» Restoring meaning to Crow chiefs

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Red Star, 1880 Crow Peace Delegation

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Question 1

Based on the video commentary, which statement describes the original purpose of these photographs?

A	They were portraits intended to highlight the accomplishments and individual backgrounds of the 1880 Crow Indian Peace Delegation
B	They were a document of the Crow Indians who were sent to Washington as a Peace Delegation in 1880
C	They were photographs of Crow Indians shown in traditional costume that were used for commercial and educational purposes
D	They were photographs shot by Wendy Red Star to underscore the appropriation and devaluing of Native American culture

Question 2

All of the following assert the cultural pride and individual accomplishments of the Crow chiefs EXCEPT

A	The elaborately carved chair
B	The poses and facial expressions
C	The native clothing and details of adornment
D	The annotations on the photographs

Question 3

Which statement best supports the idea that Anglo-Americans dehumanized Native Americans in the 19th century?

A	The Pacific Railroad was built across territories owned by the Crow Indians
B	The U.S. relied on the Indians’ separation from their families as a negotiation tactic
C	The Honest Tea Company recently used Medicine Crow as a marketing symbol
D	Natural history museums collected the bodies and material culture of Native Americans

Question 4

Based on Wendy Red Star’s comments in this video, what did she enjoy most about creating 1880 Crow Peace Delegation?

A	The reliance on the human figure as a vehicle of expression
B	The use of color to underscore emotional meaning
C	The opportunity to learn about and share her own cultural history
D	The creative combination of text and visual imagery

Question 5

In her image of Two Belly, Red Star’s annotation that reads, “I can kick your ass with these eyes” is an example of

A	the artist using humor and personal commentary to humanize the subject
B	the artist using research to explain iconographic details
C	the artist using a primary source to provide new information
D	the artist using a historical quote to add insight to the figure

Question 6

What historical information did Wendy Red Star discover while researching the men depicted in this series?

A	The descendants of one of the chiefs in the photographs were her friends
B	The four specific acts an individual had to accomplish in order to become a Crow chief
C	The chiefs’ clothing and regalia held symbolic meaning within Crow culture
D	The photographer did not know the name or the tribe of the Indians he photographed

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Key points

The Crow Peace Delegation of 1880 included Medicine Crow and five other chiefs who traveled to Washington DC to discuss land rights and negotiations over building the Northern Pacific Railroad through Crow territory.
Although these are portraits of individual chiefs, the photographs reflect the deliberate erasure of Native American culture that served to dehumanize the Crow and other indigenous peoples in the U.S. The use of these images in popular reproductions today continues the practice of outsiders commercializing Indian identity.
Red Star uses her artistic process to assert each man’s individual identity and accomplishments, as well as to learn more about her own culture as a Crow Indian and to share it with others.

Go deeper

Learn about this object at the Portland Museum of Art

Visit Wendy Red Star’s website

Learn more about Crow culture and history

View this online exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian addressing cultural appropriation of Native Americans

More to think about

Wendy Red Star’s commentary on these images restore specific and personal details of Medicine Crow and his colleagues that were erased in both the original photographs and their reinterpretations in popular culture. She creates a fuller and more complicated history by adding information that an outsider may not know. Think about photographs of your family that reflect your cultural heritage or personal stories. What details are excluded from the image, or might be unknown to an outsider? How might you annotate a document from your own history so that it tells a more complete story?