Red Cloud's Heritage Center Helps Form Connection Between Two Worlds,

Supports Scientific Discovery

posted August 30, 2014

Domingo Tamayo, a student at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T), has spent the last two summers working with metallurgical engineers at the university to improve counterfeit detection and printing security technology. Domingo saw a practical application for testing these new technologies on something that has always been important to him and his family: Native art.

Domingo’s father, an instructor of Lakota arts at Sinte Gleska University and consultant for the Smithsonian, raised Domingo with a keen artistic eye and deep appreciation for his Sicangu Lakota culture and history.

With The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School (Center) a short distance from SDSM&T, Domingo met with former Center directors Mary Bordeaux and Mary Maxon to examine the Center’s vast historical collections in the hopes of making counterfeit Native art a thing of the past, supporting the livelihood and culture of his people.

Two years later, Domingo has utilized x-ray fluorescence analyzers, 3D x-ray CT scanners, infrared laser branding and more to peer into the Center’s collection’s past in a culturally responsive way for the first time, while also protecting it for the future. What he discovered was nothing short of amazing.

“Forming that connection between two worlds is critical,” said Mary Bordeaux during an interview with SDSM&T. For Lakota people, she says, learning is cyclical. A simple study of moccasins, for example can spark a discussion on construction, color theory, design, plants or animals. “By bringing science into an art museum, a Lakota museum, it shows these things are all connected to each other.”

Read the full story online and see how Domingo is working with The Heritage Center to examine traditional Lakota art to discover his own heritage while pushing the limits of science and technology.

 

Photos and Content ©Red Cloud Indian School, 2014