What is an American?,

2003

A red, white, and blue stream pours from the palm of a figure in Native American dress, who is cropped at the neck and surrounded by images and phrases invoking American consumerism, the internet age, and pop culture. At left, a Mickey Mouse hand is outstretched in a gesture that can be read alternately as one of greeting or taking. Hundreds of images of buffalo refer to the animal’s abundance in North America prior to the US government’s attempted eradication of Indigenous populations through the mass slaughter of this staple food source. These sheets of repeating buffalo evoke grocery or food stamps and—alongside labels for USDA-issued pineapple cans on the right—they allude to the food insecurity and government dependency experienced in impoverished Native communities today. The titular question is raised below: “What is an American?” While Smith doesn’t give a straightforward answer, she offers a few wry suggestions through collaged phrases: “Americans have big ideas” and “An American is an Optimist.”