Calling of Culture and Art

by Dan Breen

South Bend, IN

David Martin is the 2023 - 24 Artist in Residence for the Notre Dame Initiative on Race and Resilience. He is a citizen of the Potawatomi Band of Pokagon Indians. Through oil painting, beadworking, tattooing, and dancing, he documents and brings to life the culture of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

In 2014, David Martin dropped off a commission for the Potawatomi Tribe to the History and Cultural Building at Notre Dame. Martin and Marcus Winchester were talking when Winchester said, “you must see this sketch in the archives.” Winchester showed Martin a 200-year-old sketch by George Winter.

Martin explains, “And I made the joke like, ‘well, maybe I should finish it.’ At first, it was just a joke, you know. It was crass and maybe even a little disrespectful, but we laughed. I got home, and that joke turned into something serious in my mind.”

“George Winter is one of Indiana's best-known artists. Born in 1809 in Portsea, England, Mr. Winter first studied art privately and later studied at the Royal Academy. At the age of 20, Winter moved to New York City where he continued his art studies. By 1837, George Winter was located in Logansport, Indiana, and nearly all of Mr. Winter's remaining life was spent in the Wabash Valley.
George Winter, the Catlin of Indiana, documented the forced relocation of the Potawatomi and Miami tribes of the Wabash valley through his paintings and journals.” George Winter (purdue.edu).
Photo of George Winter sketch by David Martin.

Martin didn’t feel he had the time or the money to take on a passion project like re-visualizing Winter’s sketch. He was working on a lot of commissions at the time. He thought he wanted to recreate the sketch grandly and properly. He knew of George Winter as an artist but felt he couldn’t jump into the art without a more profound knowledge of Winter’s work. “I didn't want to copy his work. As a tattoo artist, that's a drag, and a good chunk of your business is copying other people's stuff because the client comes in with what they want. They give it to you, pay you, and you do it.”

Winter’s sketch is an emotional touchstone for Martin. He says it is likely the last sketch of a Potawatomi social gathering before their removal from the area to make way for settlers. “I want to put into perspective the political climate back then, and it's going to tie into my reason to do this. We're talking about the atmosphere in the 1800s. At that time, all the tribes east of the Mississippi were being removed, all of them, so settlers could come in and take the land.”

One band of the Potawatomi were allowed to stay because Leopold Pokagon lobbied the United States Government. The band agreed they would convert to Catholicism and give up the traditional ways of life. The band agreed to be neighbors with the settlers.

“The Potawatomi gathered in Chicago were sharply divided on the question of removal. The Prairie bands of Wisconsin and Illinois, accustomed to prairie life, were willing to negotiate on the point. In contrast the Michigan Potawatomi were determined to avoid removal. Ultimately, the Michigan bands broke ranks. Some Michigan Potawatomi agreed to relocate with the Prairie bands. However, Leopold Pokagon, representing three villages from southwestern Michigan, refused to yield. He became an effective spokesperson for those Potawatomi seeking to stay in Michigan.

The situation was sufficiently complicated that two treaties were signed. On September 26, the Prairie Potawatomi agreed to cede their remaining reservations and relocate on land west of the Mississippi River. On the 27th, the Michigan bands signed a separate treaty in which they agreed to cede their remainingreservations and relocate west within three years.

However, a supplementary article gave a minority of the Michigan Potawatomi the right to remain in Michigan if they relocated to the Odawa community of L'arbre Croche.

Four scattered Michigan Potawatomi communities were covered by this provision. Three were found in the St. Joseph River Valley and were led by Pokagon. A fourth community - led by Mkwago, Wabimanido, and Ashkibi - was near Nottawa, but had recently migrated there from the Detroit River area. Collectively, these four communities became known as the Pokagon band, but in actuality, the link between the four was that each community had accepted the Catholic faith.”

cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library - The Potawatomi Experience of Federal Removal Policy

For the Potawatomi who stayed, the lives of the band were saved, but their culture was stripped from them.

