Healing and reconciliation through art: How Otoe-Missouria tribe members hope to reclaim their land in Nebraska

A few days before the fourth annual Otoe-Missouria day in Lincoln, the Great Plains Art Museum’s first-floor gallery was adorned with art, all made by members of the Otoe-Missouria tribe.

The pieces, which will be displayed until Dec. 20, include paintings, handmade clothing and even an animated video about the artist’s first time joining the dance circle at a powwow.

The Otoe-Missouria tribe called southeast Nebraska home for more than 300 years but were displaced by the U.S. government in 1881, and forcibly moved to Red Rock, Oklahoma.

This art exhibition is part of an effort by the tribe to reconnect with its spiritual homeland. The director and curator for the museum, Ashely Wilkinson, said the exhibition is a first of its kind.

“This is the first time the museum has had an exhibition of Otoe-Missouria artists, but this is also the first time that there has been an exhibition that only focused on Otoe-Missouria artists, that centered Otoe-Missouria artists,” Wilkinson said.

The exhibition is called "Reflections of Our People, Our Ways, Our Land," and was spearheaded by Jessica Moore-Harjo. It is a part of a larger project, called "Walking in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: Re-Indigenizing Southeast Nebraska."

The project is a joint effort between the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma, and focuses on the themes of healing and reconciliation.

“It's been a collaboration, but it's also a place where the Otoe-Missouria people and artists can share their culture and history through art and those connections that they feel to this land and their history,” Wilkinson said.

An estimated 160 members of the Otoe-Missouria tribe attended the opening reception on Friday. A number of non-tribal members were there as well.

As the reception began, Wilkinson read a message from Moore-Harjo, who was unable to be at the event.

“I encourage everyone to honor all of the artists by sharing their work, talk about your favorite pieces with each other and learn from all the stories being told," Wilkinson said. "That is how we survived as a people, and that is how we learn to carry on and thrive.”

One of the artists, Laura Friermood, traveled with her five daughters from Redding, California. The daughters prodded their mom to stand next to her painting. All Friermood could say in the moment was, “I didn’t realize it is so beautiful.”

Friermood has been making art for 17 years, beginning her journey when she was 49. Much like her artistic journey, she began learning about her indigenous roots later on as well. The idea for her painting came from an experience she had while visiting the Otoe-Missouria lands in Oklahoma for the tribe’s biannual get together two years ago.

“We attended the encampment in 2023, my daughter and my cousin and I,” said Friermood. “They were, they were out there dancing with everybody, and just, my mind could see my ancestors dancing with them. So, I wanted to paint that.”

The Lincoln art event felt somewhat like a family reunion. All around, people were talking about what they have been up to or how their families are doing.

The Friermood family reconnected with someone who they had only heard stories about from their grandma. Laura and one of her daughters then explained the piece to him.

“Those are all our ancestors,” said Friermood.

“And she can name every single one of them too,” Friermood’s daughter added quickly.

Nearby Friermood’s painting was another painting of the Otoe-Missouria encampment gathering.

“Encampment is held in Red Rock, Oklahoma. It's within our sacred grounds” said the painting’s artist, Bobby Sam. “Every year, each of our clans have our own areas on the campgrounds, and we camp for four days.”

Sam is a 26-year-old artist from outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is both Otoe-Missouria and Creek.

“This exhibition... it's really close to me because it represents my entire tribe, my family, my friends, and it's just really special to my heart,” Sam said.

On the other side of the gallery, Alex DeRoin explained their piece, a bear figure made from clay and beeswax.

DeRoin was inspired to do art while on the set of “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

“I was on the set with another artist that goes by the name of Jaime Misenheimer. She's a Choctaw artist,” DeRoin said. “I kind of got some impromptu art lessons from her. We talked about a lot of things, and that's when she told me, like, hey, you know, you're very creative in your mindset.”

DeRoin is Otoe, Osage, Pawnee and Blackfoot, and when asked to make art for the exhibition, they felt conflicted.

“I was having a little bit of imposter syndrome," DeRoin said. "You know what I mean? Because, I grew up Osage. So, I know Osage iconography. I know Osage language more. I mean, I don't even know how to greet myself in Otoe.”

DeRoin’s aunt was also asked to make art for the exhibition and offered them some advice.

“[She] reminded me, you know, this challenge of this whole entire, you know, ‘Walking in Our Ancestors Footsteps’ is all about, you know, tackling that conversation of what does it look like to give natives their land back, and what does it look like for non-natives to participate and facilitate that land back,” DeRoin said. “That has a lot to do with relationships, with our relationship to the land, with our relationship to each other, with our relationships to all these different bigger systems that make colonialism possible.”

DeRoin is two-spirit, an indigenous term often described as someone who embodies both masculine and feminine spirits. They say their identity is not just represented by the flag, but also by the plants that are attached to the figure. To DeRoin, the native plants of southeastern Nebraska are like family

“When I came back up here [to Nebraska] and started learning this history of, you know, our Otoe people, that's kind of when I realized, like, this land, you know, needs me just as much as I need it," DeRoin said. "These relatives acknowledge me, as a Two Spirit person, as a 𐓀𐒻𐓐𐓂𐒼𐒷 (pronounced Meh-ho-gay) person, as we called it. You know, these monoecious plants are my community.”

DeRoin’s art was made in conjunction with another piece, one his aunt made. Veronica Pipestem, and her niece Katelynn Pipestem’s piece is three-dimensional, and contains natural components such as beaver teeth, abalone shells and dyed bison hide. Veronica Pipestem said together with DeRoin’s piece, they represent the Otoe and Missouria creation stories.

“That's part of all of this interplay, I think, with Alex's piece as well, is that Alex kind of honed in on our plant and seed relatives on that side, and so we talked about the other elements as part of the land here in Nebraska,” Veronica Pipestem said. There's representational elements of the different clans that we have among the Otoe-Missouria, and so we've tried to include most of those.”

Katelynn Pipestem had never been to Nebraska before coming for the 2025 Otoe-Missouria day celebrations.

“Growing up in Oklahoma my whole life, and knowing Red Rock and, you know, knowing that part of it, it's definitely a little different,” she said. “But, you know, being able to experience like Otoe-Missouria day, and being up here in Nebraska, I feel like the more and more it goes on, it's going to be really great in terms of just healing our people, healing the land, giving everyone kind of an opportunity, besides encampment, which we have in Oklahoma. And then coming up to Nebraska, and then also having that time spent here, I think is going to be really healing for the tribes."

When asked what the two themes of reconciliation and healing meant to her, Katelynn Pipestem said there are plenty of tribes who did not survive relocation and the taking of their lands.

“That’s really kind of a blessing in itself, just to be able to say, hey, you know, like we can come back to our homelands, and experience that reconnection and just strengthen the bond and reflect," she said. "And I think knowing that, like, hey, it's 2025 we're still here, we're still able to come back and just say that we exist.”

The "Reflections of Our People, Our Ways, Our Land," exhibition will remain at the Great Plains Art Museum until Dec, 20, after which it hopefully will be able to travel to the Otoe-Missouria tribal lands in Red Rock, Oklahoma.