| Sole
Stories
|
 Seldom
does one realize the depth of effort put into assembling an exhibition.
Once you walk through the doorway, all you see are objects lining the
walls, which may or may not appeal to your aesthetic values. The designs,
ornamentation and construction of the art may inspire feelings of awe
or wonderment, but rarely are we aware that these pieces residing in plexiglas
containers were connected to people, and were once part of an individual’s
life. All of them have stories that are often untold. Thus for an object
which is tied to a  person’s
life, more so than jewelry or even clothing, there could be no more fitting
title for an exhibition than Sole Stories: American Indian Footwear, currently
showing at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, from October 21, 2006
to October 7, 2007.I had the good fortune to tour Sole Stories with its curator, Marcus Monenerkit. I am still uncertain as to whether the exhibition or the curator impacted me more. In the end, it would be best to say that Sole Stories is the manifestation of Monenerkit’s enthusiasm, a corporealization which ran out of room. This is not at all a condemnation, but a practicality. For literally every caption describing the origins and owner of each pair of footwear, Monenerkit provided a paragraph of exposition. The root of this stems from the curator’s anthropological background and intense interest in this item of apparel so closely related to human life. 
“Shoes are the most human object,” Monenerkit pronounces.
And it is easy to see where he is coming from. The collection from Sole
Stories is not composed solely of moccasins, but also heavy ironworking
boots, sneakers, sandals, ice skates, even NASA flight boots. Monenerkit
comments how one person spotted the ice hockey skates on one wall while
glancing through the exhibition entrance and ran inside to peer at them
up-close in astonishment. Inspection of several pieces shows the signs
of wear we know all too well: fraying fibers,
holes poking through the toes, stains on the soles. Throughout the exhibit,
Monenerkit has a story for each pair, often of an important member of
Native American society. The bizarrely clunky black loafers sitting at
the top of one case come from Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee, who is an author,
activist and the first woman principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She
is also one of the few to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Some traditionally Texan-looking boots belong to N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The House Made of Dawn. While Monenerkit succeeded in tracking down quite a few contemporary Indian legends, there were still a few trails he could not travel. He was hoping to secure the shoes of Jim Thorpe, the only winner of both the Olympic Decathlon and Pentathlon. “I’m a sports nut,” he jokes. Despite this, there is certainly a lot of pride in physical activities 
for many Native Americans, especially running. For the Navajo, it is custom
to wake before the sun rises, then run east towards the dawn while speaking
prayers. Stories also abound about Tarahumara racers who have competed
in marathons running only in sandals with old rubber tire soles.Sole Stories begins outside the main display area with four cases containing shoes mainly as purely decorative or artistic objects. Several are nonfunctional pieces, such as ceramic work by Anita Fields and beaded boots by Paula Rasmus-Dede. The boots have a tale of their own, which Monenerkit is glad to expound on. “Paula bought the shoes at a garage sale,” he says. “The little Indian girl who sold them to her asked what she was going to do with them, to which Paula replied, ‘I’m going to make them beautiful.’ The girl’s instant reply could only be, ‘You mean like Pocahontas?’ ” Thus the title for the piece was made, Pocahontas’ Purple Ponderosas.  Traditional moccasins make up the majority of the show and they span a variety of styles. Monenerkit attempted to gather examples of most major types of ornamentation, which meant that some tribes did not make it into the exhibition. There are two main groupings of moccasins, encompassing the themes of military and famous personages, both of which include fascinating histories. The military section contains the shoes of Jack C. Montgomery, Cherokee, who was one of five Native Americans to receive the Medal of Honor. His moccasins bear the insignia of Montgomery’s unit. Amazingly, the United States allowed Native American soldiers to wear moccasins in World War I instead of the traditional Pershing boots, in honor of their battlefield prowess. Even as far back as the Revolutionary and Civil  Wars,
moccasins were used when boots were often in minimal supply.Another display harkens back to famous Indian chiefs and other historic personages, such as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Geronimo. Of course, along with their shoes come little foibles and doubts as to who actually wore them. Even when the provenance can be traced, several of these Indian chiefs were not above some entrepreneurial activities, including the selling of shoes. Monenerkit provides some valuable insight into the importance of footwear for Native Americans, including its differences to western culture. Both intensely personal and vital, footwear nevertheless does not necessarily exhibit the status of the owner. While a chieftain might have moccasins made b  y
the most skilled craftsmen, they will, like others of the tribe, feature
their personal medicine and other motifs. Indeed, the biggest differentiation
seems to be between the ceremonial and more mundane. Monenerkit was unable
to feature several pairs of shoes as he was not able to obtain permission
from the tribes who owned them. He mentions that he wanted Sole Stories
to be an exhibition in which all Indians could take pride, thus any potentially
controversial items were excluded.The show’s curator has an enlightening description of the installation design. Viewing it accurately as an artform in its own right, he attempted to create a mosaic of colors with the shoes, as well as the obvious tactic of thematic groupings. The footwear was mounted using rare earth magnets and metal backing, and was filled with gold cloth to match colors and minimalize contrast. In some cases, there is too little contrast, he feels. The yellow and pink walls were chosen as colors to complement most of the exhibit’s objects. Several paintings, donated or commissioned for the exhibition, keep the layout from being monotonous.  Monenerkit
also comments on the “serendipity” of the installation process.
