Minohsayaki ‘Painted Robes’: A Peewaalia and Myaamia Story of Reclamation

For the third time since 2008, the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum is honored to partner with the Myaamia Center at Miami University and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. With this exhibition, Minohsayaki ‘Painted Robes’, the Art Museum is collaborating for the first time with the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma. Maintaining a community-curated approach, this exhibition is created in the voices of Peewaaliaki ‘Peoria Indian’ and Myaamiaki ‘Miami Indian’ people. 

Minohsayaki ‘painted hide robes’ are an art form that was practiced by both the Peewaaliaki and Myaamiaki prior to contact with Europeans. Minohsaya artists produced many beautiful examples of this art form in the late 1600s into the early 1700s. In the mid-1700s, the artistic practice of producing minohsayaki declined. 

This exhibition presents the special collaboration between the Peewaaliaki and Myaamiaki, along with non-Native scholars, that began in 2020. Minohsayaki ‘Painted Robes’ tells of the effort to reclaim the practice of hide painting within the Peewaaliaki and Myaamiaki communities and reconnect those practices with the stories that are essential to who they are as a people.

The exhibition and related programs are supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, which is administered by the University of Illinois. Minohsayaki 'Painted Robes' is part of the Reclaiming Stories project.

Programs associated with the exhibition include:

Minohsayaki ‘Painted Robes’ Webinar with George Ironstrack (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and assistant director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University) and Elizabeth Ellis (Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and associate professor of History at Princeton University). In partnership with the Alumni Association on Thursday, February 22, at noon.

Requickening and Awakening the Dormant with Michael Galban (Washoe and Mono Lake Paiute), historic site manager of the Seneca Art and Cultural Center, Ganondagan State Historic Park) Saturday, March 16 from 3-5 PM.