JOSEPH — Under the watchful eye of Chief Joseph Mountain still pristine with snow, stories of the nimiipuu (or Nez Perce people) are being shared through vibrant visual art in the surroundings of their ancestral northeastern Oregon homeland, Wallowa, “Land of the Winding Waters.”
“BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” opened recently at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph, in the valley the Wallowa Band Nez Perce people have called home since time immemorial.
Curated by the Josephy Library of Western History and Culture and the ITAM’YANÁAWIT Small Business Program of the Nez Perce Tribe, the exhibit features works of 10 Nez Perce artists who create visual storytelling through paintings, prints, basket weaving, dressmaking, beading, bronze sculpting, jewelry making and ledger art. Jordan Shawl, program coordinator of ‘ITAM’YANÁAWIT, was lead curator of the exhibit, along with Kolle Kahle Riggs of the Josephy Center and Jacy Sohappy of the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland.
Some of the works reflect historical and even painful moments in the tribe’s long history, while other pieces portray animals, people, deep-rooted traditions and even modern pop culture figures.
Most of the artwork is for sale.
Featured artists include Phillip Cash Cash, Emma Chief, Nakia Cloud, Doug Hyde, Brian McCormack, Jacy Sohappy, Ellen Taylor, Nizhonia Toledo, John Seven Wilson III and Michael Wilson Sr.
“This exhibition is an act of reclamation and visibility,” said Stacia Morfin, director of the ‘ITAM’YANÁAWIT Small Business Program. “It affirms that our stories, languages and connections to place are alive. BLOODLINES is more than an art exhibit. It is a platform for representation, where our ties to this land and our history upon it ignite our future within it,” she added.
Many of the artists gained their passion for traditional art from grandparents and elders in their tribe who influenced and guided them.
“The Descendant Nations Gathering” Watercolor and print marker by Emma Chief of Lapwai, Idaho. “BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” opened recently at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph.Kathy Patten/For The Oregonian
Ellen Taylor of Pendleton contributed several acrylic paintings to the “BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” exhibit, including both traditional works and some with a modern twist, such as “Prince Goes Native.” Her paintings are for sale at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph through June 6. More of Taylor’s artwork can be found at https://www.ellentaylornativeartist.com/home “BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” opened recently at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph. Kathy Patten/For The OregonianKathy Patten/For The Oregonian
Ellen Taylor, who lives on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, started painting in grade school. Her grandmother Ellen Johnson encouraged her to paint on arrow quivers and to create designs for her beadwork.
Taylor went on to study art at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton and College of Santa Fe in New Mexico.
“My artwork got started through a deck of cards,” she revealed. “I took the face cards — king, queen, jack — and turned all those designs into Native designs. And then I came home, and I did a family research study. And my great-grandfather, his name was Poker Jim, and he liked to play cards. And so I thought that was a spiritual connection.”
Taylor is from the Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Nez Perce and Ojibwa tribes, and her work pays homage to such historical tribal figures as Ollokot, war leader of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce and younger brother of Chief Joseph, and the legendary Nez Perce bronco busting champion, Jackson Sundown.
She contributed several paintings to the “BLOODLINES” exhibit that highlight both traditional figures, such as Native American couples and warriors, and modern pop culture idols.
“I like to do American icons like Prince and Marilyn Monroe. My favorite artists are contemporary artists,” such as Andy Warhol, she said.
“They’re very famous people, and I just wanted to give them a legacy and show that history of America, and also put, like, a Native American twist. It just gives you a fun feeling. It makes your brain and your heart really think.”
Taylor’s work can be seen during the Pendleton Round-Up every September in Roy Raley Park next to the arena. “That’s my big show that I do every year,” she said.
Wallowa Lake, six miles south of Joseph, once teemed with blueback (sockeye) salmon. Nez Perce people camped along its shores for thousands of summers to harvest, dry and preserve this staple food. Kathy Patten/For The Oregonian
Phillip Cash Cash, Cayuse/Nez Perce, contributed three works to the exhibition, including this acrylic on canvas that he describes as “an abstraction depicting or sensing the earth at the moment of the maximum growth period of spring, full bloom, peak, or in the late spring, when environmental conditions such as day length, temperature, and moisture are optimal for plant growth.” “BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” opened recently at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph.Kathy Patten/For The Oregonian
Phillip Cash Cash, whose traditional name is Yellowhawk in Nez Perce/Cayuse, added three abstract paintings to the “BLOODLINES” exhibit that reflect a philosophy he shares with Young Chief Joseph: “the earth and myself of one mind.”
“I have attempted to make an artistic inquiry into the idea of land and immersion, where our body and the landscape are one and the same. And so the artworks sort of attempt to embody the creative process and unify as a singular creative output,” Cash Cash told an audience at the show’s opening on April 26 via telephone from Arizona.
“So this is sort of along our Indigenous thinking where our body, heart and mind are one with the earth,” he said. “And so you’ll see and possibly recognize that idea in the artwork.”
Cash Cash recently curated an Indigenous art show, “Sensing Sasquatch,” at the High Desert Museum in Bend and was co-author of the book “They Are Not Forgotten, Sahaptian Place Names of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla.”
“There’s always this ongoing renewed creativity coming from the Indigenous community,” he said. “And it’s always exciting to see new works being created and exhibited.”
“BLOODLINES: Nez Perce Art” is viewable 12 p.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through May 31 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 2-6; Josephy Center for Arts and Culture; 403 Main St., Joseph; 541-432-0505 or 541-263-0930; free; josephy.org.
— Kathy Patten, for The Oregonian/OregonLive