In the fall of 2016, water protectors at Standing Rock used an unusual form of artistic protest while resisting law enforcement personnel. They held plywood shields covered with reflective Mylar, angled so that police officers approaching them saw their own reflections. The action was part of the Mirror Shield Project, initiated by the contemporary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. The project invited people across the country to create mirrored shields for the Water Protectors at Standing Rock. This is one example of how Indigenous American art increasingly serves as a tool for Indigenous self-determination, especially in conversations about historical lands and sovereignty.

Indigenous American Art: From Critical Commentary to Instrument

The Mirror Shield Project serves as a useful starting point for understanding how contemporary artists repurpose and reinterpret Indigenous American art, turning it from a form of passive critique of land issues into an instrument for making claims and demanding change. This distinction is vital in the 21st-century context of addressing the historical injustices of settler colonialism and their continuing effects on Indigenous communities. Many Indigenous artworks have addressed dispossession, while newer forms of art can also become active participants in broader conversations about sovereignty, land, and cultural rights.

Nicholas Galanin, Wendy Red Star, and More

Many Indigenous artists are exploring the transformative potential of art in conversations about land rights across the USA. For instance, Nicholas Galanin, an artist of Tlingit and Unangax̂ descent, has built much of his practice around this activist approach. For Desert X 2021, he installed Never Forget on a hillside above Palm Springs. The 45-foot letters referenced the Hollywood sign and spelled “INDIAN LAND,” confronting viewers with the history of Indigenous land dispossession. The work was accompanied by a fundraising campaign supporting the return of historical lands to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

Wendy Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist, works in a different direction by using archival photographs rather than contemporary landscapes. Her innovative 1880 Crow Peace Delegation series features historic portraits of Crow leaders annotated with handwritten red-ink inscriptions containing names, translations, notes, and corrections. Through these additions, Red Star restores personal and cultural information that was absent from the original photographs, challenging the way Indigenous people were historically represented by outsiders.

Large-Scale Institutional Changes

The re-examination of Indigenous art’s place and legacy in the American art landscape is also taking place against the backdrop of wider institutional changes. In 2024, updated NAGPRA regulations introduced expanded requirements for consultation and consent concerning the exhibition and research of certain Indigenous human remains and cultural items covered by the law. These changes have prompted museums to reconsider how they care for, research, and display Indigenous collections, strengthening recognition of Indigenous communities’ rights to their cultural heritage and history.