Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Native American, American, b. 1940) Ode to Chief Seattle, 1990-1991 Lithograph on paper Miami University Art Museum purchase 2018.4
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is a Native American artist, born and
raised in the Flathead Nation of Montana, is a member of the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation. Ode to Chief Seattle, is
one of a ten-piece series commissioned by the Washington State
Art Commission that explores the relationship between humans
and the natural world. The title references Chief Sealth, a Squamish
and Duwamish chief from whom the city of Seattle is named. Chief
Sealth was a tireless advocate for Native American rights and
environmental protection. Smith’s natural and artificial imagery,
and antagonistic geometric and organic forms, highlights the
anthropogenic (human pollution) destruction of the environment
and a call for rectification. Like her women artist compatriots,
Smith uses art to explore issues of identity amid oppression.