Bury the Hatchet
The Album is available at: Hybridpress • Sunday Night Records • Bandcamp
Artist John Hitchcock's Bury the Hatchet shares the past and present of the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma through visual Art and sound performance about the American Frontier. Bury the Hatchet explores the intersection between cultures through the land, language, and the visual symbols of the Great Plains - the epicenter for Plains tribal culture. The basis for Bury the Hatchet revolves around the relationship between the Fort Sill Military Base (Lawton, Oklahoma), The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve, Medicine Park, Oklahoma and his family's Comanche Tribal Land off of State Highway Forty-Nine, Oklahoma.
The exhibition consists of a series of works on paper titled The Flatlander and a multi-media sound installation. Working from the theme of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, Bury the Hatchet explores issues of assimilation, acculturation, and indoctrination.
Through oral history and music, the Bury the Hatchet music recording intertwines storytelling and Kiowa & Comanche songs with soundscapes of steel guitar, cello, clarinet, accordion and guitars. Bury the Hatchet challenges the romanticized version of the American Frontier (Wild West themes) in combination with current conditions.
Bury the Hatchet acts to interrogate the historic and modern institutions and develop a language to re-define the present times. Hitchcock’s grandfather Saukwaukee John Dussome Reid (Kiowa) voice cuts through the sound by telling a story of the old days on the southern plains on the song “Star House/Set'tainte Song” and “Jimmy Creek (A Comanche Story)”. This story was told to Johnny Reid when he was hospitalized back in the 1930's with a 103-year-old Comanche elder named Tahen. Johnny Reid recorded his story on a reel-to-reel player, which Hitchcock translated to a cassette and now into digital format as part of Bury the Hatchet.
On several songs, Jason Cutnose (Kiowa) interprets the Plains of Oklahoma and Texas through three Kiowa stories. The first story featured on “Saddle Mountain” and several other songs, speaks about the massacre of several Kiowa women, men and children at Cutthroat Gap. The second story featured in “Rainy Mountain Falling Stars” speaks about the 1833 Leonid meteor shower and the recording of the stars with earth pigment on the Kiowa Buffalo hide calendar. The third story featured in “Lone Wolf and the War with Texas (Meers Road Part 1)” talks about the Kiowa Chief Lone Wolf (Gui-Pah-Go) and his dispute with Texas Rangers and the US Military.
Both John Dussome Reid and Jason Cutnose’s recorded voice challenges the western perspective of the written word by reinforcing indigenous views of oral history passed on from generation to generation through storytelling.
MUSICIANS
Emily Arthur – Day is Done
Jason Cutnose – Kiowa Stories
Hannah Edlén – clarinet, sound design
john Hitchcock – pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, electric guitar
Ryan Lansing – electric guitar
Allison Lenz – cello, percussion
Caitlin Mead – opera performance on Dohasan (When they attack)
Nate Meng – piano, synthesizer, drums, percussion
Chad Oliver – Guitar Noise Samples
Juanita Pahdopony – Comanche Prayer
Johnny Reid – Comanche Story
Justen Renyer – remixed of Kiowa Story
Anneliese Valdes – electric bass, trumpet, saxophone, baritone
1978 Family recordings – made at Johnny and Peggy Reid HYW 49 Dance Ground
1999 Comanche and Kiowa hymnals - recorded at Lawton, Oklahoma
1996 Kiowa Flag Song and Set'tainte Song – recorded at Saddle Mountain
This album is dedicated to honoring our elders (those with us and those in the spirit world); to my P’AH-BE’s Jason Cutnose (Kiowa), Shade Large (Comanche), Byron Poafpybitty (Comanche) and Bob Cox; my grandparents Johnny Reid (Kiowa), Peggy Reid (Comanche); mother Anita Hitchcock (Comanche); father Jim Hitchcock (German/Dutch); my aunt Peggy Reid Walton (Comanche) and cousin Edward Nahquaddy (Comanche). Rest in Peace my family. Uda Aho
All songs recorded by Nate Meng and Ryan Lancing for Sunday Night Records at Maywood Mission House and MOD Studios. 4 Mile recorded at Dayton Street Home for Misfits and Mutants. Mastered by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room, Milwaukee, WI.
VIDEO
Bury the Hatchet Part One: Prayer for my P’AH-BE
John Hitchcock on pedal steel guitar.
Jason Cutnose (Kiowa 1967-2015) : oral history of Meers, Oklahoma, remixed by Justin Renyer
Juanita Pahdopony (Comanche) voice recording a Comanche prayer.
Intertribal War Dance Songs, recorded in 1978 on the Johnny Reid (Kiowa) and Peggy Reid (Comanche) Dance Ground, HYW 49.
Video images:
War Dancers in Medicine Park. Buffalo images recorded in Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge by Emily Arthur
PERFORMANCES
Future:
April 25, 2020 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Concert: Bury the Hatchet
Artist/musician John Hitchcock and his band, The Stolen Sea, will perform his Bury the Hatchet project. Combining storytelling, sound, and visual art, the performance explores the relationships between living Native cultures, contemporary society, and history. The Stolen Sea consists of musicians Nate Meng, Allison Lenz, Hannah Edlén, John Hitchcock, Ryan Lansing, and Caitlin Mead.
Past:
Saturday Feb 9, 2019
Come Back In
Madison, WI
Sunday February 17, 2019, 8pm
11th Street Bar
Manhattan, NY
Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 8 PM – 11 PM
Bury The Hatchet LP Release featuring Nate Meng and The Stolen Sea
The Winnebago
2262 Winnebago St
Madison, Wisconsin
Friday May 31, 2019, 6pm, 7:30pm (2 shows)
Missoula Art Museum
Missoula, Montana 59802
Bury the Hatchet Official Premier
Saturday, June 1, 2019, 8 PM – 11 PM
235 North 1st Street West, Main Floor, Missoula MT, 59802
With Oh Rose, Nate Meng and The Stolen Sea and Hannah Edlén.
October 22, 2019 @ 5:00 pm - 7:45 pm
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
227 State Street
Madison, 53703 United States
Phone:
608.257.0158
Website:
Art Party Happy Hour at MMoCA
Bury The Hatchet band performance with Caitlin Mead, John Hitchcock, Nate Meng and the Stolen Sea.
Thursday, January 23, 5 - 7 p.m.
College of Saint Benedic
Alice R. Rogers Gallery & Target Gallery, SJU
37 South College Avenue
St. Joseph, Minnesota 56374
320-363-5011
Artist Talk: 6:00 - 6:30 pm at
6:30 - 7:00 pm Bury the Hatchet Performance at
9:30 pm - 11:45 pm. Nate Meng and the Stolen Sea performance at Brother Willie's Pub at SJU from
Chazen Museum of Art
Mead Witter Lobby
750 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin
Bury The Hatchet band performance with Caitlin Mead, John Hitchcock, Nate Meng and the Stolen Sea.
EXHIBITIONS
May 1 to September 14, 2019
Missoula Art Museum 335 North Pattee, Missoula, Montana 59802
2020 - Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon.
2020 - Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Saint John’s Art Center, Saint Johns, Minnesota.
2020 - Faculty Exhibition, Chazen Museum of Art Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
Summer – Fall 2019 - Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, Montana.
2019 -2020 -Wisconsin Triennial Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring Bury the Hatchet, Madison, Wisconsin
LETTERPRESS PRINTS
Maeve Leslie is making letterpress print magic happen for the Bury the Hatchet album/project! 4 separate prints with an edition of 200 prints each to be inserted into the album.
