‘Drawn Over’ exhibit at the University of Iowa shines new light on Native American culture

IOWA CITY — Drawing scenes from their everyday lives was part of the culture for young men of the Great Plains tribal communities. Processed buffalo hides were their canvas.

But when the buffalo herds were decimated and the Indian nations were all but destroyed by the U.S. government aggression in the latter part of the 1800s, the men from the Plains who were deemed “war criminals” were incarcerated at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Fla.

When Richard Pratt, the fort’s supervising military officer, saw the prisoners were bored, he gave them writing instruments, colored pencils and pages ripped out of ledger books on which to draw.

The same kind of accounting books used to document and organize the Indigenous peoples into patriarchal groups, with each person assigned a number — a practice used by the U.S. government in allotting them substandard, often rotten food, leading to widespread starvation in the latter part of the 19th century.

And yet the men at Fort Marion, given paper that symbolized the oppression of their people, didn’t draw scenes of war or violence or vitriol.

“They drew about themselves. They drew over the thing that oppressed them,” said Jacki Thompson Rand. She is guest curator for the exhibition “Drawn Over: Reclaiming Our Histories,” on view through Jan. 2 in the Lauridsen Family Gallery at the University of Iowa’s Stanley Museum of Art.

An enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, she is the associate vice chancellor for Native Affairs and an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She and her curatorial cohort of advisers — including museum staff and area Indigenous artists — provided historical context for those gathered for an opening reception Aug. 23 in the museum’s lobby.

Many of the 32 ledger drawings in the museum’s permanent collection are on display, along with artifacts including a leather-bound ledger book. The drawings are intricate in detail, with colors ranging from vibrant to pastel and graphite pencil shades of black and gray.

“In much of the scholarship, Native women are not present,” Rand said. “So we have now, these men drawing women into their pictures. You see courting couples, you see women at work, you see family activity. What you don't see is bloodthirsty warriors. What you don't see is savages — you have to go to the mainstream press for that.

“So when you look at these things, you're looking at how they represent themselves. Native Americans have been battling the war over representation forever and ever and ever,” she said.

“We still are mascots. We still are in Hollywood. We still are in some literature. But these men, they were at Fort Marion and they were imprisoned there, and they drew pictures of themselves.”

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In time, Pratt realized the drawings could become tourist attractions and build up support for building an Indian school, Rand noted, “because at this time, they're starting to take Indian children away from their families, and put them into Indian schools and white people schools.

“They've taken land. They've taken economies, they've taken the buffalo, they don't stop there. They take children.

“So what you're looking at upstairs (in the gallery) is the latter part of the 19th century, when all of this history has taken place. And these men are still drawing, and they're still Indians. In spite of the fact that the public discourse is that Indians aren't really Indians anymore. Why? Because we don't — I don't — to my students in a classroom, look like an Indian according to what they think an Indian is supposed to look like. Right? I have a Ph.D., so I can't be an Indian anymore, possibly, can I? So this is a thing.”

Visitors also will see gallery walls painted in a lovely, soft Cheyenne Pink.

“Cheyenne Pink is the color of a 19th century bead that the Cheyenne ladies loved and worked with, and their beadwork became recognizable because it would have Cheyenne Pink in it,” Rand said. “It's still very popular.

“So I said, ‘Because the ledger drawings were mainly by Cheyenne artists, we will have Cheyenne Pink.’ And what did the Stanley Museum do? We have Cheyenne Pink.

“I hope you enjoy it,” she said. “I hope you see good in it. I hope you see Indians in a different light.”

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A career high point

Museum staff members have embraced the chance to learn more about the history and artistry of Indigenous people, especially in light of the nearly 40 tribes upon whose homelands the university is built. Financial support for the exhibition comes from the Terra Foundation for American Art and from John S. and Patricia C. Koza.

“It has been one of the high points of my career to have this experience to work with Dr. Jacki Thompson Rand, and her cohort — Phil Round, Erica Prussing, Jennifer New, Mary Young Bear and Patricia Trujillo,” said Lauren Lessing, the Stanley Museum’s director.

“This whole process of planning the exhibition, bringing it to fruition, learning about our collection. And really stepping back from the museum professionals’ ordinary position of expertise and really acknowledging what we don't know, has been one of the most fruitful experiences of my professional career.

“I think it's changed the way we understand our collection. It's changed the way that we operate. And I am forever grateful to Dr. Rand and her cohort for giving us this experience,” Lessing said.

“It has been quite an honor to manage this project,” added Derek Nnuro, the museum’s curator of special projects. “I am the beneficiary of the excellence of my boss, Lauren Lessing, who is our director, and also our former chief curator, Joyce Tsai, who put their brilliant minds together and came up with this idea, relinquishing really and democratizing the curating process.

“This is something that is innovative,” he said. “This is something that we're proud to pioneer — to invite representatives of the identities that are represented in the show. To really teach us how it is done is something that a lot of museums are not doing.”

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