Copyright © 2006 NLThomas
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News from the Cherokee Nation, OK
Copyright © 2006 CNO
TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – Several area physicians recently donated an original acrylic mural by Cecil Dick, a well known artist known as "the Father of Cherokee Traditional Art" to the Cherokee Nation.
"Pictured left to right: Doctors; Tom Ward, Coy Edwards, Danny Minor, Herb Littleton, Ed Pointer and Bryce Bliss." 
The painting, entitled “The Curing of the Fever,” is an acrylic mural by Cecil Dick, the most honored traditional painter in Cherokee history.
Several of the physicians attended the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council meeting, at which they and their donation were recognized by Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Among those present were Doctors Bryce Bliss, Jim Brixey, Coy Edwards, Herb Littleton, Danny Minor, Ed Pointer and Tom Ward.
Also on hand to commemorate this donation were Cecil Dick’s daughter, Polly Reed, and her daughter, Deborah Reed, who was Miss Cherokee 1991-1992.
“We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to these doctors who made this donation. Cecil Dick is one of the premiere Cherokee artists of all time. For Cherokee Nation to have this mural means his legacy will endure for many more Cherokees for many generations to come,” Smith said.
The mural, 15 feet long by four feet wide, has been appraised by several experts on Native American art who are in general agreement that the work would bring between $65,000 and $100,000 at an auction attended by major collectors of Native American art.
The mural was commissioned in the 1960s by Dr. Ed Pointer, a friend of the artist, on behalf of himself and the other medical center owners. Dr. Pointer asked his friend to portray Cherokee healing practices in the period before contact with Europeans.
“The Cherokee Nation is where this mural belongs, historically and culturally,” said Dr. Pointer.
“This is one of four or five surviving major murals that Cecil painted during his lifetime. At least three others which were painted on plaster walls have been lost. Others are at the University of Oklahoma, the Cowboy Hall and Western Heritage Center and the Heard Museum in Phoenix,” said Dr. Rennard Strickland, well-known Cherokee legal and cultural expert.
Enhancing the mural’s value is an accompanying illustrated statement by the artist in his own hand. This framed statement, 33 inches wide by 41 inches tall, features a stylized floral border on the left, right and bottom borders, with three Cherokee braves playing stickball at the bottom center. The sepia-toned statement features the mural’s title at the top and explains the meaning of the mural, including the imagery, figures and structures that populate it.
“In the painting, the shaman is curing the woman of a fever. In his hand is a gourd dipper containing an ember which has been quenched by the water in the dipper, ‘symbolic of heat cooled by water.’ The objective is to cause the fever to leave the body by calling down seven degrees of cold. Seven is a symbolic number to the Cherokees,” wrote Dick.
Dick, who was born in 1915 near Rose Prairie, Oklahoma, and died in 1992 in Tahlequah, was the son of famous Indian Territory lawman Andy Dick. At the time of his death, he was working on a Cherokee vocabulary and dictionary.
Dick received almost every art award given in the Native American art world. In 1983, he received the third Sequoyah Medal ever presented by the Cherokee Nation for intellectual and artistic achievement. This medal is named in honor of the first recipient, the great Sequoyah himself. That same year, the Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee Heritage Association held a 50-year retrospective exhibition of his lifetime work.
In June 1991, the artist was named “The Honored One” by the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City for his accomplishments. Also in 1991, the Five Civilized Tribes Museum created the Cecil Dick Master of Heritage Award in his honor, which is given to outstanding traditional paintings, for its annual Competitive Art Show. For more than 50 years, Dick recorded Cherokee history and culture in his art and was well known for his commitment to cultural and historical accuracy.
This donation of the mural was made possible by the generosity of Doctors Bryce Bliss, Jim Brixey, Richard Deed, Coy Edwards, Shelly Lee, Herb Littleton, Danny Minor, Ed Pointer, Tom Ward and Steven Younger.
For additional information, contact Cherokee Nation Development Director Margaret Peake Raymond, phone: 918-453-5420.
Related path(s):
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Twin Territories ~ Cecil Dick, B.1915/D.1992
"Father of Cherokee Traditional Art"
| Related Cherokee Nation contact information: |
|
Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Director of Communications Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2210) Fax: 918-458-5580 E-mail: Communications@cherokee.org
Larry Daugherty, Advertising Manager |
Steven Swogger, Agriculture Liaison Natural Resources Department Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2546) FAX: 918-458-7673 E-mail: sswogger@cherokee.org
Bradley D. Peak, Cherokee Nation |
