Written for the 2025 edition of MCAD's CUT/PASTE

As a member of the Prairie Island Indian Community, Cole Redhorse Taylor ’17 believes art made by his Mdewakanton ancestors has a life force that speaks across generations, a connection he felt himself while studying as a resident artist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. “In my research, I encountered some objects that were very sacred, and I was able to connect with them, I was able to talk with them, I was able to feel like I was speaking for them when I was there,” he says. “It was a turning point in my life as an artist.”

Giving voice to the history and culture of Indigenous art makers has become a creative calling for Taylor, who worked at the Minnesota History Center while he studied fine arts at MCAD, and went on to be selected as one of the institution’s artists-in-residence in 2018. “Native people and museums have a really tumultuous history, but Native history is also really important because it’s the history of this land, this state,” he says. “As an artist-in-residence, it was about bridging that gap.”

Taylor has been making some history himself, creating a helmet embellished with Dakota floral designs for Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-André Fleury. Designed for the team’s Native American Heritage Night, it recently sold at auction for $35,100. The mask was purchased by the Minnesota Historical Society for its permanent collection, with proceeds supporting the American Indian Family Charity, and went on display as part of the History Center’s Our Home: Native Minnesota exhibit. Taylor calls it “a real full-circle moment.”

Now finishing an MFA at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Taylor has also shared his designs with Teton Trade Cloth, a Native-owned fabric company, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, which featured his limited-edition T-shirt design to debut their new Artist Series in 2024.

While he’s pleased to find an audience for his work, Taylor admits, “It’s taken me a while to be able to say that I’m an artist,” noting that there is no word for art in his native language. “We have words for what you’re doing, like bead working or making moccasins, but the focus is really on what you’re making and contributing to your community.”