A tall, thick glass oval sits on top of a large chunk of natural stone. Text in dark red capital letters forms the lines of a fingerprint on the glass. The text contains 50 names of Apsáalooke (Crow) signers of treaties with the US government.

Wendy Red Star

The Soil You See… (2023)

A monumental fingerprint with the names of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation chiefs who signed treaties with the US government, in dialogue with the nearby 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial

Wendy Red Star, who is Apsáalooke (Crow), highlights the legacy of treaties with Indigenous tribes through American history to, as she states, “illuminate the fact that every tribe in America has their own experience with treaties and the complexities of the decisions made by their tribal leaders.” Using her own fingerprint as the model, Red Star created a giant thumbprint on an island in Constitution Gardens, next to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial. In doing so, she highlights the fact that many treaties with Indigenous leaders regarding the cession of their tribal lands were ratified not with their names but with a thumbprint or an X. Using her own fingerprint as the model, the sculpture ridges include the names of 50 Apsáalooke chiefs and tribal representatives who brokered treaties with the US government between 1825 and 1880. Red Star invites viewers to glimpse this founding story of belonging, land appropriation, and displacement on and through the National Mall.

Location: Constitution Gardens, Signers Island (map)

Materials: Glass and granite rock

Photos courtesy of Steve Weinik Photography

Photos courtesy of AJ Mitchell Photography

A woman with fair skin looks serenely at the camera, her pink lips gently pressed together. Her black hair is pulled back. Dark eyebrows arch over her deep brown eyes. She wears a black jacket with a silver chain and earrings.

Wendy Red Star

Born 1981 in Billings, Montana
Based in Portland, Oregon
she/her/hers

Wendy Red Star is an avid researcher of archives and historical narratives who seeks to recast the information she finds within them to offer new and unexpected perspectives in work that is inquisitive, witty, and unsettling. She was raised on the Apsáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana, and her work is informed by both her cultural heritage and her engagement with many forms of creative expression, including photography, sculpture, video, fiber arts, and performance. Her work is in the collections of the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Credits

Project manager: Gina Ciralli Fabricator: Bullseye Glass Co.

Special thank-yous: Sargent’s Daughters, Tippet Rise Art Center, and Team Henry Enterprises

Public Program

Indigenous Archives Conversation / Public Program of Wendy Red Star’s The Soil You See…

Took place Friday, August 25, 2023
2:00 PM  3:30 PM
United States Institute of Peace Headquarters

Wendy Red Star and special guest Elizabeth Rule, author of Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation's Capital, shared insights from Indigenous archives and sites of memory, in the nation’s capital and beyond, through the prism of Red Star's Beyond Granite: Pulling Together installation, The Soil You See…

Part of the Beyond Granite: Pulling Together Convening event.