division, the Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond Indian Tribe, Rappahannock Tribe, Inc. and the Upper Mattaponi Tribe. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe was granted federal recognition in 2016 through the Bureau of Indian Affairs process, making Virginia home to seven federally recognized tribes, and four state-recognized tribes: the Cheroenhaka Tribe, the Mattaponi Tribe, the Nottoway Indian Tribe, and the Patawomeck Indian Tribe.
During the Red Power Era, there were no federally recognized
tribes in Virginia. However, some Native people from the
Commonwealth of Virginia, in a show of solidarity, did
participate in the Occupation of Alcatraz and at the siege of
Wounded Knee II.