Indigenous Identities: From State Sanctions Portraiture to Native Self Representation

This new exhibition stages a dialogue across time regarding the representation of Native American people. The first section begins with 36 lithographic portraits from McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836-1844). Created by Euro-American artists, these images reflect the traditions and biases of Western art, while also documenting encounters in which Native sitters had some control over their self-presentation. In the second section of the exhibit, Indigenous creators, including the early 20th-century Dakota artist Standing Bear and contemporary Osage artist Norman Akers, explore their own identities with artworks that blend ancestral traditions, Western styles, and contemporary global approaches. Together these diverse images invite viewers to consider the ways representation, power, and perspective shape our historical understanding.