The Return of the Native by 
Wiping the War Paint off the Lens: Native American Film and Video by 
Native Liberty: Natural Reason and Cultural Survivance by 
American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture by “Grassroots and land-based struggles characterize most Native environmentalism. We are nations of people with distinct land areas, and our leadership and direction emerge from the land up,” writes Winona LaDuke. This project was inspired by images of women holding mirrors up to riot police in Ukraine so that the police could see themselves. The Mirror Shield Project speaks about when a line has been drawn and a frontline created that it can be difficult to see the humanity that exists behind the uniform holding that line. But those police are human beings, and they need water just as we all do; the mirror shield is a point of human engagement and remembering that we are all in this together. The Mirror Shield Project demonstrates how one person can help protect eight million.
Visit Mirror Shield Project to learn more.
Judy Dow (Abenaki and French Canadian descent)
Vermont Eugenics Dioramas: Two Backyards, 2010
Henry Perkins, the director of the Vermont Eugenics Survey, led a survey targeting over 6,000 people and their families, over many generations. Some were hunted, others locked up in institutions, while some were sterilized. The ultimate goal was to break up families.
These two backyards show the obvious differences eugenicists were looking for. The road my family lived on is the place where the people of Moccasin Village hunted, fished, and burned the land each year and harvested various nuts, berries, fish, and animals. The backyards of these people became places to tan hides, do the laundry, and split and stack firewood. Life was good for the people in this little neighborhood. Little did they know that the land they lived on blocked the scenic view for the wealthy people on the hill; thus, these people became a target of the Eugenics Survey primarily because they lived in the wrong place, spoke a different language, and lived differently than their neighbors. Time and time again, supporters of the Eugenics Survey went back to the same addresses. People ran, hid, assimilated, and others fought back to survive. Dow's work tells the untold story of her family in which 623 people were hunted [and] institutionalized, and some were sterilized.
Global Indigenous Health: Chapter 4: Understanding the Vermont Eugenics Survey and Its Impacts Today (pp. 76-96) by “This project was inspired by images of women holding mirrors up to riot police in the Ukraine so that the police could see themselves. The materials I chose to use were affordable and accessible, and I chose to use a reflective mylar on a plyboard instead of glass mirror for safety and durability. This project speaks about when a line has been drawn and a frontline created that it can be difficult to see the humanity that exists behind the uniform holding that line. But those police are human beings, and they need water just as we all do; the mirror shield is a point of human engagement and a remembering that we are all in this together. The project represents how just one person can acquire one sheet of plywood and cut it into six shields; those shields could stand on the frontline protecting hundreds behind them in prayer for the water, and right behind that line stands a camp where there are thousands of people standing for the water protection for the eight million people down river, who all use the Missouri River as their water source. And so the Mirror Shield Project demonstrates how one person can help protect eight million."
- Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota)
222-05 56 Avenue, Bayside, New York 11364