Visitors to Edgewood College Gallery have been treated to three new art exhibits that highlight the history of Native Americans in the United States.  The exhibits were unveiled in an opening reception held on Jan. 26, where art enthusiasts could meet the curator as well as the artists themselves. 
“Re-riding History: From the Southern Plains to the Matanzas Bay, The Art of Ho-Chunk Basket Making and John Hitchcock: Protectors are all exhibits happening simultaneously within the same building,” said Gallery Director David Wells.  “Each of the exhibits has been created by Native American people.  They’re very different in terms of context and content.  But they’re all about Native American experience and Native American culture.” 
The main exhibit, Re-Riding History: From the Southern Plains to the Matanzas Bay has traveled the country for the last two years and been considered a contemporary portrayal of historical events. 
“I contracted to bring that exhibition in because it brings American history home in a big way,” Wells said, “and speaks to that history from a contemporary perspective.” 
The exhibit was curated by three college professors trying to retrace the experience of 72 Native Americans that were forcibly removed from their home and imprisoned at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. 
“This exhibition really talks about Native American history,” Wells said, “and assimilation as a phenomena and as a political policy.” 
To represent the number of Native Americans who were imprisoned there, the three curators recruited 72 artists to collaborate on the project.  The result ended up being an accurate depiction of our country’s institutional discrimination against a minority group.   
“It’s a topic that affects many cultures,” Wells said.  “So as (far) as bringing that exhibition here, it’s important.” 
UW-professor John Hitchcock was a curator of Re-riding History.  But he’s been getting much more attention for one of the other exhibits at the gallery.  
“John Hitchcock’s installation of Protectors is very much an intellectual idea,” Wells said.  “It’s fun.  It’s powerful, visually.  And it’s speaking about the power (symbolized by bison).” 
The exhibition covers an entire atrium wall and contains screen-print images of bison skulls carefully mounted on printed Naugahyde pelts.  According to the gallery director, the piece is a metaphor for man’s relationship with nature and the frailty of life. 
“This speaks to a spiritual background in a different way than the other two (exhibits),” Wells said.  “He’s using contemporary materials, referencing the idea of ‘protector’ and the sense of protectors of the culture – and how we all have to participate in being protectors of culture, protectors of our own heritage, protectors of our environment.” 
The third exhibit, The Art of Ho-Chunk Basket Making celebrates the tribe’s long tradition of making intricate baskets from black ash. 
“The local culture of the Ho-Chunk basket-making,” Wells said, “is both historical and contemporary.” 
The exhibition features 96 baskets collected by Mike Schmudlach and tribal member Tom Jones, all of which were woven by members of the Ho-Chunk Nation. 
“It’s both historical baskets and contemporary baskets,” Wells said, “illuminating that basket-making tradition.” 
The baskets will remain on display until Feb. 26, along with the rest of the exhibits at Edgewood College Gallery.  Anyone interested in learning about the history of our nation’s native inhabitants is encouraged to stop by.