Monarch Buffalo Horn Cup

Label

These artists have chosen to represent animals significant to the ecosystems of their homelands. Kevin Pourier carved a relief of monarch butterflies around this hollowed buffalo horn cup, paying tribute to both the perseverance of the insects’ annual migration and the generosity of the buffalo. The black snake has long been considered a symbol of honor by the Catawba, and its depiction on vessels has made the snake pot among the venerated forms in Catawba pottery. Similarly, the roadrunner or “Zia bird” has remained a common motif in Tsi’ya pottery for over a century. Tsi’ya ecological iconography has been adopted by New Mexico, with both the roadrunner and Zia sun symbol claimed as emblems of its statehood.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 32, AMES 26, Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas, Sienna Craig, Spring 2013

REL 1, Patterns of Religious Experience, Elizabeth Perez, Fall 2013

WRIT 7 , Religion and Literature: Re-visioning the Natural, Nancy Crumbine, Spring 2015

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

NAS 30.21, Native American Art and Material, Jami Powell, Spring 2021

ANTH 55, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Spring 2021

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Writing 2.06, The American Mosaic: Literature, Essays, and Memoirs from the Voices of the Subaltern, Doug Moody, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 8, 2011-March 12, 2012.

Native Ecologies: Recycle, Resist, Protect, Sustain, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-August 18, 2019.

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.

Publication History

George P. Horse Capture, Sr., Joe D. Horse Capture, Joseph M. Sanchez, et al., Native American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2011, ill. on p. 63 and p. 166, no. 114.

Provenance

The artist, 2009 Santa Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, August 2009.

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Subjects