FIG. 15 (above): The Battle
of the Little Bighorn, by
Standing Bear/Mató Nájin
(Minneconjou Lakota/Teton
Sioux, 1859–1933).
Pine Ridge Reservation,
South Dakota. C. 1920.
Pencil, ink, and watercolor on muslin.
91.4 x 268 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, the Charles and Valerie
Diker Collection of Native American
Art, gift of Valerie-Charles Diker
Fund, 2017, inv. 2017.718.2.
128
Beyond making their collection available to
the public, the Dikers have contributed to the art
world in other signifi cant ways. They have served
as directors and trustees on the boards of several
museums, including the National Museum of the
American Indian, Smithsonian Institution from
the time of its opening; they were also the founding
chairs of the George Gustav Heye Center in
New York. They served on the board of the Museum
of New Mexico Foundation, and Val, who
has a background in dance, was a founding member
of the board of directors of the New Mexico
School for the Arts. Chuck has been a member of
the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Art Museum
and funded the Modern Art Gallery at that
museum. Since 2012, he has served as a trustee
of the Guggenheim Museum. Most recently, the
TRIBAL PEOPLE
Three objects given by the collectors in 2016—a
Haudenosaunee beaded bag and a Pomo basket,
both by unnamed artists, along with a jar by Maria
and Julián Martínez of the San Ildefonso Pueblo—
were fi rst displayed in the fall of the same
year in the Met’s American Wing. Here, they were
shown in conversation with contemporaneous
Euro-American paintings and sculptures addressing
relevant historical and cultural themes. These
pairings constituted the Met’s fi rst step in elevating
Native American art and presenting it as a
fundamental part of North America’s cultural and
artistic heritage. The new gallery in the American
Wing that opened in October holds the potential
of establishing the Met’s leadership in redefi ning
how we as a culture envision North American art
history and, with it, American history.