Gender representation in the art of Jaune Quick To See Smith.

In her seminal book The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, literary critic Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo/Sioux) argued that American feminism has "red roots." (1) By this she meant that the egalitarianism between the sexes that characterized native cultures before colonization served as a precursory model to the efforts by white feminists to resist patriarchy in Euro-American society. As Gunn Allen herself explained, "The feminist idea of power as it ideally accrues to women stems from tribal sources." (2) In her exploration of the position of women in both American Indian and Euro-American societies, artist Jaune Quick To See Smith (Flathead) embraces Gunn Allen's construct of gender in traditional American Indian culture and uses it to reveal the societal limitations imposed upon women in Euro-American culture today. Celebrating women in their roles as artists and healers in traditional tribal societies, Quick To See Smith creates a vision of the future that represents full participation for women in society as a whole. This vision is grounded in a biting critique of gender-based roles for both men and women that stem from the constrictive models of Western discourse and the institutions that have historically rendered the contributions of women invisible. At the same time, her work is a celebration of the contributions of women to both American Indian and Euro-American cultures.

From her early years in art school, Quick To See Smith recognized the limitations of Euro-American culture in supporting women artists. In a 1996 interview published in the catalogue for her exhibition Subversions/ Affirmations, she described being frustrated by the lack of exposure she received as a woman artist while in art school. As she explained in the interview, "From the start I was bothered by the fact that the only artists I heard about in school were mostly white men ... I felt there had to be more than this, and in time I encountered women artists like O'Keefe [sic] and Kollwitz." (3) Quick To See Smith also recognized the limited exhibition space available for women to publicly show their work as another barrier to equality for female artists in the mainstream art establishment. She responded to this problem as early as 1985 by organizing and curating the exhibition Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, and Sage along with Harmony Hammond. This landmark exhibition highlighted the art of contemporary Native American women working in both traditional and non-traditional media.

In her artwork, Quick To See Smith demonstrates a consistent concern with the position of women in both American Indian and Euro-American cultures. In her exploration of the relationship between American Indian women and the history of art making, she consciously and intentionally connects her painting and printmaking to the long tradition of native women's art production through her use of abstraction. In her catalogue essay for Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, and Sage, Quick To See Smith stated, "Abstraction is another area that belongs distinctly to Native American women artists, [while] Indian men tended to work in a more figurative mode." (4) The parfleche, a rawhide container painted with abstract designs by American Indian women, best illustrates the long tradition of abstract painting associated with native women's artistic production. In his groundbreaking examination of the parfleche, Gaylord Torrence described it as illustrating "a powerful tradition of abstract painting created by the women of more than forty tribal groups throughout the western half of North America during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries." (5) When Quick To See Smith uses abstraction in her art, she invokes this tradition of painting among North American indigenous women.

Quick To See Smith has spoken directly about the influence of beadwork on her artistic production. Begun as an art form with the introduction of glass beads by Europeans, beadwork is a continuation of the abstract painting tradition of native women. (6) Quick To See Smith has acknowledged the beadwork of her own tribe, the Flathead Indians of Montana, as an inspirational source for her work. As she describes, "The striking pictorial elements laid against grounds of white or blue are with me constantly, literally and figuratively. They have a strong definition in how I shape my work." (7) Quick To See Smith has singled out Salish beadworker Agnes Oshanee Kenmille for her exceptional beadwork. (8) Kenmille's influence on Quick To See Smith is demonstrated in the floor design she created for the Squelixu People's Center on the Flathead Nation. Incorporating Kenmille's floral motifs into her floor design, Quick To See Smith described being left with an "even greater admiration for the complexity of Agnes's beadwork." (9)

One of Kenmille's most widely circulated works is a beaded bag in the shape of a heart (Fig. 1), in which the head of a large stag with penetrating eyes dominates the composition. Kenmille adorned the neck of the bag with an abstract design. A comparison of her work to Quick To See Smith's lithograph Indian Heart (1993) (Fig. 2) illustrates the connection between these two women artists in their use of abstraction. In Indian Heart, the abstract design can be seen at the bottom left of the print. Quick To See Smith identifies the heart as a "beaded bag from [the] Flathead," (10) directly aligning her work with the tradition of beadwork among native women in general and the Flathead in particular. The two works share not only their abstract design, but also their use of the image of the heart. In addition, just as the stag occupies the center of Kenmille's bag, a buffalo is placed in the interior of the heart in Quick To See Smith's lithograph.

