- Charlene Teters
-
Charlene Teters 
Charlene Teters in 2009Born 1952
Spokane Indian Reservation, WashingtonNationality Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation Field Installation art Training MFA University of Illinois, BFA College of Santa Fe, AFA Institute of American Indian Arts Website http://www.charleneteters.com Charlene Teters (b. 1952, Spokane, Washington) is a Native American artist, educator, and lecturer.[1] Her paintings and art installations have been featured in over 21 major exhibitions, commissions, and collections. She is a member of the Spokane Tribe,[2] and her Spokane name is Slum Tah.[3] She was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, near the Spokane Indian Reservation.
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Education and activism
She has been active in opposing the use of Native American mascots and other imagery in sports since 1989. She is a founding board member of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media (NCRSM).
Beginning in 1984, she attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), in Santa Fe, New Mexico, graduating in 1986 with an Associate of Fine Arts in painting from in 1986. She then attended the College of Santa Fe, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting in 1988.
In 1988, she began graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Department of Art and Design, eventually graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting. In 1989, she reacted strongly to the performance of a pseudo-Native American dance by a European American student portraying "Chief Illiniwek" at a university basketball game and soon after began to protest silently outside athletic events while holding a small sign reading "Indians are human beings."[4] Her actions and those of other Native American students as the University of Illinois, such as Marcus Amerman,[5] led to a strong upswing in efforts to eliminate Native American imagery in school, university, and university athletics throughout the United States and a film (In Whose Honor by Jay Rosenstein) was produced on the subject.[2]
Teters also holds an honorary doctorate in fine art from Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut. On October 10, 1997 she was honored as "Person of the Week" by Peter Jennings on the ABC World News Tonight program, for her commitment to her work and her people.[1]
In the mid-1990s Teters served as Senior Editor of Native Artist Magazine.[2] She currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and serves as Professor of Art at the Institute of American Indian Arts and has served as Dean for Arts and Cultural Studies at IAIA. From 2005 through 2007, she has also served as Hugh O. LaBounty Endowed Chair of Interdisciplinary Knowledge at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California.[1]
Teters was the first artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, New York.[6]
National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media
The National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media (NCRSM) was formed in October 1991 at the Augsburg College meeting of American Indian dignitaries and activists in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was created to fight the powerful influence of major media who choose to promote messages of Native American oppression. Holding demonstrations and marches outside numerous sports stadiums across America, the NCRSM has influenced the education effort on racial stereotyping and made it a household discussion topic. Components of major media which form public and government opinion include: film, video, sports entertainment, educational institutions, publications, news organizations, television, cable, satellite, internet, retail practices and merchandising, marketing, and radio.[7]
At the creation of the NCRSM, the Board of Directors consisted of eleven directors including Teters as Vice-President and Senior Editor, Clyde Bellecourtas the National Director and the late Vernon Bellecourt as the former President and National Representative for the NCRSM. Their mission was and still is rooted in the belief that the use of Indian and indigenous people as athletic mascots is dehumanizing to the Native American race as it perpetuates negative connotations and inaccurate stereotypes. The ultimate goal of the NCRSM is to remove the "desecration" of their spiritual practices that use feathers, paints, dances, music and instruments in the incorrect context. Finally, the NCRSM wants to discontinue the use of the indigenous person mascots in schools because they feel it is promoting the wrong ideals and images of the Native American people and inaccurately portraying history to the youth of America.[8]
Sports teams deemed offensive
Charlene Teters and the NCRSM have listed the following schools and teams on their home page to get certain universities and institutions in America to realize that the use of indigenous people is wrong as mascots.
- Anderson High School "Redskins", Cincinnati, Ohio
- Atlanta "Braves", Georgia
- Cleveland "Indians" Chief "Wahoo", Ohio
- Florida State University "Seminoles", Florida (have been given permission from the tribe) http://www.fsu.edu/news/2005/06/17/seminole.support/
- Marquette "Redmen" and "Redettes", Michigan
- Salmon High School "Savages", Idaho
- University of North Dakota "Fighting Sioux", North Dakota
- Washington "Redskins", Washington, DC[9]
Quote
"Often, people think about Native Americans as we were envisioned at the turn of the century. If we're not walking around in buckskin and fringe, mimicking the stereotype in dress and art form, we're not seen as real. Native Americans are here, and we are contemporary people, yet we are very much informed and connected to our history."[1]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Mai, Uyen. "Culture Infused" Art Exhibit Presented by Cal Poly Pomona's La Bounty Chair of Interdisciplinary Applied Knowledge. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. 8 Nov 2005 (retrieved 15 May 2009)
- ^ a b c Installation Art: Charlene Teters. Rhythms of the Globe. (retrieved 15 May 2009)
- ^ Hirschfelder, Arlene B. Native Heritage: Personal Accounts by American Indians, 1790 to the Present. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008: xiv. ISBN 9780028604121.
- ^ Spindel 2002; Rosenstein 1997
- ^ Interview: Charlene Teters on Native American Symbols as Mascots. The NEA Higher Education Journal. 121-130 (retrieved 15 May 2009)
- ^ Biography for Charlene Teters. AskArt. (retrieved 15 May 2009)
- ^ National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media
- ^ http://www.aics.org/NCRSM/index.htm
- ^ Kranz, Cindy. No-mascot decision stands. Cincinnati Enquirer. 19 August 2003) (retrieved 15 May 2009)
References
- King, C. Richard, and Charles Fruehling Springwood, eds. (2001). Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy. Foreword by Vine Deloria Jr. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
- Spindel, Carol (2002). Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy Over American Indian Mascots. Updated edition, with a new afterword. New York: New York University Press.
Films
- Chief Video Documentary - The Chief and The Tradition
- In Whose Honor? (1997). Written and produced by Jay Rosenstein. Ho-ho-kus, New Jersey: New Day Films.
External links
Categories:- Native American writers
- Native American painters
- Native American activists
- Writers from Spokane, Washington
- Santa Fe University of Art and Design alumni
- University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni
- Institute of American Indian Arts alumni
- Institute of American Indian Arts faculty
- 1952 births
- Living people
- Native American academics
- Women painters
- Native American female activists
- American women artists
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