The Art of Testimony: Standing Bear's Little Bighorn Muslins

About this event

The Art of Testimony: Standing Bear’s Little Bighorn Muslins August 29 @ 10:30 am – 11:30 am Join The Brinton Museum for the first program in our Fall into Art series, presented in conjunction with The Unfinished War: The Battle of the Little Bighorn in Native American Art. Art historian Ramey Mize, PhD, Susan G. Detweiler Associate Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will explore the work of Mnikhówožu Lakȟóta leader Matȟó Nážiŋ (Stephen Standing Bear) and the Little Bighorn muslins he created around the turn of the twentieth century. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Mnikhówožu Lakȟóta leader Matȟó Nážiŋ (Stephen Standing Bear) channeled his memory of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in drawings on muslin. He produced these works, including the monumental, six-by-six-foot composition Events Leading to the Battle of the Little Bighorn (c. 1899) at The Brinton Museum of Art, in the context of vibrant social gatherings, verifying and editing his tableaus alongside fellow survivors within the testimonial framework of eháŋni wičhówoyake, a category of oral history reserved for “living history,” or “true stories.” This talk considers Matȟó Nážiŋ’s Little Bighorn muslins as a form of testimony to Lakȟótas’ right to resist Custer’s assault, as well as the wider incursions of U.S. empire. Through the aural, communal dimension of listening activated by the “true stories” embedded in his images, Matȟó Nážiŋ’s art deviates from Western concepts of the singular, ocular-centric eyewitness, embodying instead Lakȟóta values of relationality and reciprocity. By re-centering the vital oral histories once indelible to these visual testimonies, this presentation will explore the multi-sensory, testimonial significance of drawings in Lakȟóta life during a time of immense upheaval. The Brinton Museum’s Events Leading to the Battle of the Little Bighorn is currently featured in The Unfinished War, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the work…