Native Sun News: Oglala Sioux artist a 'Living Indian Treasure'

Wednesday, February 23, 2011  

The following story was written and reported by Talli Nauman. All content © Native Sun News.

PIERRE, SOUTH DAKOTA — Oglala Lakota artist Arthur Amiotte received the 2011 Living Indian Treasure Award on Feb. 16, joining five other recipients of the annual Governor’s Awards in the Arts.

Amiotte is the 18th winner of the prize, which the South Dakota Arts Council presents to recognize Indian elders for their contributions to Native American art forms.

Internationally known for his prowess as a working painter, art educator and cultural historian, Amiotte is also acknowledged by those acquainted with him as a carrier of the time-honored Sioux art of joke swapping.

“Now that I have been named a ‘living treasure’, I hope people know the meaning of this word and they don’t think I’m a living treasury,” he told the Native Sun News, his characteristically droll response alluding to the traditional rule requiring winners to share all spoils of their success.

The remark, similar to one he made to the audience at the Pierre Ramkota Inn when he accepted the decoration from Gov. Dennis Daugaard, belies Amiotte’s demonstrable generosity.

In that vein, he encouraged funding for fellow artists, lauding the governor for his arts advocacy remarks at the awards ceremony.

“The state does match the amount that comes from the National Endowment for the Arts and it should keep doing that because it means employment for artists in the schools, and our state does have an arts community that benefits economically from these funds,” Amiotte said.

Daugaard initiated HB 1248, a bill in the current South Dakota Legislature to lift the sunset clause from the half-cent tourism tax. The levy supports not only tourism but archeology and art in the state.

The governor emphasized the link between art and income during his first State of the Arts Address, delivered along with the awards.

“Strengthening the arts in our local communities is an excellent way to diversify our economy,” Daugaard said. “Individual artists and groups take public dollars and inject them,” he added. “In the South Dakota Arts Council, we work to promote equal opportunity and equal access in arts education,” he said. He drew applause when he stated, “Our state arts council remains the best in the nation.”

Its awards program serves as an incentive for excellence, as well as a way to promote public funding of the arts. It boosts reputations of individuals and organizations in a wide gamut of artistic persuasions.

Along with Amiotte, this year’s winners are: Johanna Meier of Spearfish, for Distinction in Creative Achievement; Jim Clark of Sioux Falls, for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Individual, Victor Weidensee of Rapid City, for Outstanding Service to Arts Education, Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Organization, and Ruth Brennan of Rapid City, Honorary Governor’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Arts Community.

The first Governor’s Award for Creative Achievement dates back to 1973, when Gov. Richard Kneip presented it to Oscar Howe, the Dakota artist inspired Amiotte to utilize his Lakota background and culture in his artwork.

An influential mentor was elder and practitioner of Oglala sacred traditions Pete Catches, Sr., while several college professors encouraged Amiotte to pursue art as a career. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from Northern State College in Aberdeen in 1964, and a Masters of Interdisciplinary Studies in Anthropology, Religion, and Art from the University of Montana, where he studied with scholar Joseph Eps Brown. He holds honorary doctorates from Oglala Lakota College, Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada, and South Dakota State University.

Amiotte’s career over four decades places him among the most influential artists in portraying Lakota life, thought, and philosophy. His works are included in 26 public and nearly 200 private collections. He wrote the section on Sioux Indian arts for the Illustrated History of the Arts in South Dakota, which was published during the State’s Centennial in 1989.

As an educator and artist, he has distinguished himself as a temporary adviser to the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and on the Presidential Advisory Council for the Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center. He has served on the Indian Advisory Board of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center at Cody, Wyoming; on the Board of Directors for the Native American Art Studies Association; as a commissioner of the United States Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board, and on the Council of Regents of the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Over the past 15 years, he has lectured worldwide, including at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe; the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt, Germany; the German-American Institute in Heidelberg, Germany; the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College; the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta; and numerous institutions across the Northern Plains Region.

Recently, Amiotte received an Enduring Vision Award from the Bush Foundation, a distinction reserved for working artists with 25 years or more of experience. Previous recognition includes: an Arts International Lila Wallace Readers Digest “Artists at Giverny, France” Fellowship; a Getty Foundation Grant; a Bush Leadership Fellowship; the South Dakota Governor’s Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in the Arts; and a Lifetime Achievement Award as Artist and Scholar from the Native American Art Studies Association.

Bush Foundation President Peter C. Hutchinson said that artists who receive the Enduring Vision Award “typify courageous leadership. Through their work as artists and citizens, they have contributed to a richer dialogue about the concerns of our contemporary times, mentored others, and enhanced the quality of the lives within their communities.”

Amiotte and his wife Jan Murray, whose studio and home are located in Custer, South Dakota, are using the Bush award to catalog 50 years’ worth of documents related to his professional endeavors, including brochures, books, and letters. The next phase of the project entails organizing thousands of photos of Lakota people and Native American artifacts that the couple has taken and collected.

He said that the inventory is not destined for an internet site. He shuns the ethos of increasing digital electronic communication forums, saying, “I don’t like the email; people expect you to respond immediately.”

With candor typical, he also eschews the fame that accompanies his mounting regalia for arts achievement. “In my old age, I’ve also become aware of the fact the less anybody knows about me the better I feel,” he bantered.

So what does he want to do with his art, in the wake of the Living Indian Treasure Award? “Keep on making it,” he said.

Artists eligible for the award must more than 55 years old, and cataloging his works from nearly as many years, Amiotte has accrued several orders for his pieces.

“Over the years, I’ve developed clients throughout the United States, and I have fallen behind in fulfilling commitments to those clients,” he said. “I hope to continue producing my art work.”

Preceding him as recipients of the South Dakota Living Indian Treasure Award were: Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (2009), Albert Whitehat (2007), Dawn Little Sky (2005), Geraldine Sherman (2003), Ollie Napesnai (2002), Calvin Jumping Bull (2001), Bessie Trimble Cornelius (2000), Ella Irving (1999), Mable Greeley (1998), Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (1997), Anna Fire Thunder (1996), Nellie Menard (1995), Clarence Rockboy (1994), Matt and Nellie Two Bulls (1993), Steve Charging Eagle (1992), Alice New Holy Blue Legs (1991), and Emma Amiotte (1990).

(Talli Nauman is co-director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness. Contact her at talli.nauman@gmail.com)