Déaxitchish / Pretty Eagle

Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke/Crow) is an artist who works in photography, collage, sculpture, installation, and performance. Her works are informed by her Native American heritage and Red Star sometimes uses historical representations of Native Americans, as in this portfolio of works, in order to highlight how Indigenous peoples have been represented in the past. In doing so, she brings to light the often painful dynamics of power between the colonized and the colonizer and the ongoing struggle against misperceptions of Native cultures. "Medicine Crow & the 1880 Peace Crow Delegation" is a based on a series of photographs by Charles Milton Bell (1848-1893), who photographed Medicine Crow and a delegation of five other Crow Chiefs during their visit to Washington, D.C. in 1880 to negotiate the expansion of the Northern Pacific Railroad through Crow territory. By annotating "Déaxitchish / Pretty Eagle" with red ink and a sharp sense of humor, Red Star underscores how Native peoples have been represented and misrepresented, while also challenging persistent cultural stereotypes.