Tribal Leaders from Montana to speak at MMofA

Posted on: August 2nd, 2018

MOBILE, Ala. – Thursday, August 2, Vice Chairman of Fort Peck Tribes Charles Headdress is traveling from Montana to the Mobile Museum of Art to speak on a very personal item: his grandmother’s quilt.

Headdress will be joined by Dr. Ken Ryan, a historian and elder from his tribe. In this special gallery talk, we will get a rare personal and historical view of the creative practices of Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes.

A member of the Shiyo Oyadebi (Prairie Chicken Clan) of the Wadopabi (Canoe Paddler Assiniboine), Headdress worked with the Indian Health Service for 33 years. He was instrumental in the creation of the WIC Program in 1974 and has served as Acting Administrative Officer, Acting Service Unit Director for the Fort Peck Service Unit, and served two years on the National Medical Professionals Recruiting team for Indian Health Service. Since, Headdress was elected to the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board and served 3 two-year terms. Currently, he is in his second two-year term as the Vice Chariman of the Fort Peck Assiniboine/Soiux Tribes.

This talk is held in conjunction with MMofA’s exhibition, NATIVE AMERICAN ART: From the Collection. This is an exhibition of Native American art and artifacts drawn from the Museum’s collection and features early 20th century photographs and hand-colored lithographs of Native American peoples, as well as textiles, baskets, fetish and utilitarian beaded crafts and a single contemporary metal relief made by various Native American peoples.

MMofA is supported by the City of Mobile, Alabama State Council on the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts.