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Charlene Teters is a member of the Spokane Nation. The Spokane Nation is indigenous to the Plateau region of what is now Washington State. She is an artist, teacher, writer, and activist.

Teters was born and grew up in the City of Spokane in Washington State, 50 miles from the present day Spokane Indian Reservation. She eventually came to live on the Colville Confederated Tribes Reservation in Nespelem and Coulee Dam, where she raised her two young children, Kristal and George.

In 1984, she made her journey to the southwest to attend the prestigious Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a junior college where many of her fellow Spokane Tribal artist friends and colleagues had attended and achieved recognition, at least regionally, for their artwork. It was a positive time of renewal. She describes this time at IAIA as “reclaiming herself, both as an Indian person and her dignity as an Indian woman.” Teters’ early works, from home in Washington and IAIA, are romanticized paintings focused on subject matter of Indian women and children in tribal regalia. Her purpose was to contrast the dominant subject matter of Indian men by portraying Indian women and children as the center of family and as keepers of the cultures. She painted in the style readily defined and publicly accepted by the art market as “Indian Art.”

After graduating with an Associate of Fine Arts degree in painting from IAIA in 1986, she attended the College of Santa Fe, where through the New York Arts Program, she was influenced in her artistic development by feminist painter Sylvia Sleigh, curator and art critic Lawrence Alloway, and printmaker Bob Blackburn. She graduated from the College of Santa Fe with a BFA in Painting in 1988.

In 1988, Teters was recruited to the University of Illinois, along with Norman Akers (Osage) and Marcus Amerman (Choctaw). The three traveled to the heartland of Illinois to attend the University of Illinois Department of Art and Design graduate program. It was there that Charlene and her art became politicized. When the three arrived, they found a community that was permeated with degrading depictions of American Indian caricatures because of the University’s use of an “Indian chief” as its sports team mascot. Charlene actively campaigned to eliminate the racist symbols after it became evident that her teenage children’s self esteem was undermined by uses of these Indian images in the community.

Teters was lifted and mentored into national leadership during her years of struggle by social justice leaders such as Ken Sterns, of the American Jewish committee; Tim Giago, Founder and Publisher of the Lakota Times and the Lakota Nation Journal; Kuame Ture (Stockley Carmichael); and American Indian Movement leadership, Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt.

Her story of challenging America’s use of Indians as mascots is the subject of a nationally-aired and award-winning documentary, “In Whose Honor?” The film traces the Chief Illiniwek controversy at the University of Illinois into a national movement against Indian mascots in elementary schools to professional, multi-billion dollar sports enterprises. The film follows Teters’ evolution from mother and student into a leading voice against the merchandising of Native American symbols and exposes the length that fans will go to preserve their mascots. “In Whose Honor?” also draws connections to other historic examples of stereotypes such as Black Sambo and the Frito Bandito.

Today, as an internationally recognized and sought after artist, Teters expresses her personal and political views about America’s dehumanization of Indian Peoples by creating multimedia installations that examine the social presumptions and portrayals of Indian people in pop culture and media. She exhibits widely in the United States and internationally.

Teters has a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Illinois and was presented an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from Mitchell College, New London Connecticut. ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings honored Ms. Teters for her commitment to her work and her people as “Person of the Week,” October 10, 1997.

Teters is currently the Hugh O. LaBounty Endowed Chair for Interdisciplinary Knowledge at CalPoly, Pomona. She is on leave from the Institute of American Indian Arts where she is Professor of Art and has served as Dean for Arts and Cultural Studies at IAIA. In the mid-1990s she served as Senior Editor of Native Artist Magazine. She is a founding board member of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media. Ms. Teters currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She frequently lectures on her art and issues of human rights.

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"The Tangle of Biological Purposes That is Us" (A public lecture)
Wednesday, October 29, Leighton 304, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
“From our genes to our public languages, half-dozen entwined levels of selection cooperate, but sometimes also conflict, each supporting its own level of purposes. Our own purposes, purposes at the level of the individual persons that we are, emerge from this tangle, sometimes triumphantly, sometimes in conflict.”

“How Does Conceptual Representation Differ From Non-conceptual Representation?” (A faculty seminar)
Thursday, October 30, 5:15 to 6:45 p.m., Alumni Guest House Library
This event is for faculty only. To request readings and to RSVP, please contact Jill Tollefson (x4232 or jtollefs@carleton.edu).

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Tuesday, October 28
Catching the Wave: Politics and Image-making in the New Media Environment
In the current media landscape the number of potential “news” outlets continues to expand yet the diversity of political coverage remains problematic. Online, broadcast, and printed media synergistically feed off one another, as news and entertainment production staff work feverishly to respond to daily cycles of story circulation and viral media patterns. What would a more responsible and ethical approach to political coverage look like in this new media environment and how do we get there?

Michael Griffin, Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies, Macalester College

Co-sponsored by EthIC (Ethical Inquiry at Carleton), the Visuality Initiative, and Gould Library

Noon to 1:30 p.m., Gould Library Athenaeum
Lunch provided for 50

Looking ahead:

Tuesday, November 4
Urban Lessons: Teaching the City with Connected Students
In off-campus programs and in the classroom, we ask students to make sense of urban areas even though not all students are familiar with or comfortable in such environments. How can we help students "decode" cities effectively so they are able to look beyond surface qualities to the often hidden life of an urban area, or to understand the relationship of cities to the surrounding countryside and to the larger global community?

Devashree Gupta, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Humberto Huergo, Professor of Spanish
Robert Oden, President and Professor of Religion

Noon to 1:30 p.m., Alumni Guest House Meeting Room
Lunch provided for 50

See all our LTC/Mellon events on our Web site.

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The UMW HERC Web site includes faculty and staff job listings at all 50 member institutions. The site is organized into five sub-regions (Lake Superior, Lakes and Valley, Minneapolis/St. Paul, etc.) so job seekers can focus their searches on colleges in a particular sub-region. Searches are free and available to anyone seeking employment in higher education. The central location of job postings and regional resources, as well as the site's ability to accommodate dual-career searches distinguishes the Upper Midwest HERC from other employment Web sites. Dual-academic couples can receive automatic e-mail notifications when positions in their fields open at any of the colleges in their specified sub-region. The site also includes a list of diversity resources in our area.

The HERC concept originated in northern California in 2000. Approximately 400 public and private colleges, universities, and teaching hospitals are now members of regional HERCs.

The Dean of the College and Human Resources offices have links to the UMW HERC on their Web sites and will post all position openings. If you have any questions about the HERC, contact Peggy Pfister in the Dean of the College office, or Kerstin Cárdenas in the Human Resources office.