Prairie Rattlesnake, Monarch Butterfly
- ink on tyvek
- Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez
-
Not For Sale
Prairie Rattlesnake
Crotalus viridis (Rafinesque)
Wés'a sathú (Umónhon)
A contemporary Lakota fellow writes about eating rattlesnake: “Our ancestors didn’t let anything that moved or lived on the prairie be dismissed as a food source. Especially since the recipes” in the traditional tribal documents that he’s examining “have a number of preparation methods for the rattlesnake. If you can imagine a bony fish, that’s what you’re basically eating.” And of course: “If eating without flavor added, some people say it tastes like a chicken” (Iron Cloud, “Rattlesnake, it’s what’s for dinner!,” in Lakota Times).
Monarch Butterfly
Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus)
Kimímela (Lakȟóta)
Nicholas Black Elk was only nine years old when he had the “Great Vision” that is the centerpiece of the famous autobiography Black Elk Speaks. His actual haŋbléčheya (vision quest) was several years later: there, instead of the expected horses, or eagles, or other imposing animals of power, the Lakota people going to battle appeared as a “swarm of many-colored butterflies hovering all around and over” their enemy. Maybe as strangely, they soon change into “storm-driven swallows” in their pursuit of their foes. The identification with these small birds is less surprising, since in the four-directional cosmology of the Lakota, swallows—associated with thunderstorms—were the akíčhita (warriors) of the West.
For this collection, the artist would like to acknowledge the following people:
Thomas Gannon, Associate Professor, English and Ethnnic Studies, UNL for writing the accompanying texts. Sofía F. Echeverry for her work as studio assistant.
Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez is a Colombo-American, mid-career artist with an interdisciplinary practice. She grew up in Colombia as the child of a Colombian and a United States citizen and migrated to the US as an adult. Her art is about the curious and intense experience of having physically migrated, yet still having a piece of herself rooted in Colombia. She is creating an intersectional feminist visual novel that is a multifaceted project comprised of paintings, sculptures, objects, and mixed media that together—and in different voices—weave a synchronicity of dialogues, passages, and punctuations about hybridity and cultural ownership.
- Created: June 2021
- Inventory Number: 20V.749.2021
- Current Location: University of Nebraska Lincoln - Enterprise Technology at Nebraska Hall - 1400 R St Lincoln, NE 68588 (google map)
- Collections: 1. New Acquisitions, University of Nebraska Lincoln