“We weren't allowed to be who we were. It was against the law for us to speak our language. It was against the law for us to practice our spiritual beliefs. Dancing wasn't allowed within my early lifetime legally,” says Martin.

“In 1978 the government passed The American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The law was enacted to return basic civil liberties to American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians, and to allow them to practice, protect, and preserve their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religious rites, spiritual and cultural practices. These rights include, but are not limited to access to: sacred sites, freedom to worship through traditional ceremonial rites, and the possession and use of objects traditionally considered sacred by their respective cultures.

The act requires policies of all governmental agencies to eliminate interference with the free exercise of … Native American religious sites to the extent that the use is practicable and is consistent with an agency's essential functions. It also acknowledges the prior violation of that right.” American Indian Religious Freedom Act - Wikipedia

“Every time I have a chance, I put on my regalia. I dance every time I have a chance, because within my lifetime, I legally was not allowed to. I don't mean to get emotional, but I don't think people realize that part of history. It wasn't just moving us to reservations,” says Martin. The right to practice and celebrate the cultural habits within the community was legally removed.

Martin dropped out of Ivy Tech. He says, like many young people, we started a family unexpectedly. The needs of a new family were a priority, and he had to have a job to support his new family.

“I spent many years bouncing around from factory to factory, just supporting my family and making sure my kids were taken care of. I continued to powwow,dance, go to ceremonies, and sing. My wife was pregnant with our oldest daughter; I was cleaning a room for a nursery. I found my portfolio from school, and I started looking through it. I had the harsh realization I hadn't physically done any art for over a year. I hadn't even sketched on my envelope while on the phone. I hadn't done anything (art). I closed myself off to my calling.”

Martin left work in the factories and began his journey as a professional artist. He pulled together his portfolio from school and began sending it around. He realized he would have to be an in-house graphic artist if he were to make enough money to support his family. The options in that direction were not promising.

In 1996, Martin’s cousin John went to Michigan to get a tattoo. Tattooing in Indiana was not legal until 1997. When John returned, he encouraged Martin to take up tattooing. Martin looked at the basic tattoo of the panther and thought, “I could do better than that.”

“My other cousin, JesseDavid. We sang on our drum; he had just got his Indian money.

“And for those that don't know, there was a treaty of Chicago. Basically, the government paid the tribe five cents an acre. They only paid us two cents. They never paid the final three cents. Several generations before took the federal government to court. They finally won, and this is a super paraphrased truncated version of the story,” explains Martin.

“It's a lot deeper than what I'm saying, but eventually, we won. My portion went into a trust fund until I turned 18, and all the kids got the same thing. So, when you turned 18, you got this big check, right? He took his check. And without me asking, he bought me some tattoo equipment.”

“He got me started on tattooing, and it changed my whole life. When I began, tattooing was a craft. That's how I looked at it, but later, I came to a sweet spot where it was changing into an art form,” said Martin.

The graphic art of tattooing provided for his family. Martin couldn’t get the idea of painting out of his head. In 2008, he sold his first commission. As he painted more, Martin began to feel more confident in his skill and ability. Martin gives credit to Dale Swafford. “Over the years, I learned more from him and his wife than I did from many other schoolteachers. I think sometimes connections are important when you have the right teacher.”

Martin plans to create a painting of modern themes around the Winter sketch. He wants to honor the past culture of the Potawatomi and show the transformation of the culture through the modern expression of community gatherings in powwow.

“Our people have a good grasp on honoring the past but also keeping a foot in the future. And I think that's so important for a culture to grow. You can't stop growing. You must keep evolving. You must keep moving, or you really will become extinct.”

We are unable to represent David Martin’s full spectrum of art and skill across tattooing, beadworking and dancing. Please see his art @artbyhalfpint or etsy.com/no-en/shop/artbydavidmartin. To find out more about the Pokagon Band of Potowtami, Our Culture – Pokagon Band of Potawatomi (pokagonband-nsn.gov).

David Martin Fall 2024