Symphonic and choral music fill the air around Quartz Mountain for two weeks every summer. It’s the sound of more than 200 high school students from around the state refining their artistic talents at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.
This year, 26 of those students are Indigenous, each dreaming of making their mark as musicians, actors and visual artists.
One of those students is Mimi Fitzpatrick, a 17-year-old senior at Edmond Santa Fe High School who identifies as a Crow, Cheyenne, Lakota, Kaw, and Sioux. Fitzpatrick dreams of becoming an art teacher and illustrator. She started honing her talent as a child when she’d do art alongside her parents.
“My dad, when I would go with him to his classes, he would draw horses,” Fitzpatrick said. “And I would trace them with trace paper. … and my mom showed me how to draw figures properly. ”
Fitzpatrick wants to change the way her tribe is often ignored in mainstream media.
“Whenever I think of Native work and just like how we are in the media, I feel like we tend to be pretty forgotten,” she said. “And I feel like our voices are kind of still minimalized.”
She said this lack of Indigenous voices is especially evident in children’s literature where few tribes are acknowledged.
“Whenever I go into, like Barnes and Noble and other bookstores, I look at all of the children's books,” Fitzpatrick said. “And then I see the Native children's books, and I see that they're mostly tribes that are very well known. And you tend to forget that there's more beyond that.”
That’s why Fitzpatrick wants to push the edges of current Indigenous representation, focusing her sights on creating a Cheyenne language book for children.
She said it’s time that Cheyenne kids see themselves in the books they read.
“To create that for, like, the Cheyenne kids, and I feel like that will just make them… happy and proud in some kind of way,” Fitzpatrick said. “I hope.”
Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute President Rob Ward said there’s a demand for Indigenous art students’ work.
“There is a world out there that is ready for them, and ready for their art form, and ready for their passion for their art,” Ward said.
That demand was evident in a recent Nielsen study, which found Native American shows are increasing on streaming platforms, and people are seeking out Indigenous content. Specifically, Dark Winds garnered 2.8 million new viewers to AMC, while Reservation Dogs brought 1.4 million new audience members to Hulu.
A 2021 article in Symphony, the League of American Orchestras newsletter, found that institutes across Turtle Island are looking to diversify their orchestras. They noted that hiring more Indigenous musicians creates a chance to shatter “stereotypical ideas of what Native American music sounds like.”
Increasing cultural diversity is not a recent trend for the institute, Ward explained.
“Indigenous representation to the Arts Institute goes back to its founding days since Maria Tallchief being our first ballet teacher,” Ward said. “And certainly, our student population is always filled with Indigenous students, and we believe highly in representation in terms of our faculty.”
Instructors during the 2024 summer program came to the Quartz Mountain area from all over the world, including two teachers from Africa. These instructors from various cultures and their unique perspectives inspired Fizpatrick and helped her feel understood.
“It felt very magical, in a way, going to the teacher presentations, the instructor presentations,” Fitzpatrick said. “Seeing what they do, where they come from, and their stories — you can relate to them.”
Cole Llanus is an 18-year-old Seminole and Cherokee percussionist. He said the community at the institute is unlike any other, allowing him to be more free and creative with his work.
“A lot of musicians, I've noticed, are too afraid to come out and groove with the music because they think it's awkward or embarrassing,” Llanusa said. “But my goal is to make it feel like it should be natural to just let loose and show your entire artistic presence in music.”
He said he is thankful the institute has allowed him to be uniquely himself, a philosophy he hopes to carry with him throughout his career as a musician and maybe even a teacher.
“I just feel like it's a duty of mine to like, make things easier for others and show them, ‘Hey, you should be yourself,’” Llanusa said.
Mimi Fitzpatrick also has her sights set on teaching the next generation, inspired by those who taught her.
“In freshman year, I wasn't even in art class,” Fitzpatrick said. “But the art teacher, she recognized me… I was very driven, and she would put me in art competitions.”
She said the art room at her current high school was where she felt welcome and safe to be herself. One day, she hopes she can create the same space for students.
But for now, Fitzpatrick will continue pouring her Cheyenne heritage into a children’s book.
“Becoming more involved with my Cheyenne side has just made me want to incorporate and show who I am and what I know so far,” she said. “ I want to learn more, and I want to create more.”
