According to the 2000 Census, over one million Native Americans live in states that fall within the Great Plains region.  Many of the artists within this population work in traditional media such as quillwork, beadwork and wood and bone carving. Their skills were learned from elders who in turn learned them from the previous generation, and so on. This transfer of cultural and artistic knowledge is one of the ways that contemporary work relates to historic material from the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Moreover, indigenous people have always traded materials, shared ideas, and created innovative art forms, a tradition that persisted after Europeans invaded and colonized North America, and one that continues today. Indeed, looking to past art for inspiration is a time-honored tradition in many world cultures, including Euro-American art. Just as nineteenth-century Native artists incorporated trade materials (glass beads, wool cloth, ledger paper, etc.)  that were introduced by non-Native settlers and army personnel, some Native artists today choose to express themselves in new media, such as photography, or to question received conventions such as gender-specific art forms. The inclusion of both historic and contemporary works in Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains illustrates this complex history, which is one of the exhibition’s themes.

The Times review also was critical of the involvement of Native American scholars, artists, and tribal members in the exhibition. In the wake of prevalent popular misconceptions and stereotypes, Native American participation was central to our goals in organizing the exhibition. The perspectives of our Native consultants—who have firsthand experience of tipi traditions and protocols, of languages and stories that belong to oral traditions, and of tipi arts and designs that have been passed down over generations—enriched the project immeasurably and were crucial to giving an accurate and sensitive presentation of Plains objects. Native involvement in the exhibition was a privilege for our Museum not an obligation.

For additional commentary from a Native perspective, please see America Meredith’s blog.

We welcome your comments.

Blackfeet Tipi during final moments of installation.

So, this brings us back to the question: How do we set up a tipi, safely, and indoors?  To paraphrase a quote by Filippo Gentile the Museum’s supervisor in-charge of the art handlers during installations, who would bear the brunt of making this installation happen – We are city people.  What do we know of the country?  Through a team effort involving Katie Welty the Registrar in charge of the exhibition, objects conservators, and art handlers, we managed to work out the details, consulting historic texts such as Indians of the Plains by Robert Lowie, and The Indian Tipi: Its History, Construction, and Use by Reginald and Gladys Laubin, as well as getting instructions from Ken Woody and Lyle Heavy Runner.

Blackfoot tipis have 4 foundation poles.

Tipis may look the same to you or me, but they are very different depending on which tribe made them.  The most significant difference has to do with the number of tripod poles used to form the main structural support for the covering.  I came to realize this in a phone conversation with Lyle Heavy Runner before he made an initial trip from Montana out to Brooklyn to do a test installation with us.  Lyle kept referring to the four poles of the tripod, and I kept thinking, but doesn’t a tripod indicate three?  Blackfoot and Crow tipis have 4 foundation poles, while the Sioux and Cheyenne use three foundation poles.

Test installation in October 2010.

Lyle’s visit for the test set up in October, 2010 was enlightening and frightening at the same time.  Lyle had never set up a tipi indoors and we had never set up a tipi!  At 28 feet tall, this was certainly a challenging one to start with.

After turning off the smoke detectors, Lyle smudged the tipi and us as a blessing before we started.  In turns out we really needed it.  After an intensive 2 days of work, the foundation poles broke and the tipi came crashing down onto the marble floor.   No one was hurt.  The blessing had worked.  Lyle went home, leaving us with an introduction and the confidence in us that we could make this work.

New, thicker poles made from Lodgepole Pine were obtained from Montana and we set anew to learn how to erect a tipi.  Knowing that the marble floor of the 5^th floor Rotunda was working against us, the museum’s carpenters headed by Greg Battersby worked diligently to provide us a platform into which chock blocks could be attached to secure the poles.

A full week was set aside to work out the details of setting up three pole and four pole tipis.  Lyle noted during his visit that the thought process of building was very different between native and non-native peoples.  His thought process as a Blackfoot was to think of the whole first and then break it apart, whereas ours was very clearly building from the ground up, piece by piece to get a whole.  Using the historic directions from the literature, and our experience with Lyle as a starting place, we set about coming up with directions for each tipi so that we could do this without a hitch when the installation started.

