Art Institute Teaches Native Principles

By Angela McClurg
VERMILLION, S.D.  – The Oscar Howe Institute brings a new image to the traditional style of Native artwork, a popular, growing field.

Oscar Howe founded the institute in the 1960s to teach young Natives how to incorporate their culture in art. Howe was an art professor at the University of South Dakota and a well-known Native American artist.

Kieth Braveheart, 25, has attended the institute for seven years and is now the program coordinator.

Braveheart said Native artwork is ready to “blow up a new scene” and turn in a new direction.

“It’s not going to be the same old picture of an Indian with a feather,” Braveheart said.

It’s important to change the view of Native Americans, he said. Instead of having a white man identify Native culture from a book and tell the sad story of Native people in United States history, Natives need to identify themselves, Braveheart said.

“We need to gain back control,” he said.

It’s not easy teaching the students about Native artwork when many don’t know about their heritage.

Dan Dismounts, 17, from the Rosebud Sioux tribe in South Dakota, said he doesn’t know much about his culture but is eager to learn. Dismounts art teacher recommended he apply to the institute.

“I plan on becoming a graphic designer,” Dismounts said. “It seems like it would be fun to learn another form of artwork.”

Jimmy Black Spotted Horse, 17, is also from the Rosebud Sioux tribe and said he knows a little bit about his culture.

“Most of it is just history,” he said.

Many of the students draw their artwork from interests and not necessarily their heritage.

Gerard Desheuqu, 18, from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said art calms him down.

“I just draw anything,” Dismounts said. “I learned how to draw skulls.”

The popularity and value of Oscar Howe’s artwork has inspired other Native artists to pursue careers as full-time artists.

Linda Boyd, manager and founder of the Prairie Star Art Gallery in Sioux Falls, sells handcrafted artwork from more than 900 Native American families.

Crafts in her store range from the $1 popcorn to $20,000 paintings, including works by  Howe.

“I have become like a local Indian service,” Boyd said.

Rob Tigert, the manager of the Tigert art gallery in Vermillion, keeps a stock of Howe’s work.

“They sell well,” Tigert said. “I get a lot of requests for them.”

One of Howe’s most famous pieces, “Woman Scalp Dancer,” retails for $60,000 on askart.com.

Don Montileaux, 60, from the Oglala Sioux tribe, is a full-time artist. He is nationally known for his ledger artwork, a traditional style of Native art, in which Indians would trade goods for ledger books and draw on the pages as a type of diary and to catalog their history.

“This old artwork is taking a brand new form,” said Montileaux who teaches at the institute. “These are young guys and girls all presenting it in a new way [and] with their own influence.

“It is easy, it is simple, but it’s still a traditional form of artwork.”

Montileaux describes his effort to teach these students as a lifelong experience.

“Give somebody a fish, feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish, feed them for a lifetime,” he said. “I teach them the basics and how to present their artwork to a show… so I’m teaching them to feed themselves for a lifetime.”