We were lucky to catch up with Lisa LaRue-Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

When I opened my current gallery, 785 Arts, a gallery focusing on Native American art, I had many comments that first month that just left me speechless. One man came in and said “Awww, I was hoping your renovation was going to be log walls and leather stuff.” Nope, sorry. We painted grey and whites, had nice directional lighting put in, etc. He was looking for something stereotypical. Another man came in and asked, “Is all of this done by Indians, or normal people?” People come in looking for Native American art, but when I show them the real deal, they say, no, I’m looking for (wolves, tomahawks, tipis, etc.). They don’t seem to understand – a Native American artist can work in any medium and style they want!

Native American art is protected under federal law, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, to be specific. You can only call art “Native American Art” if it is made by a citizen of a tribe, and if it’s not, the fines are steep! A painting of a ‘maiden and a tipi’ by a non-native is not Native American art, but a painting OF a Native American. Galleries and dealers and even artists, need to be careful how they label their work.

Because I am a mixed-blood and light skinned, living off-reservation is very hard for several reasons. One is that people don’t look at me as a Native American because of my skin color, and second, I am away from my fellow tribal members. The foods, slang, every day tribal politics and ceremonies …. all of that is missing from my daily world. My perceptions, goals, and philosophy seems to differ fro everyone else’s when I am living off-reservation. It is extremely difficult.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I worked for tribal government for many years, always in Language, History and Culture as well as Director of a tribal museum. I had the opportunity to learn from some of our Cherokee Nation Living Treasures and Keetoowah master artists the skill of basketweaving. Through my jobs at the tribes, I have taught hundreds of children and adults how to make their very first basket, as well as other tribal arts. I have personally been making Cherokee Doublewall Baskets for over 25 years and have my work in several museum permanent collections, and have been in numerous shows nationally. I even have a basket in the personal collection of NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson, made with black-dyed reed and stainless steel. As far as other art, I also was trained as a graphic artist and have always been a photographer as a hobbyist. So, I took all of these skills and put them together in a form of mixed media. I use my own photography, vintage photography and many other items to create collages. Some of the collages are done completely on the computer, others are partial computer, partial actual collage on top of it. I embellish the work by hand-tinting with watercolors, adding other items such as handwoven components, turquoise, vintage accessories, etc. All of the non-basketry work has been progressing over the last 15 years or so, and I have had solo shows in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Kansas and work in group shows everywhere from New York to California.

I was raised in Topeka, Kansas, by my maternal grandparents. As an adult I returned to the reservation to live around my paternal family, and ended up working for tribal government and becoming a shell shaker/head woman at a ceremonial ground. Since I am also a musician and had 11 albums as progressive rock keyboardist Lisa LaRue, I often traveled to Los Angeles to do music work and recording. I actually lived there for awhile when I married my husband, singer-songwriter and audiobook director John Baker. John and I moved to Topeka at the end of my grandfather’s life hoping to be able to take care of him. We ended up staying here as it was very close to my son in Kansas City, and had found a house we loved, and well, life just brought us here. But missing my friends and life on the reservation, I decided one day to do what I had done in Oklahoma. I could keep teaching all of the cultural things, and as a former museum director, I could open up a Native American gallery, something that didn’t exist here.

Not only does Kansas have 4 tribal governments located within the state, there are many Native Americans of other tribes who live here, like myself. As far as my tribe alone, there are over 16,000 Cherokee Nation tribal citizens who live in the state of Kansas. I have had the joy of teaching basketry or cornhusk dolls to little Cherokee girls who have no other access to their tribal arts since they, too, live off-reservation. This has been my reward. I do not charge any class tuition for teaching Cherokee children who come to me.

Topeka is only 25 miles or so from the Prairie Band Potawatomi and about the same distance from Haskell Indian National University, and surprisingly, Native American culture is virtually non-existent. I decided to do something about that. Something MORE than teaching baskets and doing presentations at schools and non-profit organizations’ meetings. I was finding that local people did not know anything about the Native origins of their own town and county. The local historical society wouldn’t even include history before the non-native settlement of the town, and yes, I asked and was willing to do the work. So I founded an ‘endeavor’ called the DoPiKa Project. DoPiKa is the original Kaw spelling of Topeka, and it is a phrase that means “a good place to dig potatoes.’ Through this endeavor, I give presentations to organizations and businesses on how to do a Land Acknowledgement program (not just the statement, but a program), and each one of those organizations or companies participate by doing something towards a big group Land Acknowledgement. Art galleries have exhibits, we have history exhibits, foods named at restaurants, a mural, and we were even able to have a #landback ceremony, where local energy company Energy gave back a plot of land to the Kaw Nation. Literally thousands of people have participated as viewers or beneficiaries of this and there has not been one negative comment registered publicly or with any of the organizations. This year, the art exhibit will be on billboards. Sponsors of the billboards are companies such as our local university, school district, banks, and an art museum. Talk about ‘public art!!’ We have the next four years scheduled already.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My particular mission is to encourage and promote Native American artists in the state of Kansas. In any way I can. Also included in my mission is to teach the history of Native origins of Shawnee County, Kansas, and to make Native American culture, language and art more common in my area. After all, it is the original culture, language and art and almost every place I know of honors the ‘origins’ whether it’s Rome, London or any other place in the world. New Mexico does a WONDERFUL job of this. But for some reason, many regions of the United States believe their ‘origin’ is when immigrants came and colonized the area. My goal is to see these things actually happen.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is when I see others want to learn and carry on these skills. This is the legacy I wish to leave – leaving our skills from seven generations ago in tact so those seven generations from now are still doing them.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/785arts
• Other: Project Antelope: https://www.projectantelope.com/u/65b17052-970f-4d8e-952f-69dd59e1c636