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The two artists diverge in many significant ways, particularly when Quick To See Smith adds her signature style of social critique. Unlike Kenmille's stag, the buffalo in Indian Heart is burdened by history, carrying the weight of commercial stereotypes of American Indians on its back. A label for Pastore Olive Oil features an Indian in the Plains Indian regalia, a figure that has come to define Euro-American perceptions of Native Americans, while a young white boy holding an American flag looks on. Quick To See Smith's critique is also embedded in the Indian heart itself, which to her is not a symbol of sentimental longing, but of something far more powerful. As she explains, "The heart painting was the result of reading Indian speeches, often treaty [speeches], which always refer to the heart vs. the head." (11) This clear distinction between the heart and the head is significant in understanding the symbolism in her work. Indeed, the head may be interpreted as representative of Western rationalism--the philosophical foundation for the attempted decimation of Indian people--while the heart is the foundation for more humane forms of decision-making. Again, Quick To See Smith explains, "At Indian gatherings today, we still hear elders say, "Think with your heart, not your head." (12) The critique that characterizes Indian Heart is softened with symbols of a more positive future. Jimson weed and morning glory drawn above the heart, described by Quick to See Smith as "the private side of Indian medicine and religion," suggest the possibility of healing. (13)

In Indian Heart, Quick To See Smith places three important forms of American Indian women's cultural production--the tradition of bag making, the style of abstraction, and the medium of beadwork--both literally and figuratively at the heart of Indian identity. These concerns appear repeatedly in her work and are employed to pay homage to American Indian women. In The Red Mean: Self-Portrait (1992) (Fig. 3), Quick To See Smith makes one of her most powerful statements on the importance of women as contributors to cultural traditions. The painting is an obvious response to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, the Western construct of the ideal human form defined as a white male harmoniously related to geometry. Quick To See Smith replaces the white male body with her own by outlining it in black. The title Self-Portrait tells us that this body belongs to the artist herself, while a small clipping in the left quadrant of the circle proclaims it as that of a "female tribal member." Once again, the Indian heart--her heart-is symbolically represented by a parfleche-shaped rectangle filled with an abstract design, again alluding to women's artistic production. Just as the artist replaces the Vitruvian Man's body with her own, she replaces the circle and square that defines his body with a red medicine wheel, an important symbol of healing in American Indian tradition. Significantly, the medicine wheel relates to, but does not constrict, the parameters of the artist's outlined body on the canvas.

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Erin Valentino observed that the medicine wheel--or sacred hoop, to use Gunn Allen's terminology--is positioned at Quick To See Smith's lower torso, connecting tribal healing energy to the female reproductive organs. With this in mind, Valentino described the painting as symbolizing a "powerful, and essentially gynocentric, cosmological and secular harmony." (14) Valentino's compelling description of Quick To See Smith's painting points us to Gunn Allen's argument that "traditional tribal lifestyles are more often gynocratic than not, and they are never patriarchal." (15) This message is clearly illustrated in the painting by the imbedded challenge to the newspaper clipping pasted to the artist's pelvic region. While the message reads, "Bush administration asserts power to declare tribes extinct," suggesting a continued policy of genocide by the United States government against American Indians, this statement is unequivocally negated by the strong presence of the indigenous female body empowered by the force of tribal medicine.

