Earlier this year, there was an exhibition at David Nolan Gallery in New York Fort Marion and Surrounding Areas: Native American Ledger Drawings, 1865-1900, a collection of more than 100 works on paper by indigenous artists from the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Hidasa, Kiowa and Lakota tribes. Presented in conjunction with the Donald Ellis Gallery, the exhibition highlights the work of the Nokkoist (Bear Heart) of the Cheyenne Nation and the Ohettoint of the Kiowa Tribe, who were 72 Two of the indigenous warriors who were imprisoned without trial at Fort Marion, Florida, from 1875 to 1878. The U.S. military operation “is designed to displace southern Plains tribes and relocate them to reservations,” a press release said. Art critics called the exhibition “sad, pathos” and “heartbreaking”. allergicJohn Yau commented: “The paintings of Nokkoist and Ohetoit… belong in art museums.”
What neither the gallery nor the critics mentioned was that the show featured several drawings from Bonhams’ 2022 Los Angeles ledger. Representatives attempted to stop the auction, but were unsuccessful. ” and was created by an incarcerated artist, questioning “the object’s chain of custody.”
The auction house did not disclose the identities of the buyers of the four books, which brought a total of $908,700 (including premium).However, the paintings by Nokkoist and Ohetoint were taken from three books – which were unbound and the artworks were individually bound – and included in Marienburg and surrounding areas exhibition.
They also appeared at dealer Donald Ellis’ Chicago Expo booth last weekend, who confirmed allergic He was the one who bought the three books at Bonhams in 2022.
Members of the Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, as well as other Native people familiar with the ledger drawings, were shocked and dismayed to learn of the recent display.
“When I read your email, my heart sank,” Society of American Indian Affairs CEO Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw) told us allergic. “It provides another level of evidence of how people take control of our cultural heritage and work to create their own narratives, separate from Aboriginal people who should be the true holders of such cultural heritage.”
“They don’t feel right here,” said Debra Yeppa-Papan (Jemez Pueblo/Korea), co-founder and director of exhibitions and programs at the Center for Indigenous Futures, a headquartered A Chicago-based Native arts nonprofit that also has a booth at the expo.
Yeppa-Papan and her colleagues confronted Ellis at his booth, asking him where the ledger drawings came from and whether there were any descendants of indigenous groups or artists from the gallery selling works at the art fair. The pieces, she said, are priced between $8,000 and $80,000. She described his reaction as “defensive” and “rude”.
On Saturday, April 13, artist and Center for Native Futures member Casey Brown (Ho-Chunk) wrote an email to Expo Chicago staff expressing concerns about the ethics of selling ledger drawings at the expo. worry.
“I was surprised to see ledger art outside of a tribal cultural center, museum, or archive and that it was available for purchase,” he wrote in the letter. “When these people are unjustly incarcerated, this art is Created under duress; the ownership of these works is questionable.
Brown said that when members of the center approached Ellis and his assistants, they “were unable to explain where the collection came from and were unwilling to allow them to copy down the names of the works’ creators for further study.” “When asked if he had contacted the families of those who were unjustly incarcerated, Ellis said he had a ‘close relationship’ with the ‘Plains Tribe’ but publicly stated that he was the only one profiting from the works. “
Within half an hour of sending the email, Brown was contacted by Expo Chicago president and director Tony Kaman, who discussed their concerns with members of the center.
“We are grateful to the Center for Indigenous Futures for bringing Ledger Books to our attention, and to the Donald Ellis Gallery for engaging in conversations with the Center around the complex issues involved,” a spokesperson for the fair told us allergic. “Expo Chicago is committed to working with the appropriate organizations to develop guidelines for the display of such materials, reaffirming our commitment to the proper handling of cultural property.”
Max Bell, tribal historic preservation officer for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, also expressed the center’s frustration.
“When these books are sold, they become artworks in Platt’s narrative, not ours,” he told allergicReferring to Richard Henry Pratt, the Army officer in charge of Marionburg Prison. Platt commissioned and purchased many of the ledgers directly from incarcerated artists, which included descriptions of the war, the warriors’ journey as internees from the plains to Florida, and prison life, viewing them as his attempts to assimilate and ” Examples of “civilization” Native Americans were successful.
