Artist Statement:

“Hit” parallels historic and present day actions of an invasive Western Empire that is driven by an insatiable appetite for natural resources.  As in the past, the “roadmap to freedom” continues to expand through various modes of war, colonization, assimilation and exploitation. At the center of this map are lands rich with subterranean oil reservoirs. Oil, in Alaska and Iraq, is a primary target for our current neo-conservative administration. Through the guise of democratization indigenous peoples of both locations continue to lose their lands, resources and must fight to maintain their sovereignty.

This installation places under the looking glass the 1882 U.S. Navy’s bombardment of Angoon, a small Tlingit village in Southeast Alaska. The catastrophe began with the accidental death of a shaman, Tlith Klane, who was working for an American whaling company. Klane’s family, following Tlingit custom, requested retribution in the form of 200 blankets. The whaling company did not comply and instead notified the U.S. Navy of the Tlingits’ demand. The U.S. Navy presented a counter demand to the Angoon Tlingits for a settlement of 800 blankets. The demand was unattainable for the Tlingits and as a result the U.S. Navy bombarded the village killing six children, destroying all tribal houses, the winter’s food supply and all but one canoe. Other Tlingits in the area were threatened with the same military assault if they attempted to help the survivors. Today this story serves the Tlingits as testimony of resiliency.

 Currently, the Alaska State government boasts of the world’s longest oil pipeline that snakes its way through indigenous lands. In the wake of the Alaska Native Lands Claim Settlement Act of 1971 land disputes continue between the U.S. Government, State Government, and Native Alaskans. I am proud to witness the power and resiliency of Native Alaskans as they continue to hold hostage our lands. By over claiming the contracted land allotments, Native corporations and individual Native allottees have created a stalemate and it appears that the State of Alaska will not be able to boast of their title to thousands of acres by the 50th year statehood celebration in 2009.

The bombardment of Angoon in 1882 and the encroachment of oil companies on Native lands, via the support of the state and federal government, serve as a mirror for our country’s presence in the Middle East. U. S. invasion and occupation in Iraq was established under false pretense. Saddam Hussein was not manufacturing weapons of mass destruction nor was he associated with alleged terrorists. Needless deaths have occurred and cultural icons of great antiquity have been destroyed and illegally removed from their place of origin. At the time of this writing, approximately 2,700 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that radical terrorism threats have grown since 911. Rather than being in retreat they have metastasized and spread across the globe. Our presence there is about oil and domination. I suggest we protest President Bush’s roadmap to freedom.

The creation of this installation would not have possible if it weren’t for
the following people who encouraged and supported this project:

• Vanessa Omer, daughter and artistic collaborator
• Nata Lukus, a skillful computer techie who possesses great patience and a wild imagination
• Mark Johnson, owner of Bellingham Neon