As a Star Wars fan, creating artwork related to it’s themes and imagery is always fun. But just as George Lucas has created a complicated universe of characters, stories of heroes and villains, religion and family dynamics I found making the parallels of the Empire with the U.S. Calvary during the beginning of the Navajo Long Walk as an appropriate approach. The Navajo Long Walk which started in 1863, this is where the U.S. military forcibly removed approx. 10,000 Diné (Navajo) people from their homelands. They were forced to march 300-450 miles to Fort Sumner, NM., where many died that resisted, along the way and also while at the concentration camp. Most of this history is not taught in the U.S. educational curriculum, where it should be because it’s true history. This is a part of American history, but it is turned into a convenient form of propaganda. In this painting there are Imperial Tie Fighters screeching over the horizon into Canyon de Chelly where there is a Diné woman herding her sheep. This image captures the beginning of a tragic episode in Indigenous history.
