This presentation utilizes the Critical Response protocol which is very useful for unpacking works of art. It is an inquiry-based approach that allows students to decode and unpack any image. analyze the communication of the image deeply, and then synthesize the message that is evoked. This particular slide set is very useful for addressing "respond artistic processes " within the MN Academic Standards in the Arts & the National Core Arts Standards. It also was created intentionally to address the MN Academic Standards in the Arts that require students to study the personal, social, cultural and historical context of a range of artists with a requirement that our native Dakota and Objiwe cultures be included.

1. Critical Response: MN American Indian
Contributions to the Visual Arts

2. Critical Response
Protocol
1) What do you notice?
2) What does it remind you of?
3) How do you feel?
4) What questions does it raise?
5) Speculate

4. What do you notice?

6. What does it remind you of?

8. How do you feel?

10. What questions does it raise?

12. Speculate

14. Artist Statement
Three Quarter
2003
Mixed Media 28” x 36”
Laura Youngbird
The themes in my work often originate from family
experiences. ‘Three Quarter’ was inspired by a
group show with a theme. I can’t say what it was
anymore… perhaps, it was fractions or numbers or
maybe even three quarters. The image is from a
photograph of my mother and her cousin. She is the
chubby little baby.
I chose that particular image because of a
conversation about blood quantum. My mother
explained that she and her cousin had the same
grandfather, but on one document it said he was
three quarter and on the other he was full blood. So
there are inconsistencies… However, because of
that I am unable to enroll my children. A number
decided upon by the government decides when and
if you are Native…. Its function was deliberate and
designed to eliminate the ‘Indian problem’.

15. Laura Youngbird
Laura Youngbird is an artist and art educator. She
earned her BS, BFA and MA from Minnesota State
University at Moorhead with a minor in American
Indian Studies. As an undergraduate she worked in
the Archeology department as a lab and field
assistant. She's an enrolled member of the
Minnesota Chippewa, Grand Portage Band. Laura
currently lives in Breckenridge, Minnesota and
teaches Art at Circle of Nations School in
Wahpeton, North Dakota. The themes in her work
originated from experiences her family and
particularly her grandmother had while at boarding
schools and issues that surrounded their
assimilation into non-Indian culture. Laura also
explores the influences of Christianity on American
Indian spirituality and life views.

17. What do you notice?

19. What does it remind you of?

21. How do you feel?

23. What questions does it raise?

25. Speculate

26. Artist Statement
Continuance
1995
Mixed Media 32” x 40”
Laura Youngbird
Gifts flow in and gifts flow out. I have experienced
the revealing, healing and transforming power of
art first-hand, as an artist and as an educator. When
I painted this particular piece, I was working as an
artist in residence, but had not committed to
teaching as a profession… I often used the Medicine
Wheel as a visual to illustrate basic ideas to the
students or groups I worked with.
The Four Directions is a concept representing
multiple ideas, it is multi layered, multi faceted and
three dimensional. For example, there are the four
races of mankind, four colors, four elements, four
winds, four seasons and the four ages of mankind.
The list goes on. The responsibilities that
correspond with the four ages include; observation,
learning, teaching and sharing history for future
generations. It is the continuance of life from
mother to child, to elder.

28. What do you notice?

30. What does it remind you of?

32. How do you feel?

34. What questions does it raise?

36. Speculate

37. Artist Statement
No Face Girl
2006
Mixed Media 32” x 40”
Laura Youngbird
My grandmother was born in 1921. She struggled
with self-esteem. She scratched her face out of all
of her photographs. She tried to fit in, but could not.
At thirty five, she died from cirrhosis of the liver. ‘No
Face Girl’ is from a series of works that explored the
‘Assimilation Policy’ enforced by the United States
government.
The political climate has changed somewhat… but
the stereotypes are deep rooted and the
consequences continue to affect generations. The
cycle is vicious. Many reservations struggle with
poverty, violence and substance abuse, all across
the United States. Some reservations have the same
living conditions as third-world countries. Most
people are unaware of the destitution and
hopelessness that continues to exist within our
nation.

38. Critical Response and Descriptive Review protocols have been
developed through the Perpich Center’s Multicultural Voices
Initiative and the Arts and Schools as Partners program. Go to
the Perpich Center’s Artful Online resource for additional tools.
http://opd.mpls.k12.mn.us/ArtfulTools.html

39. “Art is our one true global language. It
knows no nation, it favors no race, and it
acknowledges no class. It speaks to our
need to reveal, heal, and transform. It
transcends our ordinary lives and lets us
imagine what is possible.”
– Richard Kamler, artist, educator and
curator