Paul Chaat Smith
Gerald McMaster (left), Paul Chaat Smith (center), and Joseph Sanchez (right) in a panel discussion
Gerald McMaster (left), Paul Chaat Smith (center), and Joseph Sanchez (right) in a panel discussion
OccupationAuthor, curator
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican (Comanche Nation)
GenreNative American studies
Website
paulchaatsmith.com

Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) is an author and an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian.[1][2] He writes and lectures frequently on American Indian art and politics.[3]

Early life

Paul Smith was born in Texas, the son of Clodus and Pauline Rosalee (Chaat) Smith.[4][5] His mother Pauline Rosalee (née Chaat) (1928–2017) was Comanche.[6][4] His father Clodus R. Smith is Choctaw, and has served as president of several colleges.[7] Paul's grandfather was Rev. Dr. Robert Paul Chaat, Sr., President of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers. [8]

After Texas, the family moved to Ithaca, New York. In 1959 they moved to Maryland[4] and next to Cleveland, Ohio. Paul's parents were both dedicated to education. They created the Clodus and Pauline (Chaat) Smith American Indian Scholarship at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.[6]

Career

Curatorial practice

Smith has been an associate curator for the National Museum of the American Indian since 2001. In 2004, he was responsible for setting up the museum's permanent history gallery.[9] He curated the ten-year exhibit Americans that opened in 2017.[10]

In 2005, Smith worked with fellow curator Truman Lowe (Ho-Chunk) to sponsor and produce an exhibition by performance and installation artist James Luna at the 51st Venice Biennale, which included a performance dedicated to Pablo Tac.[11]

In 2008 and 2009, he organized a major retrospective for Fritz Scholder, called Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian.[1]

In 2009 and 2010, Smith produced a show for Canadian artist Brian Jungen, called Strange Comfort.[12]

Smith has worked to promote the work of many other Native American and Aboriginal Canadian artists, including Richard Ray Whitman, Faye HeavyShield, and Kent Monkman.[13]

Writing

Smith is the author, with Robert Allen Warrior (Osage), of Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (1996). This account of American Indian activism "has already become a classic and essential interpretive work".[14] The book focuses on three pivotal events in Native American activism, the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties to Washington, DC, and subsequent takeover of the Department of Interior headquarters, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices were occupied; and the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation at Pine Ridge Reservation.[15]

He put together his humorous but informative book, Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (2009), over 16 years.[1] The book is described by its publisher, University of Minnesota Press, as essays that combine "memoir and commentary."[16]

Other work

Smith has lectured at such institutions as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Getty Center in Los Angeles.[17] He served as an academic advisor for the PBS series, We Shall Remain, Episode 5: Wounded Knee.[18]

Personal

Paul Chaat Smith's sister, Marti Chaatsmith (Comanche-Choctaw), is the associate director of the Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University, Newark.[19] She is dedicated to preserving Ohio's pre-Columbian earthworks constructed by ancient Native Americans.

Publications

  • Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0-8166-5601-1.
  • With Robert Allen Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (The New Press, 1997) ISBN 978-1-56584-402-5.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Berry, Carol. "Paul Chaat Smith and His Pal Irony Offer a Dose of Indian Reality." Indian Country Today. 12 Dec 2011. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.
  2. ↑ National Museum of the American Indian website:  "Curator Biographies"
  3. ↑ Bio: "Paul Chaat Smith", Banff Centre
  4. 1 2 3 Smith, Paul Chaat (2009). Everything You Know about Indians is Wrong. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-8166-5601-1.
  5. ↑ "Pauline Rosalee Smith (obituary)". The Oklahoman: 8A. April 5, 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Pauline Smith". The Oklahoman. April 4, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  7. ↑ Clark, Blue (2009). "Choctaw". Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-806140612.
  8. ↑ "Group at the Regional Conference of Indian Fellowship, Madison, Wisconsin. 1937". G.E.E Lindquist Native American Photographs; The Burke Library Archives at Columbia University. Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  9. ↑ Lonetree, Amy and Amanda Cobb. The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8032-1111-7, p. 454
  10. ↑ "The Most American Thing Ever Is in Fact American Indians", Primer. 20 Sept 2017. Accessed 27 Aug 2020.
  11. ↑ "James Luna's "Emendatio" Opens in New York", Art Daily. 7 Jan 2008. Accessed 27 Feb 2014.
  12. ↑ National Museum of the American Indian website: "Jungen Show Credits"
  13. ↑ Benson, Al. "Comanche author, essayist, curator to speak at Aurora U. Nov. 4", TribLocal Aurora. 18 Oct 2010. Accessed 27 Feb 2014.
  14. ↑ Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, The Great Sioux Nation (University of Nebraska Press, 1977, p. 13) p. viii
  15. ↑ Like a Hurricane. Publishers Weekly. 1 Aug 1996. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.
  16. ↑ "Overview: Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong (2009)". Book Division. University of Minnesota Press. 2011–2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Indigenous Art and Museums." Hemispheric Institute. Accessed 27 Feb 2014.
  18. ↑ "We Shall Remain, Episode 5: Wounded Knee." NMPBS. Accessed 26 Feb 2014.
  19. ↑ "Marti Chaatsmith". American Indian Studies. The Ohio State University. Retrieved December 11, 2018.

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