Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune: Artist shares tribe's story in new work

Wednesday, April 24, 2019  

ST. LOUIS, Missouri -- The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) unveils latest piece created by artist Edgar Heap of Birds, citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

The 6’3-1/2 x 7’6 "Intervention Piece," as referred to by the artist, depicts a circle of men, women and children’s moccasins with the backdrop of current news published by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune newspaper.

The installation marks the fourth collaborative project at the St. Louis Art Museum in a series where Native artists relate historic works of Native art to contemporary Indigenous ways of seeing. Heap of Birds (born in 1954), is an internationally acclaimed artist, professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, leader of the Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) Elk Warrior Society and ceremonial instructor of the Earth Renewal Worship. While reviewing the museum’s collection of Tsistsistas art in 2018 he conceived an idea of presenting moccasins in a circular arrangement against a backdrop of newspaper pages.

“It has been a pleasure working with the internationally renowned artist Edgar Heap of Birds over the past year on the project. By placing historical works from the museum’s collection in conversation with news articles from the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune, this installation helps museum visitors to see connections between present-day communities and the 19th-century moccasins at the museum,” Alex Marr, St. Louis Art Museum curator said.

The surfaces of the hide moccasins reflect a range of approaches to personal adornment in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, including designs in glass beads, sections of applied pigment, and attachments of hide and metal. Tsistsistas women, children, and men wore moccasins on special occasions as a way to maintain distinct forms of identity during a period when styles of everyday dress changed. The owners of these moccasins would have worn them, for instance, when joining in a circle for the round dance, a widespread social dance often used to initiate family celebrations, annual gatherings, and other formal events.

Like their ancestors, Native peoples today dance the round dance when gathering for personal celebrations as well as public performances, such as powwows. Employing pages from recent issues of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune as a background, Heap of Birds draws attention to the present-day experiences of the communities descended from those who wore these moccasins, and continuing violence from subjugation of the reservation ordeal. As the round dance brings participants together, it also links contemporary Tsistsistas people with their ancestors.

Heap of Birds’s collections-based project relates to his artistic practice. With this installation Heap of Birds, who is renowned internationally for his language-based paintings, public art installations, and prints, extends his decades-long exploration of the visual and cultural powers of words.

“I am so very proud of my Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation, it’s fine citizens and our precious communities. We are one and shall forever support one another through difficult experiences and wonderful sharing. These traditional moccasin expressions from our elders are here joined with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune news to chronicle our continuum and survival,” Heap of Birds said.

The ‘Intervention Piece’ will be on display at the Saint Louis Museum of Art in St. Louis, Missouri, through April 2021.

For more information visit slam.org.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune can be reached at:
Public Information Office
700 North Black Kettle Blvd.
Concho, OK 73022
P.O. Box 38
405-422-7608 | 405-422-7446

Editor in Chief Rosemary Stephens can be reached at rmstephens@c-a-tribes.org

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