This weekend, the 2023 Yellowstone Revealed installation is bringing teepees with a contemporary twist to Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park. The art exhibit combines Indigenous art and storytelling to raise awareness of Native connections to what is now known as Yellowstone.
Native peoples have long-lasting and continuous connections to the area – according to the park, 27 tribes have historical and contemporary ties to the land. According to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, 49 tribes maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which encompasses roughly 22 million acres in northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho.
Last year, a traditional teepee village was installed at Madison Junction as part of the first Yellowstone Revealed event. According to the event’s website, the week-long programming and place-based art projects aimed to “put forward Indigenous truths and perspectives” and provide a “long-overdue opportunity to envision and co-create the future of the park.”
This year, the second Yellowstone Revealed continues in that theme with the creations of two contemporary Native artists – Ben Pease (Apsáalooke/Tsétsêhéstâhes) and Sean Chandler (Aaniiih).
Chandler’s project “WHEN WE USED TO BE.” features eleven contemporary teepees with liners decorated by paintings portraying historical events and present-day Indigenous narratives.
Pease’s “AMMACHHÍIA: JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND CULTURE” reimagines the landscape with teepee lodges decorated with mixed media, stitching, portraits on canvas, and screen mesh. Both artists’ creations are installed in relationship and visual proximity to the traditional teepees on view at Madison Junction.
Eastern Shoshone member Ren Freeman is the Cultural Producer and Project Manager for the project, along with Artistic Producer and Mountain Time Arts (MTA) Co-Founder Mary Ellen Strom, MTA Executive Director Francesca Pine-Rodriguez (Apsáalooke/Tsitsistas), and MTA staff Victoria Cheyenne (Tsitsistas/Aymara) and Tia Doney (Rocky Boy/Fort Belknap/Gros Ventre/Cree/Assiniboine/Chippewa/Little Shell/Crow).
Partnering organizations include Mountain Time Arts and Yellowstone National Park. Mountain Time Arts is a Bozeman-based public art organization that cultivates projects and programs exploring the history, culture and environment of the Rocky Mountain West and its Sovereign Nations.
Mountain Time Arts’ Administrative and Program Assistant Victoria Cheyenne helped with the project and said the exhibit helps illustrate tribes’ ongoing relationships to the landscape through time.
“A lot of the messaging that can be seen in the artwork is of the past, present and future presence of Indigenous peoples on this land. That’s part of our goal – to evoke dialogue and discussion and be a reminder of presence in the park” she said.
Cheyenne said artists Chandler and Pease wanted to create a more contemporary representation of Indigenous presence in the park and create an immersive experience for all visitors.
“Part of the approach of these artists was looking at this in a way of asking ‘How do we want to represent teepees as more than just the traditional teepees?’ and ‘What messages do we want to share? What do we want people to experience?’” she said.
The installation opened on August 10th with a song from actor Michael Spears, a member of the Kul Wičaša Lakota from the Lower Brulé Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Visitors can take self-guided tours through the installation from sunrise to sunset through August 12th.
