Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

“Sticky mouth,” a literal translation of the Blackfeet word for bear, is a recurring motif in this print. Bear references appear not only in the central figure but also the human figure with bear ears (at left). These hybrid creatures reflect Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s traditional Salish beliefs about transformations between humans and bears and their shared characteristics.

The artist underscores duality throughout, acknowledging a contemporary Native American society in which the traditional and the modern are not in contradiction with each other, but co-exist. She juxtaposes symbolic subjects (the coyote at top left) with the mundane (the woman wearing glasses at bottom right), varying drawing styles to suggest ancient petroglyphs, 19th-century Plains Indian ledger art, and contemporary doodles.