Haley E.
Yelp
I excitedly walked into this gallery as a first time visitor to Marfa and artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico. When I walked in I saw deer hide with bead hangings on the walls. I approached them trying to figure out which tribe they came from and who the artist was. The two gallerists were sitting in the middle of the gallery and mentioned that they were Lakota. I asked what tribe and they looked confused and repeated Lakota. To which I assumed they just had no idea what tribe so I tried to continue looking. But then they started to laugh and said the artist isn't Lakota and that the artist was white and from Marfa. He continued to say that the designs were Lakota and that it was fine because the artist came over on the Mayflower. Then they both started laughing hysterically. Little did they know I'm Red Lake and Turtle Mountain Chippewa and that at that moment I wanted to tell them both to go fuck off. Instead I ignored them, walked around, and left. I wish I would have told them that there are plenty of Native artists out there they could have gotten work from that actually make that work because it comes from their family and culture and life and I wish I would have told them that their Mayflower joke is funny if you're an old ignorant white man. It's not when your ancestors were actually affected by those people on the Mayflower which turned into hundreds of years of genocide against Native people on North America. Maybe they thought that were all dead. Spoilers, were not. I walked out and for two days I thought about those men and I thought about how I'm going to remember them and I'm going to learn from them and how I've collected my thoughts and feelings and I'm ready to use them in my art. And I'm ready to tell this story when it comes up. And I'm ready to tell the next ignorant people I meet in a calm and cool manner just how wrong they are. And also to fuck off.
