This unadorned Navajo Christ moves forward beyond the frame, and with his hands initiates a welcoming embrace. His compassionate countenance bears the marks of human suffering summoning us to transform our own.
Traditional iconography gives witness to the human face of the Sacred. This icon, imaged in the features of America’s indigenous peoples, reveals anew that sacred power. It celebrates the soul of the Native American as the original spiritual presence on this continent, and as a prophetic sign, it celebrates the reconciliation of the spiritual vision of Native and Christian peoples of this land.
The Choctaws were the first of the “Five Civilized Tribes” — the Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks and Seminoles — selected for the Government’s westward removal of Indian peoples living east of the Mississippi River. Beginning in the winter of 1831-1832, the majority of Choctaws were moved west to Indian territory — present day Oklahoma.
For the most part, the Choctaws’ everyday clothing was indistinguishable from that of their neighbors. In this Choctaw image of the Virgin Mother, She wears a one piece cotton dress and ruffled aprons, both finely decorated with applique worked in contrasting colors; an ornamental hair comb, glass bead necklaces and elaborate native-made silver earrings. The Child wears a native-made shirt embellished with finely cut and stitched applique. Together, Mother and Child stand before a screen of indigenous evergreens.
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