Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast

Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse is director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art, curator of northwest Native art at the Burke Museum, assistant professor of art history at the University of Washington, and coeditor of In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum. Aldona Jonaitis is former director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and author of Art of the Northwest Coast andThe Yuquot Whalers' Shrine. The other contributors are Karen Benbassat Ali, Janet Catherine Berlo, Iljuuwaas Tyson Brown (Haida Nation), Jisgang Nika Collison (Haida Nation), Karen Duffek, Sharon Fortney (Klahoose), Christopher Green, Denise Nicole Green, Ishmael Hope (Inupiaq and Tlingit), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Kaitlin McCormick, Emily L. Moore, Peter Morin (Tahltan Nation), Lou-ann Ika'wega Neel (Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw), Duane Niatum (Jamestown S'Klallam), Megan A. Smetzer, Robert Starbard (Xunaa Tlingit), Evelyn Vanderhoop (Haida Nation), and Lucy Fowler Williams.

• IntroductionKathryn Bunn-MarcusePART I. Cultural Heritage Protection: Questions of Rights and AuthorityA Bear in the Cedar, by Duane Niatum Chapter 1. The Seward Shame Pole: A Tlingit Countermonument to the Alaska Purchase Emily L. Moore Chapter 2. The Social Life of Stones: Haida hlg̱as7agaa/argillite and the Making of Inalienable Commodities Kaitlin McCormick Chapter 3. Morse Code for Creation: Jim Schoppert's Painterly Language for a Postmodern Revival Christopher Green Chapter 4. From "Artifakes" to "Surrogates": The Replication of Northwest Coast Carving by Non-Natives Janet Catherine Berlo and Aldona JonaitisPART II. Women's Work: Stories, Art, and Power One Square Inch, by Lily Hope Chapter 5. Stl'inll ~ Those with Clever Hands: Presenting Female Indigenous Art and ScholarshipJisgang Nika CollisonChapter 6. Copper Seaweed and Woven Octopus Bags: Shgen George and the Art of ResilienceMegan A. SmetzerChapter 7. Ellen Neel and Carving on the Coast: Three Decades of Change and RenewalLou-ann Ika'wega NeelPART III. Changing MuseumsLet Indigenous Reign, by Ishmael HopeChapter 8. In the Spirit of Reconciliation: Rethinking Collections and the Act of Engagement at the Museum of VancouverSharon Fortney Chapter 9. The Museum Disappeared: Northwest Coast Art and the Object of DisplayKaren Duffek, Peter Morin, and Karen Benbassat AliChapter 10. From Behind-the-Scenes to the Front of the House: Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired at the Burke MuseumKathryn Bunn-Marcuse Chapter 11. Woosh.Jee.Een, Pulling Together: Repatriation's Healing TideLucy Fowler Williams, with contributions by Robert StarbardPART IV. Beyond ArtThoughts on Formline, by Iljuuwaas Tyson BrownChapter 12. Soft Robes of Thundering Power: Mountain Goat Fiber Textiles of the Northwest CoastEvelyn VanderhoopChapter 13. Sayach'apis and the Naani (Grizzly Bear) Crest Denise Nicole GreenChapter 14. Tlingit ArtIshmael HopeConclusion. Fifty Years Studying Northwest Coast Art: A Personal ViewAldona JonaitisContributorsIndex

"An incredible volume of Northwest Coast scholarship, art-historical analysis, Indigenous knowledge, and a confluence of literary power linked together through intergenerational visioning, Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast signals a change in how Indigenous art is contextualized both academically and institutionally."(Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal) "[A] valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarship working to center Indigenous voices in Northwest Coast art studies... This volume will certainly become a classic and is an excellent learning tool and essential library addition for anyone interested in Indigenous studies, museum practice, or Northwest Coast art history."(First American Art Magazine) "Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast questions the very notion of art and problematizes colonial approaches to Indigenous art. Editors Bunn-Marcuse and Jonaitis are particularly interested in how overturning Western ideals can unsettle colonial museum practices."(Transforming Anthropology) "Given that the apprehension of Northwest Coast Native art is an ever-evolving process, these essays provide readers with an urgently required snapshot of dynamiccontemporary strategies."(American Indian Culture & Research Journal) "Exemplifying the Indigenous methodologies of respect, reciprocity, and relationality, this book is a model for art historians, curators, and other scholars who want to develop more ethical relationships with the communities whose belongings they store, care for, and study, and is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn from stories of Indigenous lives enriched by renewed relationships with their ancestral belongings."(Western Historical Quarterly) "[A]n enjoyable source to learn about emerging research and writers in its field... For humanities scholars attuned to material culture, museum practitioners, and Indigenous art enthusiasts more broadly, the book is generous in ideas and exemplars to better understand ancestral and current arts holistically and to set new directions for engagement at museums and galleries."(Journal of Folklore Research) "The many stories and essays in Unsettling Native Art Histories provided me with valuable new teachings and perspectives. I recommend it highly to people of diverse interests in the fields of art, anthropology, history, ethnology, and contemporary Indigenous issues."(The Ormsby Review)