Peep

Jamie Okuma, Luiseño / Shoshone-Bannock, born 1977

Share

2021

Antique glass beads, brain-tanned deer hide, and vintage basket beads on Casadei boots

Overall: 20 1/2 × 8 7/16 × 4 3/4 in. (52 × 21.5 × 12 cm)

Circumference: 15 1/2 in. (39.3 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe 2015 Fund

© Jamie Okuma

2021.8.2

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

21st century

Object Name

Clothing: Footwear

Research Area

Native American

Native American: California Culture

Not on view

Label

These intricately beaded boots feature antique glass beads meticulously hand stitched by artist and fashion designer Jamie Okuma. Okuma’s designs, which often include abstract floral motifs as well as pictorial elements like the bird featured in this pair, are rooted in beading styles from the Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau regions. This pair of boots commissioned for the Hood Museum of Art’s collection, is inspired by a California scrub-jay taken in by the artist’s family during Okuma’s childhood and features Lupines and Indian paintbrushes. After falling out of its nest and refusing to return to the wild on multiple occasions, “Peep” became Okuma’s pet and lived with her family for 26 years.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., September 22, 2023-January 15, 2024; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, April 18-September 15, 2024.

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.

Publication History

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Joy Harjo, heather ahtone, and Shana Bushyhead Condill, The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, Princeton and Oxford: National Gallery of Art, Washington in association with Princeton University Press, 2023, p. 106, ill. p. 107.

Provenance

The artist, Jamie Okuma; sold to present collection, 2021.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu