Indigenous Peoples' Day
Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day, a holiday to celebrate and honour First Nation (Native American) people and commemorate their histories and cultures. Celebrated across the USA on the second Monday in October, it reminds us of the people who arrived in North America before us.
Five First Nation artists, across genres: Supaman, Maria Tallchief, Lloyd Kiva New, Joan Hill, and Radmilla Cody, are exemplary models of their heritage. Their work is beautiful, contemporary, and worthy of cultural celebration.
Christian Parrish Takes the Gun, also known as Billy Ills is a First Nation Crow tribe member residing in Montana.
Supaman, a member of the Apsaalooke Nation, As a member of the Apsaalooke Nation, Supaman makes his home in Montana. He’s also known as Christian Takes Gun Parrish, a Native American dancer and innovative hip-hop artist who dedicates his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope and faith through a unique fusion of traditional and modern culture. Recipient of the 2017 MTV VMA award for Best Fight Against the System. He is also a Nammy - Native American Music Award winner, North American Indigenous Image Award, and seven Tunney Awards. He recently was awarded, the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award in Canada for best video and was voted MTV’s new Artist of the Week. His videos titled “Prayer Loop Song” and “Why” have received millions of views on Youtube and Facebook, putting him in high demand throughout the USA and internationally. He has performed for Google at the Google headquarters and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. He was asked to audition for America’s Got Talent and the Broadway play Hamilton. He has worked with Taboo from the “Black Eyed Peas” and is completing multiple projects.
Maria Tallchief as Eurydice in Balanchine’s “Orpheus,” c. 1948.
As the country’s first prima ballerina, Maria Tallchief (1925-2013, Osage) put American ballet on the map. Muse, then wife, to George Balanchine, she played an integral role in bringing world renown to the New York City Ballet, bringing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker from obscurity into the American zeitgeist.
But in the years right before Tallchief was born, her entire family was nearly murdered when oil was discovered beneath the Osage reservation in Oklahoma. While Maria Tallchief did not want to compromise her profession with her Osage narrative, it was integral to her work and fame.
Radmilla Cody at the Grammies
Radmilla A. Cody (b. 1975) is an American Navajo model, award-winning singer, and anti-domestic violence activist who was the 46th Miss Navajo from 1997 to 1998. Her recordings, primarily in the Navajo language, were influenced by the chants of her grandfather, a medicine man. In her Grammy-nominated album, Shi Keyah: Songs for the People, her voice presented haunting lyrics in Navajo.
Joan Hill (Muskogee Nation, USA). "Morning in the Indian Village" 1975. Dimensions: 30 3/4 x 40 3/4 in. Paint, polymer, and sand on canvas.
Joan Hill. “War and Rumors of Wars,” 1973, acrylic on canvas, of the J. W. Wiggins Contemporary Native American Art Collection, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. All images of artwork courtesy of Dr. J. W. Wiggins.
Joan Hill (1930-2020, Muskogee) is one of the most celebrated Native women painters of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by the Muskogee legends her father passed down to her, she drew inspiration from various cultures. Her paintings blended Native American artistic methods with European traditions ranging from realism to abstract expressionism, often using negative space to define foliage, mounds, and other landscape features.
Joan Hill poses in front of one of her paintings, a portrait of a 19th-century Muskogee leader in oil.
Lloyd Henri "Kiva" New. Untitled Abstract, 1967. Dimensions: 47 x 38 in. Paint on canvas.
Lloyd Kiva New (1916-2002, Cherokee) evolved from a fashion designer to a powerful influence, driving generations of Native American artists to turn their visions into sustainable careers. Born in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, he earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). After graduating, he taught painting at the Phoenix Indian School, and other reservations, later co-founding the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. He strongly believe artists should retain creative links to tradition without being bound by it.
If you know other First Nation artists you'd like to celebrate, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.