Indian congress
Indian Congress, 2021
Site specific installation at the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Red Star’s Karen and Doug Riley Contemporary Artists Project (CAP) Gallery exhibition engages the history of the 1898 Indian Congress, an unprecedented convening of over thirty Native American tribes during Nebraska’s Trans-Mississippi Exposition. This immersive, site-specific installation draws from and reframes her research into exposition photographs, memorabilia collections, and historic sites in Omaha and Montana. Red Star draws from the Omaha Public Library’s significant collection of photographs taken by Frank Rinehart (1861–1928), a Nebraskan famous for his portraits of Indian Congress members such as White Swan, a well-known Apsáalooke scout (pictured below left). Red Star metaphorically reconvenes White Swan and hundreds of Native delegation members in the Riley CAP gallery to investigate the Apsáalooke and Indigenous histories of Omaha.
Installation photographed by Colin Conces