1989

Telling many Magpies, Telling Black Wolf, Telling Hachivi

Native American (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation), born 1954

Heap of Birds’s work addresses the stereotyping and appropriation of Native American culture in American society. Through his largely word-based art, the artist seeks to eradicate racist and romantic conceptions of Indians and reveal the more complex realities of contemporary Native American experience. The title of this print refers to the oral history tradition among Native Americans: Many Magpies (manifest here as abstracted bird forms) was the name of the artist’s great-great-grandfather, a Cheyenne chief, also known as Heap of Birds; Black Wolf was the artist’s great-grandfather; and Hachivi (Hock E Aye Vi) is the artist.