Quick To See Smith's representation of native women as healers is informed by the history of American Indian peoples and challenges stereotypes of Indian healers as exclusively men. As M. Annette Jaimes and Theresa Halsey wrote, "Contrary to the Euro-American myth that American Indian spiritual leaders are invariably something called 'medicine men,' women have always held important positions in this regard." (16) In the 1980s, some of the most groundbreaking work to correct this misperception was done by Beatrice Medicine (Lakota) and Patricia Albers. The Hidden Half. Studies of Plains Indian Women, an anthology they edited, offers a complex examination of gender roles among traditional Plains Indians. In it, the editors documented the important role of Plains Indian women in producing ceremonial objects, (17) while Raymond DeMaille in his contribution to the anthology observed that, while Lakota women never directed religious ceremonies, they were "important and essential participants." (18) Indeed, Lakota women had visions that gave them power, even though they did not go on the male vision quest, a formalized tradition practiced by Indian men that required days of fasting and isolation in nature so that they might be bestowed with power by spiritual forces. Recognizing the power of their own visions, women represented them in quill and beadwork designs, the same types of designs that Quick To See Smith celebrates in her art. Taking note of their significance, DeMallie explained, "These designs represent a type of power that was uniquely female, manipulating the power of color as well as form." (19)

Plains Indian practices illustrate that gender roles in indigenous cultures could be clearly prescribed. However, one would draw an incorrect conclusion in assuming that this difference necessarily relegated women to a secondary status. DeMallie recognized that "Lakota women were accorded a full measure of respect for the performance of the work appropriate to their sex." (20) The term "gender complementarity" is often used to describe gender distinctions among American Indian cultures. (21) In her examination of rituals, Gunn Allen described gender complementarity as "the complementary traditions of women and men, which have always been separate but interdependent." (22) Differences between sex roles were not ranked into a patriarchal hierarchy, since both male and female roles were viewed as essential to the community: "The success of their systems depended on complementary institutions ... The significance of each part was seen as necessary to the balanced and harmonious functioning of the whole." (23) Lillian Ackerman applied the concept of gender complementarity to her examination of Plateau Indians. Like Gunn Allen, she stressed that difference does not lead to inequality: "The gender roles in the traditional culture of the Plateau Indians of Northwest America, though complementary, with little overlap existing in the work of men and women, failed to lead to a condition of male superiority. On the contrary, the genders were socially and economically equal within Plateau societies." (24) Most recently, Jaimes used the term "gender egalitarianism" to describe the same phenomenon in which "communal models of indigenous governance granted women respect and authority" even in cases when their roles were markedly different from those of men. (25) Quick To See Smith's examination of Indian women illustrates the philosophy of gender complementarity. Her paintings are a celebration of the important roles specific to women in traditional Indian culture.

Quick To See Smith's triptych Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief (Fig. 4) is perhaps the artist's most celebratory in terms of the significant contributions of American Indian women. In this triptych, she turns the spotlight to the convergence of American Indian and Euro-American gender roles. In all three paintings, a tribal woman's dress dominates the canvas as a structural element used to relate American Indian women to the Euro-American professional positions of doctor and lawyer and to the powerful role of chief in native communities. In Doctor (Fig. 5), the artist continues her examination of the role of women as healers, directly juxtaposing Western and indigenous constructs of medicine. Significantly, her exploration is not to the exclusion of American Indian men who broke down barriers that prevented their acceptance into the Euro-American medical profession. A newspaper clipping located in a prominent position at the top of the painting honors Dr. Bernard Hoehner, the first American Indian veterinarian. Women are also celebrated, including an American Indian doctor working for the prestigious Mayo Clinic. Her photograph is included at the edge in the right center of the painting along with text about her work. By including announcements of "October Breast Cancer Awareness Month" and the "National Native American AIDS Prevention Center," Quick To See Smith emphasizes the importance of health awareness and prevention, two ideas that run counter to the Western emphasis on treatment of disease. With this in mind, it is not surprising that the artist includes a birth announcement at the bottom left of the painting to remind us that doctors help to bring new life into the world. On the right, at either end, a foot with a numbered bandage and the palm of a hand suggest alternative medicines such as reflexology and acupuncture. Quick To See Smith's doctor is armed with these traditional remedies, as well as the herbs located in the heart of the dress, and a philosophy of medicine based in "the four directions of healing," grounded in the process of symbolically passing through the four directions of the medicine wheel. In Doctor, Quick To See Smith highlights the importance of indigenous models of medicine and the roles of women in both Western and Indian healing practices.

