Gochman Family Collection

Kent Monkman’s Máh-To-Tó-Pa (Four Bears) with Indian Dandy 19,233 is part of a series highlighting colonial attempts to erase Indigenous histories which embraced genderfluid, LGBT+, and Two-Spirit individuals on Turtle Island. 

When travelling through Indigenous territories in the 1830s, American artist and amateur ethnographer George Catlin created an extensive portfolio of portraits depicting Indigenous people from various nations. Catlin praised leaders such as the Mandan chief Máh-To-Tó-Pa, whom he described as “free, generous, elegant and gentlemanly... handsome, brave and valiant.” However, Catlin deliberately erased portrayals of those he called “dandies” and “gay and tinselled bucks,” dismissing them as “faint hearts.”

In this series of paintings, Monkman challenges colonial mindsets by reinstating the presence of Two-Spirit people in art history, centering their resilience.