An Artwork I created for a research project I did on the 1980 Wounded Knee Massacre and 1972 Battle at Wounded Knee.
[link] <----SEE THE PROCESS

ARTIST STATEMENT:
Remember Wounded Knee is a piece I created with a lot of intent and purpose. At first I wasn’t sure how or what I was going to create. After going through the history of both Wounded Knee struggles, it came apparent to me there was an iconic character from each incident. Chief Big Foot was the Lakota leader at the time of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, and the iconic photographs taken of him dead and frozen in the snow were very striking to me. I remember when I was working on the part of Chief Big Foot and I kept getting this stomach ache the more I observed the photograph of him lying in a mangled, unnatural position in the snow. It almost looked as if he was struck down, and he tried to get back up but just died in that position, he died trying to stand back up. I’m not sure why but there was something about his hands, how fragile and old they looked, just the way his arms curled upward and the way his hands folded made me feel very uncomfortable. I wonder what the 7th cavalry thought when they saw these frozen bodies, did they mourn or feel anything at all?
The other figure in my drawing is Russell Means who kept coming up in my research as a strong and inspirational icon. When listening to his interviews and philosophy you can get an honest feeling that this guy knows what he’s talking about. Russell Means was an active AIM leader and also stared in movies like Last of the Mohicans, Pocahontas, and Path Finder. He talked about how in the movies he was in, the script writers did little to no research on actual Indian culture or customs. It makes me wonder why he would act in such films that weren’t accurate, perhaps it was a statement or some sort of inside joke. Overall, Russell Means was a very influential man and did a lot for American Indians across the nation.
There is much symbolism in my piece as well. The colors revolve around the colors of the Lakota medicine wheel; black, red, white, and yellow. I used an eagle to represent the strength and courage shown by the Lakota people during the Wounded Knee incidences. The buffalo silhouette represents the purpose of the Ghost Dance and the hope of their return to the plains. The buffalo skulls, in relation to all of American Indian culture, represents the near extinction both went through.
My overall composition is meant to be representational and there are many hidden meanings, but it is up to the viewer to decide what they see.