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Quick To See Smith's doctor is clearly a fighter, not only of disease but of the colonial mentality that has denigrated tribal traditions of healing. Similarly, the Lawyer (Fig. 6) and Indian Chief (Fig. 7) represented in the two other panels of the triptych are also depicted as fighters. Quick To See Smith's Lawyer is like a "Lakota boxer," as described by the newspaper clipping in the top center of the dress. As the clipping at the top right makes clear, this lawyer is "a new kind of warrior"--a woman warrior--for an image of a confident woman looking determinedly into the distance appears below these words. No sellout to the white establishment, this lawyer will tackle disputes over land rights and natural resources, such as the "Multimillion dollar Crow coal dispute to go before U.S. Supreme Court." At the same time that this lawyer must be equipped to challenge United States laws that continue the oppression of Indians, she must also be well versed in tribal laws related to the functioning of a sovereign Indian nation. This is indicated by the inclusion of a clipping for the 1997 "Tribal Law and Governance Conference." The artist also includes a cautionary note that "Cash could upset tribal sovereignty," reminding Indian people not to lose sight of their own cultural values as they become more financially successful, independent nations. Perhaps the most poignant of all the newspaper clippings is the one with a headline announcing that "Erosion Exposes Artifacts," which speaks of the fact that much of American Indian cultural traditions are still buried under those of Euro-Americans.

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In Indian Chief, Quick To See Smith honors Wilma Mankiller, the first woman principal chief (from 1985 to 1995) of the Cherokee Nation. A powerful figure during her tenure, Mankiller is credited with elevating the living conditions of the Cherokee by significantly improving their health care and education. She also negotiated successfully an historic self-determination agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in which the responsibility for overseeing millions of dollars in funds was passed on from the BIA to the Cherokee Nation and five other tribes. (28) Although highly contested when she first ran for office because of her gender, Mankiller's election as principal chief nonetheless represented a continuation of the powerful role of women in traditional Cherokee culture. A matrilineal society in which women held control of the land, Cherokees recognized women's power and influence by bestowing appellations such as "Beloved" or "War Woman" on women granted authority to vote on such important issues such as whether or not to engage in war.(27) A quote by Mankiller, located at the heart of the dress, strongly affirms, "I never let anyone else define who I am. I have always defined who I am. I have never been a victim of group-think." Mankiller's words are a testament to her independence, while the painting as a whole is a tribute to a powerful Cherokee woman and provides a direct challenge to the "myth of male dominance" that has characterized Western views of Native American cultures. Quick To See Smith's seething observation that "Some of America's greatest leaders never slept in the White House" is a clear reminder that significant American Indian leaders, including Mankiller, remain invisible to most Westerners.

While grounded in a profound and unwavering commitment to American Indian culture, Quick To See Smith's examination of women's societal roles also has important links to the concerns of Euro-American feminism. In this regard, the connection between Quick To See Smith and feminist artist Miriam Schapiro is significant. (28) Schapiro and Quick To See Smith are friends, but more importantly, Quick To See Smith has acknowledged Schapiro's influence on her art. Schapiro, like Quick To See Smith, began her career exploring the painterly style of abstract expressionism, which she eventually transformed to address political issues. In the 1970s, she became one of the founders and a leading member of the Pattern and Decoration Movement (P&D), a movement that emerged in response to the wholesale dismissal of decoration as antithetical to the modernist project. P&D celebrated artistic production by indigenous peoples, craftspeople, and women whose art illustrates the position that, throughout history and across cultures, decoration has played an integral role in defining creative expression. Just as Quick To See Smith laid claim to traditional beadwork as part of her artistic tradition as an American Indian woman, Schapiro embraced decorative textiles as a form of women's creative expression that has traditionally been excluded from discussions of "high" art. Indeed, both artists share a commitment to challenging the hierarchy of art by insisting on definitions that extend beyond the limitations of patriarchal Western constructs.

