City Indians

I’m told that approximately 500 people came to the opening! Thank you Ancient Trader’s Gallery! And many, many others. (Check out HONORS page for more names)

One theme of the installation is the irony of mid-twentieth century government policy relocating some indigenous people back to their traditional homelands (now the Twin Cities metro area). Other themes express the legacy of relocation, the struggles and triumphs resulting from relocation, and the wide range of lifeway choices made by dual citizens in the metro area.

The primary method for showing the history and current lives of city Indians is the stories told by the people themselves.

Edited video interviews are projected into a car trunk as the central focus of the installation/exhibit. “Indians in a trunk” is a central symbol for racism and abuse of Indians in Minneapolis, and serves as a powerful visual ‘home’ for the stories of pain and strength told by the Dakota, Ojibwe and other tribal people.

Other video, incorporating images of traditional sites found all over the city, is projected on the back wall of the gallery.

Providing a context for the installation is ambient surround sound that is the cycle of a year and of a day with nature and city sounds.

The first room one enters when coming into the gallery is a meeting and greeting space that includes a large historical map with traditional Dakota and Ojibwe names for places in the now metro area. Many thanks to the Paul Durand family for use of the map. It is gorgeous and fascinating to explore. The opposite wall bears a stylized map of the area upon which visitors are invited to place photographs and brief stories in the place of the photos shown and the stories told. This memory map ensures an extension of the project beyond the artist’s choices to the community.

Download AP article, “Installation Puts Natives Back on the Map.”