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Perhaps the exhibition of that era that had the greatest impact was ‘‘Indian Art of the United States’’ at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in 1941. It con- tributed greatly toward shifting Native art from the status of artifact or craft to that of fine art, but was nevertheless tainted by an air of condescension that limited its effect. Overall, however, the 1930s and 1940s were a period of cel- ebration of Native art. From exhibitions like the one at MOMA, to murals by Native artists for WPA (Works Progress Administration), to New Deal projects for restoration of Alaskan totem poles—indigenous art seemed to be every- where. On the heels of that trend, a generation of modernist painters and sculptors came to the fore, including Oscar Howe, George Morrison, Allan Houser (who received a Guggenheim Fellowship), and others. During the 1960s and 1970s, Native artists became increasingly influenced by contempo- rary movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The leading painters of that period included T. C. Canon, R. C. Gorman, and Fritz Scholder. In 1962, the groundbreaking IAIA (Institute of American Indian Art) was founded in Santa Fe. Conceived during a series of progressive conferences supported by the Rockefeller Foundation (1959–1962), it aimed at promoting modern Indian art in a more effective and systematic way. The core of the plan was self-determination, with a curriculum geared toward indigenous teaching methods and a faculty composed of Native American artists. At that time (the 1960s and 1970s), the Native world was becoming increas- ingly visible to outsiders. The AIM (American Indian Movement) was gaining nationwide attention, as it pursued and publicized indigenous causes. Simul- taneously, many distinguished volumes were published about Native issues and culture, and Kiowa/Cherokee author N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn (1969). In 1972, Art in America, one of the premier journals of contemporary art, focused its entire summer issue on ‘‘The American Indian’’—and influenced the thinking and professional course of many indigenous artists. Another watershed exhibition, the now famous ‘‘Decade Show,’’ was pre- sented in New York City in 1990. Held at three prominent institutions (the New Museum, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and the Museum of Contempo- rary Hispanic Art), the show included artists from a wide range of ethnic back- grounds, and it firmly cemented multiculturalism as a part of the larger art world. Native performance artist James Luna presented an impressive work in that show that launched his career as a contemporary artist. Nevertheless —as noted in a piercing essay on American Indian art by distinguished critic Amei Wallach—what that exhibition accomplished for ‘‘African-American and Latino-American artists has not, for the most part, happened for Native Americans’’ (Wallach 16) in other words, indigenous artists generally contin- ued to be marginalized. That same year, another major event profoundly affected the lives and work of Native artists: the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1990). This law surfaced in the U.S. Congress as an attempt to keep non-Native people from claiming Indian descent and exploiting the high market value of ‘‘Indian art.’’ It required that individuals who ‘‘exhibit[ed] their work as Native art must be able to produce proof of their identity’’ (Rushing 127). Obtaining such evidence involved xvi Introduction