Indigenous Appalachia

View online exhibit 

Now available: 

• Artist Panel
• Exhibition Tour
• Intro to Art in the Libraries / Indigenous Appalachia curatorial overview YouTube video
  
• Discussion Guide for pre and post exhibition tour
• Lesson Plan and Worksheet for K-12
• Indigenous Appalachia Library Guide for resources, context on exhibition material
• PDFs of Indigenous Appalachia print exhibitions
• WVRHC Native American related holdings Library Guide
• Native American Studies Library Guide
• Indian Boarding Schools Library Guide

Exhibition Travel Schedule: 

• September 2022- May 2023 (Print and Online): WVU Downtown Library
• June- December 2023: Marshall University Library
• December 2023 - July 2024: WVU Beckley Campus Library
• July 2024- June 2025:  Appalachian State University Library

WVU Land Acknowledgement

WVU, with its statewide institutional presence, resides on land that includes ancestral territories of the Shawnee, Lenape (or Delaware), Cherokee, and Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois--the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Tuscarora), and other Indigenous peoples.

The goal of the Indigenous Appalachian exhibit is to increase awareness of the contributions of Indigenous Appalachians to the region’s shared history and present while also recognizing continuing injustices faced by Indigenous people. Through visuals and educational content, the exhibit will explore themes of people, lands and waters, and will provide significant opportunity for campus and community involvement via coursework and programming, and encourage informed, enhanced perspectives. As our nation and the University proceed in acknowledging the erasure of much of Indigenous history, it is understood that a reconciliation of this erasure can only be accomplished with Indigenous scholars’ leadership, guidance, and participation informing these new perspectives. 

This exhibit will be intentionally curated with the expertise and contribution of Indigenous Appalachians alongside scholars of Native American Studies. 

The content of the exhibit includes exploration of the following themes: 

• Discussion of the complexities involved in public discussions and portrayals of Indigenous cultures and histories, especially in consideration of European colonial history, U.S. policies, and social forces; these include centuries of genocidal acts 

• Acknowledgement of WVU Libraries' Indigenous related holdings
  

• Indigenous People in Appalachia Today and their ancestry 

• Indigenous Place Names in West Virginia

• Contemporary Indigenous Appalachian perspectives through creative work. Confirmed artists: Nadema Agard (painting, Cherokee/Lakota/Powhatan), Connor Alexander (game design, Cherokee), Erin Lee Antonak (sculpture/drawing, Oneida), Kayln Barnoski (fabric/mixed media, Cherokee), April Branham (painting/photography, Monacan), Ethan Brown (gourd design/painting, Pamunkey), Annette Clapsaddle (writing, Cherokee), Robert D’Alimonte (woodworking/carving, Tuscarora), Brent Michael Davids (composing/music, Mohican/Munsee-Lenape), John Gritts (drawing/painting, Cherokee), Benjamin Harjo, Jr. (drawing/painting, Absentee Shawnee), Yonavea Hawkins (bead/fashion, Delaware), Antoinette (Toni) Scott (cornhusk dolls, Seneca), Rosy Simas (transdisciplinary art/dance, Seneca), Amelia Winger-Bearskin (NFT/digital, Seneca-Cayuga).

The exhibit will also become a digital exhibit living on the   WVU Libraries' website  and archived on   The Research Repository at WVU.

Questions? Questions: Lead Curator: Sally Brown Deskins, WVU Libraries' Exhibits Coordinator, 304.293.0369,   email.

Scholarly Consultants:

• Joe Stahlman, Director, Seneca-Iroquois National Museum; Assistant Research Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University at Buffalo
• Bonnie Brown, Coordinator and Teaching Instructor, WVU Native American Studies Program
• Beth Toren, Interdisciplinary, Cultural and Film Studies Librarian, WVU Libraries
• Michael Sherwin, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Photography, WVU College of Creative Arts
• Richard Anderson, Senior Executive Assistant to the President, WVU Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Maryam Marne Zafar, Visual Strategist, Graphic Designer

Sponsors:

Gold Sponsors: 

 

Silver Sponsors: