In and Out of Place will be an educational art exhibit that focuses on Lakotan treaty lands and fossils in those lands. Artworks, songs and poems by contemporary Lakotan creatives will illustrate the four sections of the exhibit.
The first section, Grounding, will feature a full-sized replica of a fossil skull of a Brontothere, a huge mammal that lived in what are now the treaty lands around thirty million years ago. A fossilized jawbone of a Brontothere, found in the Badlands in 1846, unleashed an unprecedented rush by scientists to dig up fossils in Lakotan treaty lands and take them to museums and research facilities across the United States and around the world.
The second section will feature a traditional narrative about how the earth, which includes the Badlands, was created in the primordial darkness. In the beginning, there was only an amorphous spirit pulsating with the potentiality of the universe. After a while, he wanted dominion over somethig, so he opened one of his veins and as his blood flowed out, he shaped it into a disk around him. When it was of sufficient size, he tried to stop the flow of blood but could not and so he bled out and became hard and brittle. His name is Inyan, Rock. His blood was comprised of liquid and power. These elements separated aas they flowed out of his body. The liquid disk became Maka, Earth, and the power became Shkan, Sky. Later, these first spirits created Wi, Sun, and with him came daylight, which enabled these first four relatives to see each other and the earliest Lakotan world.
The shifting borders of Lakotan landholdings will be the focus of Tribal Lands, the third section of the exhibit. Lakotan nations negotiated two treaties with the United States of America. The territorial borders stipulated in the 1851 and 1868 documents constitute the maximum extent of Lakotan treaty lands. These lands were to be held in trust for Lakotan tribes and their citizens by the US government. Nevertheless, in 1877 and 1889, huge tracts of these lands were taken from Lakotans by the US government. And at the same time, countless tons of fossils and the soil around them were taken by scientists. Today, land and fossils are still being taken.
The final section of the exhibit will be a Trophy Room that will feature life-sized replicas of seen fossil skulls of extinct beings. These will include four mammals and three reptiles who lived and died in what are now the treaty lands. The mammals are a giant beaver, a sabertoothed "false cat," a short-faced bear, and an early horse. The reptiles are Allosaurus, Mososaur and Pachycephalosaurus. Lakotan creatives will compose songs and write poems for each of these beings, and Lakotan artists will use the skulls as canvases for artworks. These multimedia works and the life histories of these beings and their fossilized bones are the "skullworks" that will comprise this section.
The exhibit will open at Wingsprings Gallery, located in Allotted trust land in the Lacreek District of Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty lands. It will be on display for a full moon cycle from June 18 to July 17, 2027. From there it will travel to other venues in and beyond the treaty lands, until returning to Wingsprings Gallery to be on display for a closing full moon cycle.