Bell bristled at the term “book art,” adding: “These are the historical records of our people and should be preserved by our people.”
Ross Frank, a professor in the university’s ethnic studies department, said that while there has been a growing movement over the past few years to return objects, art and artifacts to Aboriginal people, the books remain in a legal gray area.
“As the law currently stands, it would be difficult to require all ledger information to be returned to the tribe. It is a cultural heritage, but in these cases there was some form of sale, which was legal at the time, ” Frank told allergic. But Frank noted that the legal status of the works aside, “there may be ethical concerns about coercion” because the artist was incarcerated.
Frank explains that there appear to be two systems, one for American cultural institutions and the other for private dealers. Institutions should follow best practices, including consultation with tribes regarding exhibitions and responsible stewardship of their culturally relevant items.
Tribal historic preservation officers for the Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes tell us allergic Neither gallery had contacted them before the exhibition.
According to Ellis, after the auction, “a middleman representing the Kiowa people” approached him and provided them with the ledger with the Ohettoint drawing at his cost (sold with premium for $138,975), but without No response received. He added that his gallery is “providing financial and loan support” for an upcoming exhibition in Marienburg involving “dozens of direct descendants of Cheyenne prisoners.”
“They were aware of my activities and participation in exhibitions, and we found no resistance,” Ellis said.
But as UC San Diego’s Frank explains, “For private collectors, it’s a completely different world.” We are at the mercy of a global capitalist system…which values far more than individual pages. of the books that were put together,” he said of the decision to unpack the books and display the drawings individually. (Frank is the founder of the Plains Indian Ledger Art (PILA) project, which digitized complete ledgers, Make it available online).
Ellis defended the choice of separate drawings, arguing that “one of the unique features of the Marienburg Sketchbooks is that, unlike most books that preceded them, there are no narrative arches, either linear, between the individual sheets. Or in other forms.
Karen Kramer, curator of Native American and Maritime Arts and Culture at the Peabody Essex Museum, offered the opposite view, telling allergic “To separate these images is to dismantle cultural heritage.”
“Taking apart a ledger with Plains Indian drawings reduces the possibility of understanding each drawing as part of an overall story,” Kramer said. “In the context of Fort Marion, these convict warrior artists were part of the broader story. Personal experiences and memories of tribal rituals and history are conveyed in the classified artistic production of colonial stories and imprisonment and their radical aesthetic evolution from 1875-78.”
It is also worth noting that at least two drawings that were originally two-page spreads were framed and displayed as single pages in Ellis’ booth at the Chicago World’s Fair, splitting the original image in half.
between him and allergicEllis made it clear, however, that he sees himself more as a keeper of Aboriginal cultural heritage than a demolisher.
“With the exception of Ross Frank and PILA, my gallery did its best job of keeping full books in the 20 to 25 years before digital came along,” he said. “The decision to present these drawings as separate works (our first experience doing so) was a long and difficult process. Ultimately we decided that the end justified the means. The ultimate goal, says Ellis, was “to make them widely accessible both institutionally and privately” focus on”. He noted that PILA has complete archives of the three books he purchased and plans to produce facsimile versions.
Institutions that receive federal funding are subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was enacted in 1990 to promote “the protection and repatriation of Native American remains, grave objects, sacred objects, and cultural heritage.” ”. Private sales are not subject to NAGPRA but do fall under the recently passed Protection of Tribal Heritage Act (STOP), which helps prevent international trafficking of important cultural heritage items, although that legislation may not apply in this case.
Although ownership of the books is technically legal, O’Loughlin sees the original terms of the sale to Pratt by the incarcerated Aboriginal artist as reason to reconsider the grounds for deportation.
“If the initial transfer doesn’t work, if it’s considered a theft, then every transaction after that is going to be affected,” O’Loughlin said. She believes the current owners of the books are complicit “because they know all the history, they know how the tribe fought the purchase.”
