Defiance in Native Arts & Representation

Date and Time

Thursday, Oct 16, 2025 6pm - 7:30pm

Location

Details

How has art served as a powerful act of defiance for Native peoples over the past 500 years? This insightful panel brings together contemporary Native artists and art experts to discuss the ways their work (and other native artists’ work too!) confronts historical injustices, reclaims Indigenous narratives, and shapes a future of self-representation. Engage in a vital conversation about the resilience, innovation, and enduring impact of Native arts.

Museum of Boulder Members and SNAP Cardholders receive FREE admission to this event! Please check your email for more information.

Panelists:

Dallin Maybee is Seneca and enrolled Northern Arapaho. Raised on the Cattaraugus territory of the Seneca Nation of Indians in Western New York, he is an accomplished artist, public speaker, performer, and is currently the Assistant Director of Development at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Dallin has a B.A. degree in Philosophy, as well as a Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law with an emphasis in Federal Indian Law. As an artist, his work can be found in private collections and museums across the country; including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Autry Museum, the Heard Museum, and the Portland Art Museum. He has won numerous awards including Best of Show at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market (2007), the Cherokee Art Market (2020), the Hodinohso:ni’ Art Show (2021), and Tesoro Indian Market (2021).

Nico Strange Owl is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and has worked with Indigenous art and artists over the past forty years. She is the current owner of Eagle Plume’s, a historic trading post at the base of Long’s Peak near Allenspark, Colorado. She has also worked as a beadworker, an appraiser, and a consultant of Native art, worked with museums, operated galleries, and has been in the art business all her life. She is also the descendant of Sand Creek Massacre survivors and is truly home in Colorado.

Danielle SeeWalker is Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta and citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. She is a fine artist, muralist, writer, activist, and boymom of two, based in Denver, Colorado. Her visual artwork often incorporates the use of mixed media and experimentation while incorporating traditional Native American materials, scenes, and messaging. Her artwork pays homage to her identity as a Lakȟóta wíŋyaŋ (woman) and her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America while still acknowledging historical events. Alongside her passion for creating visual art, Danielle is a freelance writer and published her first book in 2020 titled, “Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People & Culture.” She is also very dedicated to staying connected and involved in her Native community and has served as a mayoral appointed City Commissioner for the Denver American Indian Commission from 2019-2024. Danielle has also been working on a personal, passion project since 2013 with her long-time friend called The Red Road Project. The focus of the work is to document, through words and photographs, what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country.

Moderator:

Tom Myer is a native artist who moved to Boulder in 2019. He is Haudenosaunee (what your people called the Iroquois) on his father’s side, and Ngäbe-Bugle (the Meso-American tribe that ended Columbus’ fourth voyage to the New World) on his mother’s side. He is a self-taught artist who works in acrylics, pastels, pencils, and digital mediums.