Indigenous Interventions, Settler Collections: Wendy Red Star's Medicine Crow and the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation

In her recent installation Medicine Crow and the 1880 Crow Peace Delegation, Apsáalooke (Crow) artist Wendy Red Star incorporates a range of objects relating to her tribe’s history that are now in the collections of settler institutions: original garments, reproductions of photographs depicting 19th century leaders, and reproductions of ledger drawings. This constellation of objects illuminates a pivotal episode in Apsáalooke history. But rather than treat the objects as neutral documents, Red Star acts directly upon them, changing how they are presented and, in some cases, annotating and otherwise altering them. In so doing, the installation disrupts museum and archival dynamics of display, access, and control. More broadly, it raises questions about cultural patrimony and sovereignty, and directs critical attention to the colonial lens through which museums and other collecting institutions often present Indigenous histories and objects. Drawing on my experience as a curator of a 2019 iteration of Red Star's installation and on conversations with the artist, my paper will detail how her project impacted the institutions that hosted it, including the ways in which it revealed research lapses, conservation needs, and audience preconceptions. It will also explore the political and practical ramifications of Red Star’s appropriation via reproduction of archival material from other institutions. Treating Red Star’s installation as a case study, my paper will consider how contemporary Indigenous artists act upon the fraught space of the museum through installations that include objects and documents from Indigenous history.