In their 1977 essay titled "Waste Not Want Not," Schapiro and fellow artist Melissa Meyer expanded upon the term femmage, a term coined by Schapiro, to shed light on women's artistic production excluded from art historical discourse but related to modernist techniques such as collage and assemblage. (29) Schapiro and Meyer identified a femmage by fourteen characteristics, including its "woman-life context" and the importance of "saving and collecting." (30) For Schapiro, this meant incorporating into her paintings symbols, textiles, and traditional craft techniques associated with women's creative expression. Her femmage Atrium of Flowers (1980) (Fig. 8) is a celebration of decoration, as well as women's textile production and still-life flower painting, with its colorful flowers and fabric squares collaged to a heart-shaped canvas. Like Quick To See Smith, Schapiro rescues the heart, a symbol long denigrated for its association with "feminine" sentimentality, to explore important issues of identity. As Schapiro explains, "I'm really interested in the heart image because I see the ways in which women are made fun of and trivialized ... I took it upon myself to raise up this symbol ..." (31) Schapiro's heart suggests there is value in those things dismissed offhandedly as "feminine" just as Quick To See Smith's heart is a reflection on American Indian values.

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Like Atrium of Flowers, Schapiro's She Sweeps with Many Colored Brooms (1976) (Fig. 9) invokes the long tradition of still-life flower painting by women. Here, Schapiro connects this activity to domestic labor by adding a diaphanous apron adorned with a floral arrangement in its center. The flowers are juxtaposed with colorful geometric shapes that float around a modernist grid, a reminder of the way in which the "feminine" decorative has been denigrated in modernist discourse. (32) Placing the apron in the domain of "fine art," Schapiro establishes a relationship between two forms of women's labor to assert their common connection and marginalized status.

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Quick To See Smith's painting American Nanny (1996) (Fig. 10) relates to Schapiro's She Sweeps with Many Colored Brooms. In it, Quick To See Smith examines the discriminatory job market for women, focusing on paid domestic labor rather than the unpaid work of the housewife represented by Schapiro's apron. Quick To See Smith focuses specifically on the experiences of Mexican women who come to the United States to work. For Amelia Trevelyan "The work highlights the fact that the same issues of materialism and exploitation that defined the experience of Native North Americans continues to plague the lives of their counterparts throughout the United States." (33) Captions such as "We'll treat you with respect, concern, and understanding" are presented along with messages that suggest otherwise, including a reference to the "new 1.3 mile long fence" to keep illegal Mexicans from entering the United States. While Mexicans cross the border because they are in desperate need of work, whites, on the other hand, take "Town and Country Tours" to Puerto Vallarta and other Mexican resorts. Though ultimately influenced by Schapiro's painting, the biting irony that permeates this work sets it apart from Schapiro's celebratory homage to the unrecognized contributions of women.

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Thalia Gouma-Peterson described Schapiro as a "creative woman in search of a legitimate ancestry," (34) another element that links her to Quick To See Smith. In She Sweeps with Many Colored Brooms, as we have seen, Schapiro references the tradition of women still-life flower painters. In her Coflaboration Series, she goes even further by reconstructing a general history of women's creative production. In the first of the "collaborations" (1970s), she relates her own work to that of earlier women artists, including Mary Cassatt. In Collaboration Series: Mother Russia, she establishes bonds with modernist Russian women artists of the 1920s and 1930s. In Stepanova and Me, After Gulliver (Fig. 11), Schapiro pays tribute to Varvara Stepanova (1894-1958), a Russian Constructivist who designed textiles, including sports costumes like the one she is wearing in the painting. Hiding her eyes, Stepanova appears to be protecting herself from the small black figures below her, which Schapiro describes as "the devils and demons that beset all creative people." (35) Schapiro is connected to Stepanova not only by her own Russian ancestry, but also by their contributions to the revolutionary movements of their time. Though Stepanova's Communism is decidedly different from Schapiro's Feminism, nonetheless both women demonstrate a profound understanding of the direct relationship between art and politics. (36) Since both artists share an interest in textiles, Schapiro establishes her own lineage to Stepanova by celebrating the latter's textile art.

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Just as Schapiro recounts women's history as her own, Quick To See Smith incorporates traditional American Indian abstract painting and beadwork styles into her work to reconstruct a lineage for native creative expression. Digging even further into the past, she has utilized the imagery of ancient petroglyphs to comment upon the long and often overlooked history of art making in American Indian culture. In the 1980s, Quick To See Smith completed a series of paintings that dealt directly with the politics surrounding the destruction of ancient petroglyphs in Albuquerque, New Mexico to make way for new housing development. Her collograph etching, Celebrate 40,000 Years of American Art (Fig. 12), also uses petroglyph images to examine the politics of how we construct history. Dominating the print is a group of petroglyph-inspired rabbits, while the title reinforces what the images suggest: that American art, when inclusive of Native Americans, can be traced back 40,000 years.

