embellished blanket; 70×50″

“My embellished blanket focuses on the healing properties of two plants utilized by two different Indigenous groups—the melaaki plant (Black Cohosh) used by the Shawnee Tribe of Ohio and the macpalxochitl (Palm Flower Tree) used by the Nahua peoples of Oaxaca. I present the plant names first in the Indigenous language, then in Latin and in the case of melaaki I also include its name in Algonquin (cohosh). I want to return the lens to the medicinal wisdom of Indigenous peoples. The English and Spanish words for health and well-being spring from the person’s headdress because in these parts of the world these two languages now dominate. The two Indigenous groups represented here tended these plants in positive ways to create good medicine for their people. But both of these plants are now much rarer/endangered due to the acts of genocide, removal, incarceration, and assimilation perpetuated by the colonial imperialistic forces throughout the Americas against Indigenous peoples and assaults against the environment wrought by these same forces. As a citizen of the Shawnee Tribe, I advocate for reclamation and restitution of planetary health through a practice of good medicine|buena medicina.”

ARTIST BIO: Suzanne Michele Chouteau is Professor of Art at Xavier University where she teaches printmaking and art history. Her artworks have been shown internationally and nationally in solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions. A citizen of the Shawnee Tribe, she lives on ancestral lands in south-central Ohio with her husband, Chris Bedel, Director of the CMC’s Edge of Appalachia Preserve. Their son, Elijah Bedel, is a versatile musician playing regularly in the region.