Author: FAAM Staff

By Kelly Church (Grand Traverse Odawa-Ojibwe) In the coming decade, black ash split baskets, ash bark baskets, and hand-carved ash cradleboards will become some of the rarest, collectible pieces of Native art. Black ash (Nigra fraxinus), also known as brown ash, is a tree that only grows in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. The Native Nations in these areas, which include the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wabenaki, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee, have woven baskets from the black ash tree for thousands of years. First, they wove utilitarian baskets, and after contact, fancy baskets to provide for the needs of the communities…

Issue No. 10, Spring 2016 Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, select your location: Locations US, New Mexico $9.74 USD US, other than NM $8.99 USD Canada $9.99 USD International $15.92 USD Features Wisconsin’s Effigy Mounds by America Meredith (Cherokee Nation), 22–29 American Indian Art Magazine by Gloria Bell (Métis), 30–31 Historical Continuum: The Portraits of Brian Honyouti by Zena Pearlstone, PhD, 32–37 A Conversation with Tanya Lukin Linklater by Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD, 38–42 Artist Profiles Angela Babby: Oglala Lakota Glass Artist by Mary V. Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota), 48–53…

By Loretta Webster (Oneida Nation) Crowds gathered, the press was there, and the Woodland Indian Art Facebook page shot up with visitors as the story of Mark Fischer’s copper bison hit the moccasin telegraph. Mark installed the life-size copper bison in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a week before the annual Woodland Indian Art Show and Market in June 2015. Mark Fischer is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Nation (formerly known as the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin) and the amazing copper sculpture of a bison looked…

Join us on for our spring launch party in Oklahoma City! When: Saturday, February 27, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Where: Oklahoma History Center, OERB Classroom 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr., Oklahoma City, OK Map Special presentation: 2:45 pm–3:30 discussion about American Indian Women Painters in Oklahoma by Mary Jo Watson, PhD (Seminole Native), Director Emeritus; Regents’ Professor of Art History, University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages to be served. Copies of the latest issues will available! Free access to the museum for all launch party attendees—including the “We Are Who We Were” permanent…

Issue No. 9, Winter 2015/16 Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, select your location: Locations US, New Mexico $9.74 USD US, other than NM $8.99 USD Canada $9.99 USD International $16.99 USD Features March of the Land Writers: Unsanctioned Indigenous Street Art Interventions by Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD, 22–27 Ologwagdi, El Kolectivo, and the Art of Protest in Panama by Peter Szok, PhD, 28–34 From Lamb to Loom: The Navajo-Churro and Sheep Is Life Celebration by Cathy Short (Citizen Potawatomi), 35–39 Faithfully Rendered: Naturalism in Contemporary Native American Portrait Painting by…

First American Art Magazine’s Top 10 Native Art Events of 2015 The year 2015 marked a stellar one for Indigenous arts of the Americas. We could have easily doubled this list with so many strong, major exhibits and new art venues breaking ground. Here are the Top 10 Native Art Events, as selected by First American Art Magazine’s advisors and writers. 1. Walter Soboleff Building, Sealaska Heritage Institute Named for the late Tlingit scholar, Indigenous rights activist, and Presbyterian minister, the Walter Soboleff Building opened in downtown Juneau, Alaska, on May 15th. Built by the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute, the building…

Issue No. 8, Fall 2015 Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, select your location: Locations US, New Mexico $9.74 USD US, other than NM $8.99 USD Canada $9.99 USD International $15.92 USD Features Ga ni tha, Three Native Women, and the Venice Biennale, John Paul Rangel, PhD (Mestizo/Apache descent), 26–30 The Continuum of Plains: Pictorial Tradition, heather ahtone (Choctaw/Chickasaw) and Joe D. Horse Capture (A’aninin). 34–39     Asleep and Awake: Contemporary: Indigenous Video Art and the Politics of Presence, Matthew Ryan Smith, PhD, 40–45    Celebrating Life and Death in a Zapotec Village, Kevin…

Porfirio Gutierrez, Zapotec, to Share His Smithsonian Research with His Oaxacan Community “LIKE MANY PEOPLE in our village, my family has descended from generations of Zapotec weavers going back as far as anyone can remember,” says Porfirio Gutierrez. “As you know, Teotitlán has been known for its fine weaving since pre-Columbian times. In spite of our long standing reputation for fine work, the economic downturn and other factors have hurt our livelihood and threaten the existence of our traditional art.” Gutierrez is one of four artists chosen to participate in the Artist Leadership Program sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum…

The Native American Art Studies Association (NAASA) held its 20th biennial conference last weekend north of Santa Fe. Being in New Mexico was homecoming for the organization, since it was founded in Albuquerque. With about 240+ participants, this conference was its largest Thanks to the convenient location at the Pojoaque Pueblo’s Buffalo Thunder Resort, it was easy for locals to drop by and visit old friends and colleagues. NAASA is a mix of art historians, anthropologists, art critics, curators, artists, and other art and museum professionals. Native American studies is usually an interdisciplinary field at colleges, and only approximately a…

Issue No. 7, Summer 2015 Click here to purchase a digital copy for $7 from Issuu. To purchase a print copy, select your location: Locations US, New Mexico $9.74 USD US, other than New Mexico $8.99 USD Canada $9.99 USD International $16.99 USD Features Opening the Water Highway: Tribal Canoe Journeys as an Honor Song for American Indian People, by Misty Ellingburg (Shoalwater Bay Tribe), 16–21 Raising Our Canoe, poem by Misty Ellingburg (Shoalwater Bay Tribe), 21 The Talent and Tradition of Catawba Potters, by Michole Eldred (Catawba/Eastern Cherokee descent), 22–28 From the Birthplace of the World: The Solar Map…