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In her examination of American Indian culture, Quick To See Smith is best described as bicultural. She pays close attention to the dynamic relationship between Euro-Americans and American Indians throughout history, acknowledging the significance of this relationship in shaping both cultures. Zena Pearlstone has recognized this connection in Quick To See Smith's series of paintings that focus on the Lone Ranger's sidekick, Tonto, described by Pearlstone as "the quintessential symbol of the Americanization of the Indian world" (37) In an article on this series, Pearlstone stated, "The paintings as a group refer to misunderstandings between cultures, but they refer as well to an intermingling, a coming together of cultures." (38) Her point is best illustrated by Quick To See Smith's use of Spanglish, a combination of Spanish and English. The phrase "Hecho en USA," for example, figures in five of Quick To See Smith's paintings, suggesting that "we are all speaking Spanglish," (39) as elements from both worlds have mingled. James Ruppert provided a useful description of the ways in which American Indian artists negotiate the two worlds they inhabit:

"Contemporary Native American artists are in a position full of potential. As participants in two cultural traditions, they pattern their art with discursive acts of mediation at many levels. By mediation, I mean an artistic and conceptual standpoint, constantly flexible, which uses epistemological frameworks of Native American and Western cultural traditions to illuminate and enrich each other." (40)

Indeed, Quick To See Smith demonstrates a mastery of this mediation process, moving between both worlds in an effort to create a space in her art that affirms women. Digging into American Indian cultural history, she reconstructs the "red roots of feminism" by recognizing the important roles played by women in pre-colonization indigenous societies. These "red roots" guide Quick To See Smith in her critique of the constrictions placed on women in Euro-American society as a whole. She shares concerns with Euro-American feminist artists such as Schapiro in her statements about the exploitation of women and in her attempt to reconstruct a history of art that includes them. Jaune Quick To See Smith insists on dignity and respect for all women. Her art is a compelling recognition of the power of women to sustain the world and, perhaps more importantly today, to transform it back to sustainability.

(1) Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, Boston, 1986, 209-221.

(2) Ibid., 220.

(3) In Alejandro Anreus, Subversions/Affirmations: Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Jersey City, 1996, 111.

(4) Jaune Quick To See Smith, Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar, and Sage, New York,1985, n.p.

(5) Gaylord Torrence, The American Indian Parfleche: A Tradition of Abstract Painting, Seattle, 1994, 19.

(6) For the impact of European contact on native women's art production, see Ruth Phillips,

Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900, Seattle, 1998.

(7) Email to author, 20 March 2004.

(8) Ibid. Kenmille has received national recognition; in 2003, she was one of the recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship, awarded to master folk and traditional artists.

(9) In Anreus, 91.

(10) In Sara Bates, Indian Humor, San Francisco,1995, 80.

(11) Email to author, 20 March 2004. Commending Nez Perce Chief Joseph for "his intelligent and sensitive leadership," Quick To See Smith created her Wallowa Waterhole series (1978-1979), inspired by what she described as the "amazing maneuvers" of Chief Joseph against the United States Calvary in 1877. In his surrender speech to the United States Calvary, Chief Joseph proclaimed, "My heart is sick and sad." http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.html. Similarly, Chief Seattle's 1887 often repeated heartfelt speech, in which he reflected upon the great destruction caused by European Americans, inspired Quick To See Smith's Chief Seattle Series in 1991. http://halcyon.com/artborhts/chiefsea, 9 February 2005.

(12) Email to author, 20 March 2004.

(13) Bates, 80.

(14) Erin Valentino, "Coyote Ransom: Jaune Quick To See Smith and the Language of Appropriation," Third Text, XXXVIII, 1997, 35.

(15) Gunn Allen, 2.

(16) M. Annette Jaimes and Theresa Halsey, "American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in North America," in The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance, Jaimes, ed., Boston, 1992, 318.

