Seeing Crow's Shadow exhibit

The Seeing Crow’s Shadow exhibit was a surprising and a thought-evoking experience. My surprise stemmed from encountering collective attitude belonging to the tribe from which the exhibit’s art was born, an attitude I had never before seen evidence of amongst the west coast’s Native American tribes, while those throughout the Midwest and even some in the southwest who I’ve observed to be much more integrated with their surrounding civilizations than those living on the reservations surrounding us. The attitude was one of optimistic interest and effort towards forming some new levels of infusion between themselves and society around them.
The content of the exhibit was in a variety of printmaking mediums. Having worked an exhibit of Native American art last semester, I was not expecting to behold a collection exclusively of prints. The exhibit I worked on, like the majority of tribal art (at least of that which I’ve seen), was comprised of many mediums, including painting, sculpture, jewelry, woven baskets, poetry, and music – all very traditional techniques for artistic expression and creativity. It lacked prints entirely, evidently because the practice is not native to their culture. From this observation I infer that the art of printmaking is a practice adopted by Native American tribes to juxtapose their worldly perspectives with those of other cultures in a clearer and more direct manner, wearing down the boundaries between their cultures and others.