Clockwise from above: Each historic photograph used in “Resisting the Mission” was inscribed with handwritten notes from community members to the children, pictured here before being cut into strips. Inside each basket are printed the names of some of the more than 8,000 students who attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (composite image). On their rims is the text of the speech of the school’s founder, Richard Henry Pratt: “Kill the Indian and save the man in him.”


school series just before the end of her life. We see it as a culminating statement of her long, productive and highly celebrated career.” During the last decade of her life, Goshorn


created hundreds of baskets, mastering nu- merous forms and designs. These and her other artworks continue to provoke thought and admiration. A selection of her pieces, sketches and notes will be exhibited begin- ning in June 2020 at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. The exhibition will include her last piece, “Squaw,” a woven torso of a woman, and remarks in her own words as well as works from other artists who were her close colleagues. Rose McCracken, who manages Shan Goshorn’s studio, says of the exhibition, “We want to honor who Shan was an artist and also who she was as a mentor and friend to so many in the community.” Goshorn had a gentle but firm hand


when it came to the vision and direction of her art, says Earenfight. “She was clear about


30 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2019


what was important to her.” She hoped that “Resisting the Mission; Filling the Silence” would contribute to the education and dia- logue necessary to bring about desperately needed healing for those affected by Indian boarding schools. She also wished that the set would remain intact and would find a home where it would be well cared for and seen by many. That the baskets—a culmination of the


research she began at Smithsonian’s archives— now reside at NMAI is fitting. Goshorn transformed historical documents and photo- graphs, which often carry stories of pain and cruelty, into vessels of knowledge, understand- ing, hope and healing. Her powerful baskets confront painful histories and injustices, while honoring the strength, resilience and persever-


ance of Native people and cultures. X NMAI Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Rebecca Head Trautmann worked with Shan Goshorn during her Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and with her studio to acquire “Resisting the Mission; Filling the Silence.”


PHOTO BY ROSE MCCRACKEN, COURTESY OF SHAN GOSHORN'S STUDIO


NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, COURTESY OF SHAN GOSHORN STUDIO


PHOTO BY NMAI STAFF


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