{"id":2466716,"date":"2026-06-19T10:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2466716"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T10:05:18","slug":"indigenous-ae-autry-winners-botany-history-and-the-skoden-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/indigenous-ae-autry-winners-botany-history-and-the-skoden-film\/","title":{"rendered":"INDIGENOUS A&E: Autry winners, Botany history and the #skoden film"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Sandra Hale Schulman, ICT
June 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Sandra Hale Schulman<\/strong>
ICT<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The latest: Native arts shine at Autry, Chef Sherman examines plant history, documentary humanizes an iconic Indian Country meme<\/strong><\/p>\n

MUSEUM ARTS: Jewelry, pottery and hoop dancing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles is a standout event every summer. On June 6 and 7, the museum hosted Indigenous vendors, artisans, chefs, Sundance films and performances on the sprawling campus.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s award winners include Jack Tom, who is Din\u00e9\/Navajo, and Holly Pyke, who is Mohawk. Tom won the \u201c<\/em>Best in Show\u201d ribbon for his exquisite necklace with turquoise coral, gold and inlay. Pyke received the prestigious \u201c<\/em>Autry Purchase Award\u201d for her flowery basket. Numerous other awards were dispersed for outstanding work in basketry, wood carving, painting, mixed media, textiles and sculpture.<\/p>\n

Sage Mountainflower poses with her designs at the 2026 American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sage Mountainflower, who is Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, exhibited her contemporary twists on Native designs at her center booth. Mountainflower was also present at SWAIA Fashion Week in Santa Fe this year. River Garza, Tongva, hosted a workshop booth with dozens of his woodcuts that kids – and many adults – came to ink the wood block cuts and make colorful paper print designs.<\/p>\n

The Sundance Film Festival screened a selection of short films, while Native foods were served up in the courtyard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside the museum, visitors took in the \u201cCreative Continuities<\/a>: Family, Pride, and Community in Native Art\u201d exhibit featuring selected works from the Autry\u2019s Native American collections. A fully decked out horse with beaded harness, saddle bags and neck sashes anchors the show that has cases of vintage beaded gloves, moccasins, cradle boards. Videos told stories of the creative history behind the pieces.<\/p>\n

Down in the lower floor where the “Future Imaginaires” fashion exhibit just ended, a Native Hoop Dancing group made up of Terry Goedel, Lumbee, his son Michael and his nephew Eric Hernandez performed to a rapt audience. The group has toured the world in Cirque du Soleil and performed at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Hernandez and Goedel star in the film \u201cCourage<\/a>\u201d which is nominated for an Emmy<\/a> award.<\/p>\n

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Native Hoop dancers perform at the 2026 American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also in the audience was Hernandez\u2019s wife Chef Pyet DeSpain<\/a>, who was recently featured as a judge on the Indigenous special of Chopped<\/a> and is also featured in \u201cCourage\u201d. DeSpain and Hernandez met three years ago to the day at the Autry after his performance, Hernandez gave a sweet anniversary shout out to his blushing bride.<\/p>\n

BOOKS & BOTANY: Award winning Lakota chef talks plants<\/strong><\/p>\n


<\/strong>The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University<\/a> will welcome James Beard Award-Winning Oglala Lakota Chef Sean Sherman, \u201cThe Sioux Chef,\u201d on June 20th for a conversation on his new book, <\/em>\u201cNative Foodways of Turtle Island with Sean Sherman.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman poses for a photo in his kitchen in 2020. (ICT file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sherman\u2019s book talk is part of Drexel University\u2019s \u201cBotany of Nations\u201d programming, which is a new exhibition focusing on the Lewis & Clark expedition through Indigenous voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cBotany of Nations,\u201d on view through February 14, 2027, is co-curated with Enrique Salm\u00f3n, PhD, an ethnobotanist and author of \u201cIW\u00cdGARA: The Kinship of Plants and People\u201d, and developed with contributions from Indigenous cultural historians. \u201cBotany of Nations\u201d offers a culturally layered view of the plants of North America.<\/p>\n

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From the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, the herbarium sheet for Tobacco, Nicotiana quadrivalvis,1804. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Collected on the famous Lewis & Clark expedition, some of the oldest plant specimens in the country are housed in the university\u2019s Lewis and Clark Herbarium. Visitors can learn how the Native Nations that Meriwether Lewis met on the trail shared America\u2019s plant knowledge long before Western scientists claimed these discoveries.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the exhibit include 18th and early 19th century scientific instruments, original expedition journals, maps and herbarium sheets that illuminate the role of nature and science on the Corps of Discovery. Also featured are Native American pipes and Corps of Discovery peace medals. Attendees are invited to navigate prairie, plains, plateau and Pacific coast landscapes through a model of the trail to learn about the importance of tobacco and chokecherry. Learning comes from film, interactive media, cultural artifacts, sensory experiences and contemporary voices featured in the exhibit.<\/p>\n

Other learning opportunities include viewing a newly produced film centering Indigenous traditional land practices and cultural food systems that provide contemporary solutions to modern biodiversity and climate challenges. There\u2019s also an opportunity to tour a native plant garden on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to learn how to grow heritage plants that foster biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Drawing from his 2026 James Beard Award-nominated book, \u201cTurtle Island<\/a>,\u201d which features 100 ancestral and modern recipes, Sherman will discuss the diverse Native foodways that have nourished Indigenous peoples physically, spiritually and culturally across North America for generations. Following Sherman\u2019s conversation and WHYY\u2019s \u201cFresh Air\u201d co-executive producer Sam Briger, there will be a \u201cTurtle Island\u201d book signing and a hands-on experiential walk through \u201cA Native Plant Garden for Botany of Nations\u201d outside the Academy.<\/p>\n

Attendees can sample traditional foods and prepare medicinal teas alongside Indigenous chefs Luke Black Elk, Itazipco Band of Lakota, and Joe Haber, Haudenosaunee, alongside ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk and Drexel Food Labs professor Rachel Sherman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FILM: History of #skoden on film<\/strong><\/p>\n

The broadcast debut of Damien Eagle Bear\u2019s \u201c#skoden\u201d <\/em>is set for June 21, 2026. The film shot in Lethbridge, Alberta on traditional Blackfoot Territory, explores the story behind one of NDN Country\u2019s most iconic memes and reclaims the humanity of Pernell Bad Arm, the man at its centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c#skoden,\u201d the TELUS original film that world premiered at Hot Docs in 2025, will be available to watch free on demand on TELUS Optik TV channel 8 and TELUS Stream+ starting on National Indigenous Peoples History Day.<\/p>\n

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