Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Indians. These terms we've applied to those who connect ancestrally to the Americas since before 1492. These people have been attacked, beaten, killed, forced on to specifically inhospitable land, we stripped of their culture, and yet they persevere. During the 1950s-and 1960s civil rights movements, they fought alongside African, Asian, and Latino American's for recognition as a group of people. 

Students will learn about some of the Indigenous artists creating in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through a combination of lecture and discussion, students will learn about these artists, see some of their art, and practice looking for symbols and details.

David Bradley is a Minnesota Chippewa artist who creates paintings and sculptures challenging history. From addressing Wounded Knee and the 1960's Fishing Wars to modern associations with Indigenous cultures, David creates vivid paintings that call history into question. Inspired by art history he includes historical figures in scenes of modern New Mexico, animated and cartoony. Whistler's Mother, Surrealist Rene Magritte, and Georgia O'Keeffe all make appearances in his paintings as he makes jests about their originality or place in South Western art history. 

Kent Monkman is a First Nations Cree artist. Using both painting and performance he rewrites the history of white oppression with vivid imagery that is incredibly detailed. Calling attention to issues of boarding schools, stollen children, and the suppression of two-spirit people his details create a conversation that leads to recognition and change.