White Washed, Bunky Echo-Hawk

Exhibition Label:
"Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place," Sep-2011, Nancy Mahaney
This painting is an interpretation of the famous Salina billboard that greeted drivers on the interstate. The Salina Indian Burial Pit exposed Pawnee graves, and exhibited the remains to the public for generations, until finally it was closed in 1989. The Pawnee Nation moved the bodies of our ancestors, and REBUIRED them in Nebraska. Like the bodies from the site, the sign was removed...but it will never be forgotten.
Curator’s note: Pawnee protests over the use of the Salina Burial site as a tourist attraction, and legal action by the Native American Rights Fund, including work by attorney Walter Echo-Hawk, helped to bring about the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990.