Richard Ray Whitman
Encyclopedia
Richard Ray Whitman is a Yuchi
-Muscogee Creek multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, and actor. He is enrolled in the Muscogee Creek Nation and lives in Oklahoma
.
on 14 May 1949. His maternal grandmother was Polly Long. Like many Yuchis, Whitman is enrolled in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
, and his Yuchi name is T'so-ya-ha. He grew up in Gypsy, Oklahoma and attended Bristow High School. For college, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts
and the California Institute of the Arts
. Whitman also studied at the Oklahoma School of Photography in Oklahoma City
.
Whitman began his art career as a painter but also expanded to photography, installation, and video art. In 1973, he participated in the People’s Struggle at Wounded Knee
and created art during the struggle.
, which forced tribes from all over the country to Indian Territory
.
From the 1980s onward, Whitman has incorporated text and computer graphics in his photography to create collage or mixed media. His socio-politically informed work often deals with the issues of homeland and dispossession.
. Together they worked with French filmmaker Pierre Lobstein in the 1990s. With producer and director Philip Albert, Whitman created "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon," in which Whitman read Cannon's poetry.
Yuchi
For the Chinese surname 尉迟, see Yuchi.The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American Indian tribe who traditionally lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee in the 16th century. During the 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina...
-Muscogee Creek multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, and actor. He is enrolled in the Muscogee Creek Nation and lives in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Background
Richard Ray Whitman was born in Claremore, OklahomaClaremore, Oklahoma
Claremore is a city and the county seat of Rogers County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 18,581 at the 2010 census, a 17.1 percent increase from 15,873 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area and home to Rogers State University...
on 14 May 1949. His maternal grandmother was Polly Long. Like many Yuchis, Whitman is enrolled in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
The Muscogee Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Muscogee people, also known as the Creek, based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. They are regarded as one of the historical Five Civilized Tribes and call themselves Este Mvskokvlke...
, and his Yuchi name is T'so-ya-ha. He grew up in Gypsy, Oklahoma and attended Bristow High School. For college, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts is a college focused on Native American art. It is situated in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is congressionally chartered, and was created by an executive order of former American President John F. Kennedy in 1962...
and the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
. Whitman also studied at the Oklahoma School of Photography in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
.
Whitman began his art career as a painter but also expanded to photography, installation, and video art. In 1973, he participated in the People’s Struggle at Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Incident
The Wounded Knee incident began February 27, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation...
and created art during the struggle.
Photography
Whitman is known for his black-and-white photography portraying contemporary Native realities, especially his "Street Chiefs Series" from the 1970s and 1980s. "Street Chiefs" features images of homeless Native men, primarily in downtown Oklahoma City. "The contemporary Indian in the isolation of the city canyons and rural reservations in avoided. The boredom, pain, frustration, poverty of the reality-counterbalance of our lives in harsh, unattractive, and unmarketable." His photographic portraits are compassionate and empathetic to the lives of homeless natives and places them in the larger context of Indian RemovalIndian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
, which forced tribes from all over the country to Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
.
From the 1980s onward, Whitman has incorporated text and computer graphics in his photography to create collage or mixed media. His socio-politically informed work often deals with the issues of homeland and dispossession.
Videography and acting career
Collaborating with Yuchi poet and videography Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya, Whitman created video to document the Yuchi languageYuchi language
The Yuchi language is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern United States, including eastern Tennessee, western Carolinas, northern Georgia and Alabama, in the period of early European colonization. However, speakers of the Yuchi language were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma...
. Together they worked with French filmmaker Pierre Lobstein in the 1990s. With producer and director Philip Albert, Whitman created "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon," in which Whitman read Cannon's poetry.
Filmography
- "Barking WaterBarking WaterBarking Water is a 2009 independent feature film written and directed by Sterlin Harjo that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and stars Richard Ray Whitman, Casey Camp-Horinek, Jon Proudstar, Aaron Riggs, Laura Spencer, Quese iMC, Ryan Red Corn, and Beau Harjo.The film was shot in...
" (2009). Played Frankie. - "The Only Good IndianThe Only Good IndianThe Only Good Indian is a 2009 independent feature film directed by Kevin Willmott.The film was shot almost entirely in Kansas -- the only exception being a scene at Missouri's Ha Ha Tonka State Park -- featuring locations such as the Monument Rocks and Fort Larned...
" (2009). Played father of stolen child - "Missionary ManMissionary Man (film)Missionary Man is a 2007 American action film co-written, directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren.- Plot :A lone stranger named Ryder comes into a small Texas town on his 1970s Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He's there for the funeral of his good friend J.J., a local Native American carpenter...
" (2007). Played Chief Dan - "Four Sheets to the Wind" (2007). Directed by Sterlin Harjo, Whitman played Frankie Smallhill
- "RuneRune (film)Rune is the first feature film, either independent or otherwise, to debut on Apple Inc.'s Video iPod. It was released on October 10, 2006. Its main character is a linguist who is doing research on the source of all modern languages....
" (2006). Played Tecpatel - "American Indian Graffiti: This Thing Life" (2003). Played Barry
- "Lakota WomanLakota WomanLakota Woman is a memoir by Mary Brave Bird, formerly Mary Crow Dog, a Sicangu Lakota. Reared on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, she describes her childhood and young adulthood, which included many historical events associated with the American Indian Movement.Lakota Woman describes...
: Siege at Wounded Knee" (1994). Played Carter Camp. - "The Grand Circle" (1994). Co-produced with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
- "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon." Produced and directed by Philip Albert, narrated by Whitman.
- "Humanity's Voice" (1992). Co-produced with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
- "Carriers of the Light" (1990). Co-produced with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
- "War PartyWar Party (film)War Party is a 1988 film starring Billy Wirth and Kevin Dillon. The film, set in present day Montana, explores the tension and mistrust that can characterize interactions between Native American and White American cultures....
" (1988). Played Harold, directed by Franc RoddamFranc RoddamFrancis George "Franc" Roddam is an English film director, businessman, screenwriter, television producer and publisher. He is married to photographer, Leila Ansari, and has six children from previous marriages. He currently lives in London.-Career:Roddam's films include "Quadrophenia", "K2",...
Quotes
- We're invisible, dangerously invisible, until they want us to sing and dance and be tourist attractions.
- ...I am asked many times..., "do I consider myself a traditional Indian or a contemporary Indian?" Well, I consider myself both at the same moment. Our traditions and our experiences in contemporary life are here at the present time. Our ancestors left us a way which has been brought right up to this moment, to this very moment that I speak to you. So, from the time we are born we are political. Because we have been colonized, the nature of our experience is political, but it doesn't lessen our experience, though.
External links
- Profile and contact info through the Oklahoma Arts Council
- Interview with Richard Ray Whitman by Larry Abbott
- Native Networks biography, National Museum of the American Indian