Fritz Scholder was initially reluctant to portray the Native American experience in the United States, but wound up revolutionizing the possibilities available to Native artists. He instilled a sense of ownership for the way Native Americans would and could be depicted, challenging romanticized notions of their lives and histories. He made them “real” in a world where they were stereotyped and relegated to documentary confines. Is the Native man portrayed here existing because of stereotypes or in spite of them? This is the evocative question Scholder asks us to consider.