Everyone pooled together; Filippo looking at what the Eagle Scouts had written on erecting tipi’s, and refreshing his knowledge of basic geometry, and Assistant Objects Conservator Jakki Godfrey and Katie poured over a small model made from chopsticks to make sure the written directions were accurate.  The week was intense.  Looking up a 28 foot pole, one tends to experience vertigo, which is especially problematic when the pole weighs nearly 75 pounds!  There were many intense discussions that week – “Which pole does this one go on top of?  What do you mean by ‘on top’? Which “V”?  There are at least six “V” shapes at the top of the poles! – but with the North, South, East and West quadrants marked out on the four walls of the gallery with blue tape, we managed to do it.

Armed with templates, and fully labeled poles – NW, SW, NW, NE foundation poles, support poles 1-14, ear flap or smoke flap poles, and chock blocks – we managed to put up Lyle Heavy Runner’s Blackfoot Welcome Tipi.  It may not have been as a member of the Blackfoot nation would have done it, but it was all Brooklyn!

I hope you enjoy the experience of being inside when you come see the exhibition.

Yakama (Native American). Woman’s Beaded Dress, late 19th century. Buckskin, glass beads, metal coins, 46 x 45 1/2 in. (116.8 x 115.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 46.181. Creative Commons-BY-NC

You can see the care in which it is made and the artist’s attention to detail by looking closely at her choice of beads. Each bead is chosen for its specific color in the design, and then sewn on – not an easy task pushing the needle through hide. The Yacama woman’s choice of danglers to use on the bodice makes me think about my own collecting habits. Perhaps the Chinese coins were treasured heirlooms. Or perhaps the pieces came from other dresses now worn out or given to her from a family member.

We know that this Yakama dress was part of the collection of designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) and exhibited in a special Native American gallery in Tiffany’s Long Island home, Laurelton Hall. He was an avid collector of Native American art and traveled to the Northwest area in 1910, 1911 and again in 1916 where he collected many Native American objects including baskets (also in the Museum’s collection) and this Yakama Dress. The dress came to the Museum in 1946 when the contents of Laurelton Hall came up for auction.

Today, the Yakama Nation with around 10,000 members is located on the Columbia Plateau in Washington State near the Columbia River. The women are still famous for their containers and headgear made in a traditional basketry style and their fine beadwork on clothing and horse gear.

Participants in the morning parade prepare for the procession.  Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

Participants in morning parade moving through the Crow Fair campgrounds. Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

The Grand Entry involving all particpating dancers who will be competing in the Powwows on Saturday and Sunday nights. Photo by Susan Kennedy Zeller.

On June 15, the first of two planning meetings was held at the Brooklyn Museum in order to determine the themes of the exhibition. A diverse group of ten consultants including scholars, tribal representatives and artists attended the meeting, along with the three exhibition curators (Nancy Rosoff, Susan Kennedy Zeller and Tim Ramsey), as well as other staff members.

Left to right sitting: Tim Ramsey (Southern Cheyenne-Choctaw), Teri Greeves (Kiowa), Christina Burke (Philbrook Museum), Derek Big Day (Crow), Heywood Big Day (Crow)

Left to right standing: Miranda Applebaum, Rima Ibrahim, Susan Kennedy Zeller, Don Moccasin (Rosebud Lakota Sioux), Barbara Hail (Haffenreffer Museum), Nancy Rosoff, Gerard Baker (Mandan-Hidatsa), Bently Spang (Northern Cheyenne), Dan Swan (Sam Noble Museum), and Mary Lou Big Day (Crow).

Consultants examine Plains objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.

Tim Ramsey, Heywood Big Day and Gerard Baker examine the drawings on a tipi liner that was owned by the great Hunkpapa Sioux leader Rain-In-The-Face (ca. 1835-1905). Rain-In-The-Face was one of the Sioux leaders who fought and defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. A tipi liner is hung around the inner tipi wall as insulation and decoration. The drawings on this liner depict battle scenes and religious ceremonies. This liner has never been studied or published and a special consultation meeting with other experts will be held at the Museum on September 7.

All photos by Rebecca Greenberg