Mile Marker Post from Standing Rock

HIckory Edwards, Onondaga Nation

Mile Marker Post from Standing Rock, 2016

Donated to the National Museum of the American Indian by Hickory Edwards, Onodaga Nation. Wood, metal nails, paint, ink, graphite, cotton cloth, felt-tipped marker, metal wire, twine, plastic hardware, shells, metal jewelry findings, burlap, & paper. These mile markers were erected at Standing Rock by Hickory Edwards of the Onondaga Nation. Beginning with a marker pointing towards the Onondaga Nation, the signs grew to include NYC, the Netherlands, and Sápmi, home of the arctic Sami Nation. Protectors from far flung places added their own signs, creating an impressive conglomeration of solidarity in the face of DAPL. The spatial and temporal specificity of the piece also speaks to how Indigenous Environmental Justice relates explicitly to land. This is an artwork whose meaning will never again be recreated exactly as it was at Standing Rock, similarly to how Indigenous spiritual practices are often tied to certain pieces of land. Label by Lia Deasy

Black Snake Protest Puppet

Artist unknown, Indigenous

Black Snake Protest Puppet, 2021

This 200-foot-long black snake was created to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2021. Youth from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Lower Brule Sioux traveled over 1,500 miles to D.C. for this this protest. The pipeline is compared to the indigenous prophecy of the black snake, Zuzeca Sapa, who will bring destruction to the land, water, and people. This large activist art piece drew attention to the problem and represented the extreme length of the pipelines and the extreme destruction it can cause for the water and land. I was drawn to this piece because it was a grassroots art effort by the Water Protectors to fight the companies and the government trying to bulldoze through their land and water without their permission. This piece is proof that it doesn’t always require an art degree to create something that draws attention and emotion to an issue. Label by Sam Dutilly

How the Protectors Defeated the Black Snake

Tyler Read, American

How the Protectors Defeated the Black Snake, 2016

Located in Rapid City, South Dakota, Tyler Read’s mural is a call for action as he represents the prophecy of the Black Snake and its connections to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Read’s work demonstrates the environmental injustices the Pipeline poses as native nations work together to fight against capitalism, greed, and white supremacy. Foremost, Read depicts a great Black Snake, Zuzeca Sapa, a prophecy of doom. In this case, Zuzeca Sapa also represents native groups uniting, protecting their people from the hazards the Pipeline will cause, including polluted waterways and the destruction of ancestral land. As indigenous people put their lives on the line to protect their health and culture, artists such as Read, who created public art in a time of violence, represent hope, unity, and strength. Label by Clarissa Cantacuzene

Black Snake

Starr Hardridge, Muscogee Creek Nation

Black Snake, 2016

Starr Hardridge, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, painted this during a 2016 movement of artist driven protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The snake is meant to represent a Lakota prophecy of a Great Black Snake that spreads destruction to the environment and the people inhabiting it, which is embodied by the DAPL project and the devastation that it brings in terms of infringing on the human right to clean water. The snake is severed, representing not only the duty to stop the pipeline, but the need to sever ties with the fossil fuel industry entirely. Label by Jackson Schiminger

Starr Hardridge’s Black Snake was made in support of the #NoDAPL movement led by the water protectors at Standing Rock. This painting shows a black snake that has been cut into many pieces. It references the Lakota prophecy of a giant black serpent destroying the land, water, and people. This prophecy was often referenced within the water protection movement comparing the Dakota Access pipeline to the black serpent. The snake in the painting is cut into many pieces to represent the many facets of the oil industry that must be dismantled in order to truly be free. Label by Becca Gurysh

In the center of the piece lies a wounded snake – this is representative of a tale from the indigenous tribe, the Lakota. According to their prophecy, a black snake symbolizes the deliverer of endings. For context, Hardridge made this piece about the movement against preventing the Dakota Access Pipeline. The snake therefore represents the ending of DAPL and also the harmful impacts of industrialization, especially fossil fuels. Also important to note, the title Black Snake is what many call the Dakota Access Pipeline. Therefore, the snake not only represents the Lakota prophecy, but is clearly metaphorically tied to the movement. Label by Grace Cohen

This painting depicts a figure from an old Lakota prophecy. A black snake, the bringer of end times. This painting is a reflection of the Dakota Access Pipeline threatening Native lands. For many, the black snake of doom has arrived in the form of oil pipelines. But here the snake has been cut into pieces, symbolizing a necessary killing of fossil fuels by the people. The woven textured style combined with the symbolism of the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag makes this piece strikingly historical. It is prophecy come to light, a repeating of history, a call to action, and a warning. Label by Lucas Theobald

Hardridge’s painting manifests a multitude of references, using the imagery of a black snake cut into pieces as a call to the “Join or Die” political cartoon of 1754, the Lakota mythology of the black snake as a harbinger of the apocalypse, and the black snake as representation of pipelines. The snake is imposed on a background of color blocking and geometric designs reminiscent of Muscogee patterns. Furthermore, Hardridge employs pointillism to both embody traditional beadwork techniques and create a visually stimulating piece. Label by Courtney Hand