First American Art Magazine No. 10, Spring 2016 | Page 12

Editor’s Greetings

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FRIEND OF MINE, A. F. McILROY, once said,
“If it’s written, it’s wrong.” I take his statement as
a note of caution. With storytelling, oral history,
conversation, or public speaking, the discussion is
alive and fluid and can take new directions based on response.
Writing is a commitment; the words cannot be taken back.
On the other hand, writing spans years and even centuries and
can cross the planet.
The corpus of writing about Native art is growing at
a brisk pace with multiple perspectives represented, but we
know that much of Native art history has never been written
down, and much that has been recorded should be questioned
for accuracy and bias. In academia, a reader is expected to read
critically and question the material and the sources.
When writers are hurried and copy whatever has been
previously written without fact checking, mistakes are
repeated and amplified. A writer incorrectly said that T. C.
Cannon was Choctaw as well as Kiowa and Caddo, and this
mistake entered the literature. James Luna was erroneously
described as a drug and alcohol counselor, and that gaffe
snowballed.
“I have to say there is fear on our part as artists as
how we are seen,” writes Luna.1 Allowing yourself to be
interviewed, reviewed, or otherwise discussed in print takes
a leap of faith. The writers and editors at First American Art
Magazine strive to be worthy of that faith.
Journalists don’t always regard arts journalism as
the most serious genre, but for us—the artists, collectors,
scholars, curators, and other art professionals—this is our
lifeblood, and we take it extremely seriously.
We strive to follow the Society of Professional
Journalists’ code of ethics and cite our sources, fact check,
admit errors (hence, the “Errata” section, a necessary
component of all serious periodicals), and keep advertising
and editorial content separate. Avoiding conflicts of interest is
a greater challenge, since the Indigenous American art world
is an intimate community, and many of us wear many hats:
writer, artist, curator, collector, and much more. We created
“reports” as an alternative to reviews, for when the author
is involved in the event being discussed in some manner.
The Seven Directions column reflects the authors’ personal
opinions, so we encourage them to share projects in which
they are involved. No one can be truly objective, but we try
and remember to keep at the bigger picture in mind.
At First American Art Magazine, we take our commitments to truth seriously and strive to provide you, our reader,
with an independent source for polyvalent perspectives of the
Native art world guided by honesty, equity, and respect.
—America Meredith
1. James Luna, email correspondence with the author, January 12, 2015.

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Errata
In “March of the Land Writers: Unsanctioned Indigenous
Street Art Interventions” in FAAM Issue No. 9, the image of
the blue, Northwest Coast bear on page 22 was misattributed
to Baker and was actually painted by Larissa Healey aka
gurltwentythree. In the same issue on page 80 in footnote
number 2, Northwestern University was incorrectly listed as
Northwest University.

Clarification
Rachelle Dickenson, curator of Reading the Talk, identifies
as British-Irish-Cree. In Matthew Ryan Smith’s review
of the show on pages 78 and 79 of FAAM Issue No. 9,
we identified her simply as “Cree.” While our writers are
encouraged to share any of their ethnic backgrounds they
deem appropriate in their biographies, in our articles and
reviews we focus on the Indigenous tribal affiliations from
the Americas. Exceptions we make are listing nationalities
from the Americas and Chicano, Mestizo, and Métis heritage.
We list tribal affiliations because these are paramount to this
publication’s mission.
For the reader who requested “more cowbell,” we’ll do you
one better.
Unknown Tairona artist, Bell with Feline Deity, ca. 900–1500 CE, gold,
Colombia, 2.1 × 1.1 × 1.3 in. Collection of the Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore, MD, 57.2288 (CC0).