The Art Gallery at Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2004

I believe that what is currently happening in Iraq is similar to what happened during the Dakota War of 1862.  Oppressed peoples as well as oppressive governments often act in violent ways.  In the early 1860s, the Dakota, having had their treaties broken and seeing their lands taken away, terrorized the countryside of Minnesota.  On December 26, 1862, in the largest mass public execution in U.S. history, 38 Dakota were hanged in Mankato because President Abraham Lincoln believed that they had participated in the killing of white settlers in Blue Earth County.  Today, the “insurgents” of Iraq, believing that they are being occupied by an unwanted foreign power, use violence to strike back at their occupiers.  In this kinetic installation, 38 deer hides, each with a brand symbolizing Manifest Destiny, were hung above a bowl of flour.  The deer hides created “raven” shadows, which moved around a cottonwood leaf imprint in the flour.  On opposite corners of the gallery were banners with passages from Little House on the Prairie, one written in English, one in Arabic.