Alan Michelson’s Answer to the “Vanishing Indian” Myth

Cyrus Edward Dallin, “Appeal to the Great Spirit” (1909) in front of Alan Michelson’s “The Knowledge Keepers” (2024) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (photo Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

As a child, Alan Michelson often rode the T past sculptor Cyrus Edward Dallin’s “Appeal to the Great Spirit” (1908) outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  He was riveted by the statue’s grand horse and the powerful yet melancholy figure wearing a striking Plains Indian war bonnet.  It was only in his 20s that the artist learned that he had been separated through adoption from his own Native heritage and Mohawk birth family in the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada.  He soon learned that the Dallin sculpture he marveled at in childhood symbolized the nefarious “Vanishing Indian” myth, which cast Indigenous peoples as doomed to extinction. 

PODCAST:  

TRANSCRIPT: https://hyperallergic.com/1017795/alan-michelson-knowledge-keepers-mfa-boston/ 

 

Let's call this another good example of #ArtBack! - Trace 

Watchlist: ‘This is Indian Country 111: Oregon #ARTBACK

EDITOR NOTE:  I never heard of ArtBack before I read Some Signals. Indian Country has always been a place to CREATE, and make BEAUTY!

 

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

Ruth-Ann Thorn hosts a series on the Native-based channel, First Nations Experience (FNX) called, “This Is Indian Country.” It shares modern Native American culture and in her latest episode of the show, she visits Grand Ronde and other Oregon Tribes.

Her visit includes a segment with Grand Ronde Tribal member and carver Bobby Mercier.

Mercier, an artist and culture keeper, shares the restoration of Grand Ronde and his efforts at reclaiming culture through art.

“Carving, I didn’t get into until later in life, just because of the fact that for the longest time nobody would do it,” Mercier says. “At one time it was banned, it was shunned upon.”

Mercier gives a brief history lesson on the Grand Ronde treaties signed in the 1850s, which eventually led to those treaties being broken when the Grand Ronde Tribe was terminated in 1954.

“I always say that if my grandfathers knew that, they would have never signed (the treaties) if they knew they were going to do that to their grandchildren,” Mercier said.

Mercier speaks about the Tribe’s Restoration in 1983 and how his artwork and carvings are working to bring back the traditions lost during that time.

While standing over a wood carving Mercier is working on, Thorn discusses the similarities she sees between the “Land Back” movement and Mercier’s own “Art Back” movement.

“A lot of that culture, like you were saying, it was burned and lost,” Thorn said. “But the memory of it, the story telling, the DNA, skillset and ability to create something as beautiful as this never went away.”

The video shows several clips from inside the Chachalu Tribal Museum & Cultural Center where other Grand Ronde Tribal members’ artwork and Tribal artifacts are on display.

Thorn’s visit also includes Native flutist James Edmund Greeley, cradle board maker Maria Godines, basket weaver Kelli Palmer and rapper (stage name “Blue Flamez”) Scott Kalama and Sakari Farms farmer Spring Alaska Schreiner.

Smoke Signals has a full interview with Mercier in the June 1, 2025, edition.

You can watch the FNX interview with Mercier and other cultural figures from Oregon’s Indian Country at https://fnx.lightcast.com/player/57453/731384.

 

VISIT BIG RIVER ART:  Grand Ronde:  https://bigriverart.org/about/