Beyond the Chief, Urbana, IL, 2009
The artist Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne/Arapaho) completed an outdoor installation commissioned by the Native American House on the campus of the University of Illinois in the late winter of 2009. The artwork consisted of several signs honoring the tribes who first lived in the land that now comprises the state. Titled “Beyond the Chief,” the installation suggested that recognition of the state’s actual native peoples was the first step in moving beyond the stereotypical depiction of Chief Illiniwek, the university’s longtime mascot that had been retired in 2007. Almost immediately after its dedication, the installation was targeted for vandalism, ultimately suffering seven waves of attacks in less than three months that culminated in the theft of two of the signs. Because the vandalism took place in an environment of backlash and hostility by supporters of the mascot and because no vandalism was directed at any of the other public art installations on campus, the attacks were widely perceived as hate crimes directed against Native American House. A group of community supporters mounted a yard sign campaign to allow city residents to show their support for the artwork and its message. Nevertheless, when the student who stole the signs was apprehended, the states attorney refused to investigate the case as a potential bias crime and downgraded the theft to a misdemeanor by estimating the value of the artwork as the cost of its materials, rather than the market value of similar work by the renowned artist. While Heap of Birds may have hoped to move the campus “Beyond the Chief,” his artwork instead revealed how deeply ingrained anti-Indian bias remained on campus and exposed the failure of the school administration and local officials to condemn it.
Image: One of the Beyond the Chief signs, March 2009