National Historic Landmark Research: Oscar Howe's Mobridge Civic Auditorium Murals
McLerran J. 2020. National Historic Landmark Research: Oscar Howe's Mobridge Civic Auditorium Murals. South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office, South Dakota State Historical Society
"...Oscar Howe's Mobridge Civic Auditorium murals represent an important moment in mid-twentieth century U.S. Indian policy and wider North American history. They are particularly significant for the ways in which they lend insight into New Deal Indian policies that worked to restore cultural integrity and freedom of religious expression to America's Native peoples. With their depiction on Lakota/Dakota dances, the Mobridge murals mark the rebirth of important aspects of long-suppressed, traditional Lakota/Dakota ceremonial practice. Painted in the period when Lakota/Dakota ceremonial dancing was re-emerging from the shadows, they celebrate the federal government's new support for perpetuation of Native cultures and the communities that sustain and are sustained by them. The Mobridge Civic Auditorium murals also tell an important story regarding Native artists' roles in important New Deal programs and how those projects functioned as launching points for the most important mid-to-late twentieth century Native artists. Howe's murals are a living testament to the efficacy of New Deal Native art programs and policies, which were revolutionary in nature and highly influential in establishing the careers of Native artists. They represent an early twentieth-century rebirth of Native painting and mark a significant pivot point in that development, as Howe is widely recognized as an artist who challenged the status of mid-twentieth century Native art, dramatically influencing its direction and opening new opportunities for future generations of Native artists...." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office, South Dakota State Historical Society, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P19AF00014).
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- McLerran, Jennifer
- Date of Issue
- 2020-04-23
- Publisher
- South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office, South Dakota State Historical Society
- Units
- HPF
- Keywords
- Historic Context Statements, Historic Resource Studies (Single Resource)