Jessica L. Horton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware and author of
Conclusion: Artist-Diplomat-Vampire
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Published:July 2024
Fritz Scholder’s paintings conjured the United States’ betrayal of its treaty obligations to Native nations before diverse publics abroad in 1972. Disgusted by the US government’s propaganda, the artist defected from a tour in Romania to visit Dracula’s castle and paint a little-known Indian/Vampir series on canvases that fit in his suitcase. Emblematic of the failure of modern nation-state diplomacy, the miniature paintings align Native Americans and Transylvanians in a global struggle against dispossession. They foretell the flourishing of alternative cultures of diplomacy beyond the coffin of broken treaties. Earth Diplomacy draws to a close in 1973, as the American Indian Movement occupation of Wounded Knee was broadcast globally and Native art largely fell off the United States’ Cold War agenda. Yet the International Indian Treaty Council and the World Council of Indigenous People would soon fill the void, circumventing federal sponsorship and pursuing diplomatic alliances on Indigenous terms.
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