Dallin Museum curator Leavell
Participating in the symposium about how this sculpture relates to indigenous cultures was Heather Leavell, curator and executive director of Arlington’s Dallin Art Museum.
“It is Dallin’s personal reflection of Native Americans in the face of their ongoing subjugation,” said Leavell. “Dallin revered the Native Americans, and believed that their designs are beautiful.”
Growing up in Utah, Dallin witnessed settlers’ attacks on Native Americans, and felt that nothing about the frontier myth of “the vanishing Indian” was natural, said Leavell. “Dallin created his work during intense ambivalence about Native Americans, and his work honors the indigenous response to colonizers.”
In a letter to The Boston Globe, Dallin wrote that “Native American land claim settlements were a diabolical invention, and destroying human beings.” Dallin strongly believed that everyone needs to be treated with respect, added Leavell.
Leavell questioned whether Appeal to the Great Spirit, by a white artist, can portray what Dallin intended at white, Colonial institutions on indigenous land, and added that “indigenous visitors to the Dallin Museum do feel a connection to Dallin’s work.” She called the work his greatest.
Another speaker, Emily Burns, assistant professor of art history, Auburn University, said Dallin’s work focused on Manifest Destiny, the early 19th-century doctrine that the expansion of the United States was both justified and inevitable, and which contributed to the decline and disappearance of Native Americans.
“Dallin had a counterargument to the popular discourse of the elimination of Native Americans. He promoted the Native American’s civil, indigenous and land rights, and used art to protest against their assimilation,” said Burns.
The Dallin Art Museum is honored to participate in this lecture, and to be recognized by one of our country’s major museums for preserving, promoting and exhibiting works of an internationally famous artist who lived and worked in Arlington from 1900-1914.
The Dallin Museum is open for visits on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Group tours can be arranged by calling 781-641-0747 or at www.dallin.org.
This news announcement was published Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, and updated to a news summary March 5.
