'Native Hosts' artist surprised, sad to see signs vandalized

I'm not a seer or a prophet, but when I first saw Edgar Heap of Birds's "Native Hosts" signs on Nevada Street on campus, I figured they'd eventually be vandalized. Maybe I'm a pessimist, or maybe I've just read too many letters to the editor of this newspaper.

So I was not surprised that four signs so far in his "Beyond the Chief" series have been damaged. No vandals have been apprehended yet.

Not a proud moment for this university town, especially considering that similar "Native Hosts" signs on other campuses, among them the University of Oklahoma, where the signs addressed the controversial Sooners mascot, were not vandalized.

Though called "Beyond the Chief," his 12 signs here don't address the now defunct (at least in some quarters) Chief Illiniwek. Instead, his white signs with red letters address the Fighting Illini, with those two words printed backward, and then read, "Today your host is Kickapoo" or "Today your host is .. " followed by the names of other tribes who lived in this state long before we did and were forcibly removed, with some dying along the way.

"It's really a memorial to the tribes that are gone," Heap of Birds told me on Thursday. "People ... take it as a sort of an affront to the sports team. The signs are self-referential. When natives make memorials to themselves or their losses that's more important than a college mascot or other issue. Everything doesn't have to be about the dominant white culture."

The artist said the signs are not intended to shout down but rather engage viewers in a topic they might not have thought about before.

Unlike me, Heap of Birds and Robert Warrior, director of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Illinois, were surprised by the vandalism here.

Heap of Birds, who spoke on campus before and after the vandalism occurred, said he had always thought university towns were not prone to violence.

"I told everyone when I came back that the big thing that happened is that the student body found there are real native people who can describe themselves," he said Thursday. "In many ways, they've been describing native people on that campus without any Indians involved."

The Cheyenne artist mentioned the recent PBS American Experience documentary series "We Shall Remain," on the history of American Indians up to the 1970s, when a new generation of native leaders inspired by the civil rights movement took over the town of Wounded Knee, S.D., and in the process built a pan-Indian identity.

Warrior was an academic adviser and one of the talking heads for that episode, which aired this past Monday. Native filmmakers and scholars collaborated with others on every level of the project, and native filmmaker Chris Eyre directed two of the five episodes.

Heap of Birds believes "We Shall Remain" and other Indian-driven projects are waking up people to the fact that native peoples have their own mechanisms to describe themselves. He would like to see that kind of dialogue continue, including through art like his "Native Hosts."

However, like most public art, the signs need interpretation, he said. When he returned here after the vandalism, he suggested docents or guides.

Urbana residents Carol Spindel, author of the lucid book "Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots," and art historian Sharon Irish heard the artist; last week, they spent two hours near the signs, passing out information and chatting with passers-by.

Heap of Birds said as time goes on, the concepts behind public art like his become clearer to folks.

"It's a long process; it doesn't happen overnight. People have to be patient. There will be some violence and over-reacting, but eventually people will become comfortable with native people being accounted for on their own terms."

Heap of Birds, who is also a University of Oklahoma professor of American Indian studies, hopes to return to C-U to work with art students. Aside from what he called the "minor violence" to his signs here, he was impressed with the students he met and the university for its support of the Native American House and other cultural houses. He thinks an open dialogue has begun, and I hope he's right.

News-Gazette staff writer Melissa Merli can be reached at 351-5367 or mmerli<@>news-gazette.com.

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