KILLING THE OWL

(In the original that was at postagon there's an image of Heyoka in the background) As of Monday, July 15th 2013, there has been no formal apology from the U.S. Government or the State of Minnesota to the Dakota & Ojibwa for events in which: "38 Dakota were executed on Lincoln's orders in the largest mass execution in U.S. history". I saw Stephanie first, her amplifying, powerful & sculptural features are hard to miss.. She was selling rubber & hand painted 'feather earrings' in varying sizes & geometric color patterns in blue, red & black as well as a stunning dream catcher I could tell was entirely made out of natural materials.. It was not available for sale but she agreed to meet me the next evening to offer up another.. This is when I met Scott. Scott, Stephanie & I sat at a table on the patio of Arcadia's.. Scott started to very thoughtfully & carefully construct the catcher in front of me from materials organized in his satchel... While creating the dream catcher, he simultaneously explained to me that the folds of amber brown & silky deer leather around the 'ring' also "holds my signature fold" & that the light amber 'web' was also entirely made out of deer (most knock-off catchers, have a 'snowflake web' & are either made out of fishing line or beaded fishing line).. I asked them if I could meet them a few times & write about them in order to shine some light on their history, culture, artwork & life, interweaving these stories into their work.. They agreed.. Stephanie was born & raised in Bois Fort, Nett Lake, her Ojibwe name is Morning Star, which was given to her by her aunt when she was an infant. "My reservation is small but there's plenty of nature & fishing.." Her mother Cheryl Little Wolf- taught her handicrafts when she was in the 4th or 5th grade & it was always understood to be a generational practice, handed down through the ages. Stephanie is Ojibwe, French Canadian & her great grandmother was Irish. Stephanie's father's side of the family comes from a long line of talented & successful artists & artisans, Clarence Day Sr. was a painter & she often thinks a great deal about a painting he made of a mother & daughter that is presently in storage.. Scott's history is not too distant from Stephanie's.. Scott was born in Red Lake, an indian reservation where at 12 he was taught trapping, painting, drawing, beading, ceramics & sewing at Red Lake Middle School. Scott is Ojibwe, Sante Sioux & Mexican & his magnetic, attentive & strong features intimately echo & overlay Stephanie's.. 6 years ago they decided to come to Minneapolis to pursue selling their artwork to locals who might be interested & they arrived prepared with all the necessary materials. They started simply & just asked people if they would like to own some handicrafts & the reception from locals & businesses has been very positive & supportive ever since. They let me know that they actually started to sell arts & crafts as a team 8 years ago at Cass Lake, & when interest built their desire to enter the city did as well.. They are very impressed that many people know a great deal about dream catchers & that this awareness has been a part of the culture for so long, but they also have no problems spending the time to inform initiates as to the significance, function & history of a dream catcher. Collectors have traveled from as far as California & Germany having heard of their wares by word-of-mouth. Obviously a dream catcher is at once symbolic of the cyclical & the necessity for the evolution of the cyclical as it relates to the natural ecology & network of a web.. Stephanie & Scott say that "the original idea was adopted by the natives from a spider web" & "it is believed that the idea was specifically- passed down from a spider". Stephanie & Scott are pro-sustainability, permaculture & sustainable labor, they are environmentalists & they do not own or drive a car. Scott made a common & valuable point about art production which struck me as incredibly similar to Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, in the sense that Scott has been "accused of manufacturing his dream catchers".. This could not be further from the truth, in fact there is an inexplicable & intuitive touch to his dream catchers, especially if you do not tell him who- they might be intended for.. I let him know that I related to his observation, its relationship to Benjamin as well as Benjamin's "On The Concept of History", & that there are countless parallels in the culture I & other artists have personally experienced & are oppressed by. Stephanie is incredibly poetic & lyrical when she gets to talking about GAIA, "Trees are where our oxygen comes from, you hear their voices breathing in the leaves..." Stephanie & Scott feel inspired & compelled by the intuitive, natural & supernatural, but they are strictly "against anything 'psychic' or new age".. Personality & the personal are specifics which effect the work that they do. You won't hear them bother to discuss politics, who the present president may be, what their agenda's are, etc, & don't bother asking them, because to them "it is just not worth talking about", especially when "one could make better use of their time, period". Stephanie will admit to having an attraction- to politics... "Everything that was thought up by man, who knows- if it wasn't.." I let her know my parallel to this- "That everything which is our creation is eventually networked & obviously networked into systems, sure-, but everything is also easily disproven, fictional & hypothetical, so why would anyone view any of these ideas or concepts as permanent..". We both nodded in agreement.. Stephanie takes it further: "There are people like you & then there's people who don't respect Native Americans & they assume they know all about our history & our views on nature & the cosmos, so why bother learning about us & our culture.. I wonder, where their aggressiveness comes from.." Once again we nod, in agreement.. She was in a park recently & discovered an unusual sight, a hand made cross made out of twigs & covered in spirals of bark, it was crude, but "the ideology mixed with natural materials was weird"... I ask her about her relationships with other species.. "There was this one time when I was jogging & a 'talking' feral cat followed me all the way home, I will never forget that..." Following this, I shared with her my recent experience of flagging at a very young grey cat to get out of a busy road with hand directions to run to the right & how awed I was that the cat followed my direction by running to the right.. I asked Scott about his relationship to nature, more specifically his trapping & how he deals with the animals he traps & he said point blank- that he follows the European, aka iron trap tradition of trapping animals. No native nostalgia or practices, whatsoever.. Scott finishes up a masculine looking dream catcher, with chili red & silver grey beading & a sparkling Hematite heart in the center of the web & I let him know that this is for a loyal, uniquely intelligent & creative friend of mine from South America.. I hand Stephanie a small electronic owl that meows like a cat as a gift & Scott informs me that "if you see an owl close to your house it is either a very bad omen or someone will die, so you kill it, you must kill that owl.." Scott & Stephanie review the final of this article & are very pleased.. & this is when our last meeting at Arcadia comes to a close.. Depending on their schedule or mood any buyers or collectors can expect to learn a great deal from them in conversation & they are willing to share discussions as a part of relating their work to others.. Stephanie is open to more curiosity & interviews from interested parties, on the other hand Scott is not interested & will refuse any other interviews or any type of contract, but he is open to sales of his work. Let's say that his best interests are vested in Stephanie.. They don't like to use phones & are happily liberated from the internet, but they can be found by word-of-mouth or are often camped out working nearby Arcadia, Hard Times Cafe, the Cedar & Riverside, &, Cedar & Washington areas, or at Bullwinkle's up on Washington.. Seek them out, they won't tell your fortunes, but you will sure get a sense of where you have actually been.. Image: A ledger art depiction of Haokah by the Lakota artist Black Hawk. c.1880