Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Tommy Weber Wildcat, one of the Cherokees featured in "Cherokee Nation, A Portrait of People", a photography exhibit at the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - One of the oldest and proudest nations in the United States is given special recognition in "Cherokee Nation: A Portrait of a People", a photography exhibit opening at the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building on Oct. 26. Through 55 color images, award-winning photographer David Fitzgerald displays the Cherokees of Oklahoma, from tradesmen to chiefs, showing their enduring resilience to time and change.

The traveling exhibition was organized by the Oklahoma Historical Society's State Museum of History. After its premiere in Washington, D.C., where it closes on April 9, 2002, it goes to the Oklahoma Historical Society (May through December), and then will tour the nation, at various cultural institutions, through 2006.

For more than 30 years David Fitzgerald has been photographing people in several countries for books and other projects. He started photographing the Cherokee people three years ago, while researching the Trail of Tears and working on a new book of photographs. This work led to the portraiture project for the State Museum of History in Oklahoma.

"His photographs capture the remarkable character of the Cherokee people", says Dan Provo, director of the State Museum, "a people who have maintained their strong nation despite incredible upheavals for more than two centuries, absorbing European and African immigrants, the tragic removal from the Southeast to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, efforts to strip them of their heritage, the industrial revolution and the high-tech revolution."

Among the Oklahoma Cherokee photographed for the exhibition are 93-year-old aircraft worker Jesse Vann and 79-year-old stomp dancer Tom Webber Wildcat. The exhibit also includes a basket maker, a weaver, a potter, educators and the fierce faces of the Cherokee Fire Dancers, who battle forest fires throughout the country. Among the leaders, Rep. Brad Carson, Cherokee Supreme Court Justice Philip Viles Jr. and Oklahoma House Speaker Larry Adair are depicted.

"I had seen Time magazine’s pictures of the six living presidents", recalls Fitzgerald, “and decided to photograph the four living principal chiefs of the Cherokees” with their spouses. The result is the first photo collection of Wilma Mankiller and Charlie Soap, Joe Byrd and Suzy Byrd, Chad "Corntassel" Smith and Bobbie Gail Smith, and Ross Swimmer.

Fitzgerald started taking pictures back in 1964, during a two-week training stint in the Army. Before that he had been doing illustrations for greeting card companies. His photos have been published in eight coffee table books, displayed in numerous museums and galleries, and appeared in several documentaries and advertisements.

His first coffee table book, Oklahoma, was published in 1979. It was followed by Ozarks, Israel and Bison, Monarch of the Plains, among others. Bison, Monarch of the Plains won the Oklahoma Book Award for 1999.

The Oklahoma Historical Society has been a Smithsonian affiliate since March 2000. The Smithsonian Affiliations Program offers nonprofit cultural and educational organizations the opportunity to have greater access to Smithsonian collections and resources.

The Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building, located at 900 Jefferson Drive S.W in Washington D.C., is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. (Closed Christmas Day.) Admission is free.

Cherokee Nation: A Portrait of a People ~ October 26, 2001 - April 9, 2002
55 images by photographer David Fitzgerald offer insight into contemporary daily Cherokee life in Oklahoma. Also, wonderful stories of the people photographed complement the exhibition through interpretive labels and a video. Organized by the Oklahoma Historical Society, State Museum of History, in association with the Smithsonian Institution.