“Things just came together,” he explains. One of the paintings
in the show details this all too well. Artist Rick Rivet had been doing
his residency at the Heard Museum in 2002 when he talked to Monenerkit.
Caught up in the theme of the exhibition, he produced a painting for the
show. However, when it came time to display it, the piece had been loaned
out. Rivet subsequently painted another three works, and offered the choice
of one to Monenerkit. This piece, Shining Path-2, was mailed out to the
Heard, but upon receiving the painting it was found to be instead Shining
Path-3. Despite this “error,” Shining Path-3 seemed to perfectly
fit the exhibit.Sole Stories: American Indian Footwear has been four years in the making, with work having started in 2002. Monenerkit’s networking and organization extended until 2006, when he was able to secure an exhibition time for late 2006. His extensive research was not limited to Native American footwear, as he examined the history of shoes from cultures the world over. He comments on how shoes not only changed the shape of our feet, but changed our view of the world. No longer did we have to stare at the ground, looking where we were going. Our eyes could go to the horizon. The effects of this on world cultures is obvious. “Moccasins kind of keep you paying attention to the surroundings,” he also points out.  The
substances involved in their construction and their designs often reflect
the local environment. Deer hide, buffalo hide, a variety of tanned leathers
constitute most of the materials, but some of the shoes in the exhibition
incorporate such outlandish materials as salmon skin and cornhusks. This
simply demonstrates how human ingenuity will use what is available. The
predominance of certain colored decorations on many objects is less of
a cultural significance and more the availability of numerous colored
beads or pigments. Another example of how the environment affects the
Native American shoe is the development of the sole. There are both soft-soled
and hard-soled moccasins, the hard-soled types developing around the same
time as the horse, with changing environments most likely linked to this
evolution.Several pieces demonstrate the mating of traditional techniques or designs combined with modern materials. Terry Greaves’s work is most emblematic of this, but an example of a beaded sneaker from 1945 shows that this adaptation has been occurring for decades. Several other sneakers are decorated by ceramic artists, illustrative of other disciplines also applying their methods.  Most
of these, however, are using the same type of shoe: Converse sneakers.
“Converse seems the shoe of choice for Indian people,” Monenerkit
jokes. Having seen these more modern shoes in the exhibition brought to
mind a common sight in cities, that of shoes hanging from telephone lines.
Monenerkit admitted that he was not sure of the purpose. The urban legends
apparently run the gamut from drug dealing and gangs to celebrations.
However, Monenerkit is quick to point out that once again, these shoes
are clear evidence of human presence.Perhaps what Sole Stories most impresses on its viewers is a renewed understanding of an indigenous culture most often characterized from a tourist’s standpoint as static and unchanging, instead of a lively, transformative one. The great success of Sole Stories is its presentation of Native American culture as a living entity, one that has adapted to the times yet still retains important traditions. By using an object so central to the functioning of human life, we are able to relate more easily than would be possible with other, more foreign accessories. The exhibition includes the apparel of chieftains and ceremonies, but also the footwear of dentists, athletes and even astronauts. Traditional moccasins can be seen alongside twentieth-century sneakers, both exhibiting the same beading techniques. Truly, by looking at these “most human” of objects, we are made aware of the lives of a people whose vibrant past has extended to the present and will continue into the future. Photography by Patrick R. Benesh-Liu, Craig Smith, Clark James Mishler, and the Heard Museum. www.heard.org |
Published
in Ornament Magazine, Volume 30, No. 4, 2007.
—Author Patrick R. Benesh-Liu Editorial Assistant of Ornament. View This Issue Order This Issue |
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