Wendy Red Star
By Skip Anderson, MSU News Service
Montana State University alumna Wendy Jean Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist who grew up on the Crow Reservation in south-central Montana, explores Apsáalooke history and her family lineage through her artistic practice. Her work highlights her ancestors and community while addressing overlooked aspects of history. In 2024, Red Star was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as a “genius grant.” She will receive an honorary doctorate from Montana State University at its spring commencement ceremony on Friday, May 9.
“I’m really excited that Native students can see that I’ve been awarded an honorary doctorate,” said Red Star, whose work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the British Museum in London. “That’s really important to me, because I know if I was an undergrad student and saw that, that would be so inspiring.”
She works in a variety of media, including sculpture, installation, photography and textiles, and is known for her deep research into historical archives that illuminate the history of the Apsáalooke community and culture. Her work provides a broader understanding of U.S. government policies that sought to assimilate Apsáalooke people into Western institutions. Red Star earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from MSU in 2004 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
“When I was in fifth grade, my mom said that my math teacher told her that I would never go to college and that I should think about doing a trade school, and I think that’s a sentiment for a lot of Crow kids,” said Red Star, who is dyslexic. “There wasn’t a lot of encouragement to be able to go to college, let alone succeed and graduate.”
She arrived at MSU with financial support from one of MSU’s many services designed to provide students assistance. Initially a graphic design major, an instructor in MSU’s School of Art encouraged Red Star to explore sculpture. “That just clicked for me,” Red Star said. “I was like, this is my language.” She also explored at MSU her heritage by taking classes in Native American Studies. “That just opened up a whole new world of understanding that was pretty profound for me,” Red Star said. “When I learned that MSU’s campus was actually once part of Crow territory, that was so exciting for me. It really blew my mind, because I grew up thinking the reservation was where I grew up, and that was it.”
Inspired by the words of Apsáalooke Chief Sits in the Middle of the Land in the mid-1800s—“My home is where my tipi sits”—Red Star created an art installation titled “Interference” as an undergraduate. In collaboration with the university, she erected large tipis on campus. Each tipi consisted of only the four foundational lodgepoles that Sits in the Middle of the Land referred to in his speech as a metaphor to define Crow territory to the U.S. government. Throughout the monthlong exhibition, the tipis were repeatedly knocked down, and Red Star, along with friends, took on the time-consuming task of rebuilding them each time.
“The message to me was that they weren’t wanted there and that somebody was targeting them,” Red Star said. “It was pretty devastating for me.” Eventually, Red Star was able to move the installation to the football field in Bobcat Stadium, which, like her family’s ancestral grounds, she referred to as “coveted land.” She set up the last tipi installation on the 50-yard line. Red Star credits that installation as a major factor in being admitted into UCLA’s graduate program.
While pursuing her master’s degree at UCLA, Red Star created the well-known photo series “Four Seasons.” The work examines how institutions, such as natural history museums, have objectified Native bodies and artifacts. In the series, Red Star wears a traditional Crow elk tooth dress and poses within staged diorama-like settings filled with plastic grass, inflatable animals and painted backdrops. Her work presents the facts about how Apsáalooke people—and Indigenous people more broadly—have been misrepresented through colonizing ideologies that attempt to erase their presence and sovereignty.
“Wendy Red Star’s artistic excellence, educational contributions and unwavering commitment to her heritage and the state of Montana make her an exceptional candidate for an honorary doctorate from Montana State University,” wrote Melissa Ragain, associate professor of art at MSU, in a letter recommending Red Star for the honor. “Her work embodies the spirit of innovation, cultural preservation and community engagement that are central to the university’s stated values.”
Red Star remembers her time at MSU as one of artistic awakening.
“I have to say that one of the happiest times that I’ve ever had in my art career was when I was discovering becoming an artist at MSU,” Red Star said.