The Wheel
The Wheel is a project honoring and observing lands once described as Indian Territory. Cultural narratives inform this project, situated in places of forced relocation – and especially areas near the terminus of the Trail of Tears. The name of the project comes from the lottery wheel used to auction off native land during the period of removal from southeastern states.
Symbolically, a wheel is a metaphor for historical cycles and the generational stories where privilege and power collide with indigenous groups.
Damen Washington – Cherokee Videographer.
A sepia-toned portrait of a man wearing a white cowboy hat, with a beard and mustache, and a collared shirt.
Location of 1864 Marine battle – Pleasant Bluff, Tamaha OK.
Cross at Mount Sequoyah - Fayetteville AR
Roland Pinault – First Nation (Ojibwa descent)
Black and white photograph of a man in formal attire, wearing a bow tie and suspenders, with a dark jacket and a bowler hat. The man has a serious expression and is holding a glass of liquor in his right hand. The background is plain and slightly blurred.
Arrowhead Resort on HWY 10 leading into Tahlequah – Cherokee Nation.
Site of 1872 Goingsnake Tragedy – Beck-Hildebrand Mill.
Catalpa Tree, Hunters Home – Park Hill OK.
1883 Choctaw Capital – Tuskahoma OK.
Jack Baker – Cherokee historian.
Woodrow Proctor – Bunch OK. Tribal Council United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee.
Seminary Columns standing at Northeastern State University – Tahlequah OK.
Old Schoolhouse in Goingsnake District – Colcord OK.
Dryplate image made with Seroco Camera – Hunters Home, Park Hill OK.
Tintype of Brandon Jennings.
Spring House where Cherokee photographer Jennie Ross Cobb washed dry-plate negatives and printing out papers.
Alicia Flores – California Coastal Native Activist, Fayetteville AR.
Tintype of Osage Orange harvested from Tuskahoma OK (Choctaw Nation). Collection of Fort Smith Regional Art Museum.
— Notes & exhibitions
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Solo exhibition — Martha Jones Gallery, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM). February 26 – June 5, 2022.
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Selections also exhibited at PhotoSpiva 2022, Light Sensitive at Art Intersection (Gilbert AZ), Our Art Our Region Our Time (Fayetteville AR), and Around Town at Local Color Studio Gallery.
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Made possible by an Arkansas Arts Humanity Grant, a Stipend Grant, and support from historical associations, Indigenous activists, and Native Elders of the Choctaw, Keetoowah, and Cherokee Nation. Sponsors: Wildcat Arts Studio, Dr. and Mrs. Philip Ulmschneider.
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