FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Nov. 30, 2007
CONTACT:  Jeff Mammenga, (605) 773-6000, Jeff.Mammenga@state.sd.us

Art, artifacts featured Sunday at Cultural Heritage Center

PIERRE, S.D. – Art and artifacts will be featured Sunday, Dec. 2, from 1-4:30 p.m. in the education room of the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center.

Lakota artist Donald F. Montileaux of Rapid City, illustrator of the award-winning Tatanka and the Lakota People, will be present for a book signing and art show and sale. And an exhibit of American Indian artifacts recently donated to the South Dakota State Historical Society by the Schoessler Family will be on display.

Tatanka and the Lakota People, which has won four national awards this year, is part of the Lakota creation legend. Based on centuries of storytelling, it tells how the buffalo came to live with the Lakotas so that they would have life-sustaining food, shelter, and clothing. Tatanka and the Lakota People is presented in both English and Lakota. It describes the Lakota’s creation, the trickery that caused them to move from the Underworld, and their ultimate survival in this world. The book is available in the Heritage Store at the Cultural Heritage Center, by calling (605) 773-6009 or by visiting www.sdshspress.com.

Montileaux has received nearly 20 awards and commissions and attended more than 25 major art shows throughout his artistic career. Primarily a self-taught artist, Montileaux received formal training at the Institute of American Indian Art in Sante Fe, N.M., and did an internship under noted American Indian artist Oscar Howe at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. He also credits his personal friend and mentor, the late Herman Red Elk, as his primary artistic influence.

Montileaux said he rekindles the images of the Lakota lifestyle by painting the people as they were.

“To describe my work is to reflect back to my forefathers,” he said. “The surfaces that they used were hides, rock walls and surfaces both smooth and rough, and hides both tanned and rawhide.”

The museum of the State Historical Society recently accepted the donation of American Indian artifacts from Richard Schoessler of Pierre and his brother Don Schoessler of Penfield, N.Y. The collection includes a pair of suspenders dated 1867, but most of the material is from the late 19th or early 20th century. The collection includes beadwork, porcupine quillwork, peace pipes, a grinding stone, pioneer tools, kitchen utensils and arrowheads.

The collection began in 1909 when Sebastian Schoessler, the brothers’ grandfather, bartered with members of the Lower Brule Indian Reservation for food from the general store he owned in Reliance.

Rose Schoessler Juhnke owned the collection and later turned it over to her nephew, Don Schoessler. He and Richard Schoessler then decided to donate the collection to the State Historical Society as a gift from the Schoessler family.

Pierre stamp collector Marvin Paulson will share his hobby both Saturday and Sunday.The State Archives, as it is every first Saturday of the month, will be open from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. this Saturday.Special events are also planned from 1-4:30 p.m. on other upcoming Sundays in December.

Dec. 9 –There will be a book signing and recipe tasting event featuring the South Dakota Governors Residence Cookbook – A Culinary Legacy Celebrating the First Families of South Dakota, recently released by the South Dakota Heritage Fund. The cookbook is a collection of more than 600 recipes from 31 South Dakota Governors’ First Families, and current and former Governors’ cabinet and staff. The book can be purchased in the Heritage Store of the Cultural Heritage Center.

Dec. 16 – Six “Made in South Dakota” exhibitors will be on hand for a “trunk showing” featuring jewelry, pottery, purses, candles, stained glass and Christmas cookies.

Visitors to the Cultural Heritage Center can see a display of miniature replicas of historic buildings in Pierre through Wednesday, Jan. 2. The buildings include the State Capitol, First United Methodist Church, the American Legion Cabin, the Soldiers and Sailors Building, the South Dakota Discovery Center, the Pringle Apartments, and the Woster and Bjork Houses.

Through Monday, Dec. 24, the Cultural Heritage Center will be open extended hours to accommodate holiday visitors. Museum hours will be 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-4:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Call (605) 773-6000 for more information.