Wendy Red Star

1880 Crow Peace Delegation

1880 Crow Peace Delegation, 2014

Series of 10 Artist-manipulated digitally reproduced photograph by C.M. (Charles Milton) Bell, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, 24 x 16.45 inches with additional 1" border

Edition of 15

Red Star’s archival research into Crow figures responsible for the present-day boundaries of the tribe’s lands has resulted in two series: 1880 Crow Peace Delegation (2014) and 1873 Crow Peace Delegation (2017). In each series Red Star manipulates historical portraits from the National Anthropological Archives by adding her own handwritten notations in red ink. The written text includes personal observations and historical facts about the Crow Delegations, a process that inspired personal revelations filtered through the artist’s own experiences as a Crow woman. As Red Star explains, “When I was growing up, there was such pressure to prove one’s [Crow] ancestry that previous generations did not have. I was surprised to see that in these portraits, the tribal leaders from generations ago are wearing things from other tribes, like the Lakota or Cheyenne moccasins that Old Crow wears. I came to realize that the history of identity goes beyond surface value–there’s a complexity to it.” In this way, Red Star’s notations allude to the idea that proving one’s authenticity is a modern construction of identity that has arisen especially in the twentieth century.

The first Crow Indian Delegation traveled to Washington, D.C., on October 21, 1873, and included a group of nine Crow chiefs and three of their wives. The group made the long trip by horse and train from Montana to the capital, where they met with President Ulysses S. Grant regarding Crow territorial boundaries. After 1873 representatives of the Crow Nation traveled to Washington several time to conduct business with the U.S. government, the results of which ultimately included the coerced cession of Crow tribal lands to the government.

In the series, Red Star meticulously outlined the contours of each figure’s elaborate outfits, accoutrements, and hairstyles, isolating each individual. The photographs are transformed into roadmaps or blueprints of her own research, as her supplemental demarcations reference the practice of “redrawing” territorial boundaries created by colonizers. They are conceptual works that open a dialogue between herself and the historical figures in the photographs, exposing an under-studied history “in the margins.” Each print requires careful looking and encourages intimate proximity to the portrait, as Red Star draws attention to the materiality of the sitters’ regalia, bringing each figure to life for viewers. Like the handwritten notes in some of Red Star’s other series, language is central to the artist’s exploration of the critical issues in the Peace Delegation series, and she employs it as a tool in her broader arsenal of conceptual strategies toward knowledge production, humor, and oppositional perspectives revolving around the geography and history of colonialism.

— Text from Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth, Newark Museum exhibition catalogue, 2019, Nadiah Rivera Fellah and Tricia Laughlin Bloom