(17) Patricia Albers and Beatrice Medicine, eds., "The Role of Sioux Women in the Production of Ceremonial Objects: The Case of the Star Quilt," in The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indian Women, Albers and Medicine, eds., Lanham, 1983, 124.

(18) Raymond DeMallie, "Male and Female in Traditional Lakota Culture," in Albers and Medicine, eds., 238.

(19) Ibid., 240.

(20) Ibid., 238.

(21) I am indebted to the discussions held in 2003 at the National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar titled "Working from Community: American Indian Art and Literature in a Historical and Cultural Context" in which I participated by providing my own examination of gender complementarity. Patrice Hollrah guided me to key readings on this topic. In her book, "The Old Lady Trill, The Victory Yell:" The Power of Women in Native American Literature, New York, 2004, she examines American Indian literature from the perspective of gender complementarity.

(22) Gunn Allen, 82.

(23) Ibid., 31.

(24) Lillian Ackerman, "Complementary But Equal: Gender Status in the Plateau," in Women and Power in Native North America, Laura Klein and Lillian Ackerman, eds., Norman, 1995, 77-78.

(25) Jaimes, "'Patriarchal Colonialism' and Indigenism: Implications for Native Feminist Spirituality and Native Womanism," Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy, XVIII/2, 2003, 63.

(26) http:lldir.salon.com/people/bc/2001/11/20/mankiIler/index.html? pn=2, 15 January 2005.

(27) Duane Champagne, ed., Native America: Portrait of the Peoples, Detroit, 1994, 102.

(28) Like Schapiro, Quick To See Smith may be viewed as representing a "feminist" vision. However, I have avoided the use of this term in recognition of the contentious history of mainstream feminism from indigenous perspectives for its failure to include the voices of Native women. Quick To See Smith is clearly asserting a message of power and self-determination for women in her work, and it is from this perspective that I would view her work as "feminist." See Lucy Lippard, "Independent Identities, in Native American Art in the Twentieth Century, W. Jackson Rushing, ed., London, 1999 for a discussion of Euro-American feminism and native women. See also Laura Tohe, "There is No Word for Feminism in My Language," Wicazo Sa Review, LV/2, 2000, 103-110.

(29) Miriam Schapiro and Melissa Meyer, "Waste Not Want Not: And Inquiry into What Women Saved and Assembled-FEMMAGE," Heresies, I, 1977-1978, 66-69.

(30) Ibid., 68. According to the authors, a work must include at least seven of the fourteen characteristics to qualify as a femmage.

(31) In Linda Stein, "Miriam Schapiro: Woman Warrior with Lace," FiberArts, 1998, 35.

(32) See Naomi Schor, Reading in Detail: Aesthetics and the Feminine, New York, 1987.

(33) Amelia Trevelyan, "Jaune Quick-to-See Smith," in Contemporary Masters: The Eitlejorg Fellowship for Native American Art, Indianapolis, 1999, 54.

(34) Thalia Gouma-Peterson, "'Collaboration' and Personal Identity in Miriam Schapiro's Art," in Miriam Schapiro, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, 1994, 8.

(35) In Gouma-Peterson, Miriam Schapiro: Shaping the Fragments of Art and Life, New York, 1999, 135.

(36) Ibid., 4. For discussion on Stepanova's position in the Russian avant-garde, see Alexander Lavrentiev, "Varvara Stepanova," in Amazons of the Avant-Garde, John Bowlt and Matthew Drutt, eds., New York, 2000.

(37) Zena Pearlstone, "Kemo Sabe: The Tonto Paintings of Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, American Indian Art Magazine, XXlX, 2004, 72.

(38) Pearlstone, 74.

(39) "Hecho en USA" is a combination of "Hecho En Estados Unidos" and "Made in the USA." Ibid.

(40) James Ruppert, Mediation in Contemporary Native American Fiction, Norman, 1995, 3.

Cynthia Fowler is Assistant Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Delaware in 2002. In 2003 she participated in a six-week program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities titled "Working from Community: American Indian Art and Literature in a Historical and Cultural Context," organized and directed by artist/critic Gail Tremblay (Onondaga/Micmac). Fowler acknowledges her debt to Tremblay and program participants in inspiring her research on contemporary American Indian Art.