Watercolor, graphite, and photocopy on paper, thirteen sheets
Not on view
These paper dolls critique the history of the forced removal and attempted cultural assimilation of Native Americans by the US government. Informed by the lives and experiences of the artist’s Salish ancestors, the drawings depict a fictional family named the Plenty Horses, who appear alongside a Jesuit priest. From 1864 to 1972, Jesuits operated a Federal Indian Boarding School at the St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, where Smith was born. It was one of more than four hundred schools that sought to eradicate Indigenous cultures. Invoking the types of play associated with the Barbie doll franchise, Smith uses a seemingly lighthearted and humorous approach in her critique of this dark history.
2026
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Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, 1940–2025 3 works onlineWhen Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was 13 years old, she went to see a John Huston film. This was a rare outing for a child for whom schoolwork came second to laboring in canneries and on farms, like so many other Native American and migrant youth in the Pacific Northwest.
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