Supreme Law of the Land

"Supreme Law of the Land" was performed at the Denver Art Museum on Friday January 27, 2017. 

On Tuesday January 24, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order enabling the push forward of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline despite the nearly year long fight and protest by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, hundreds of other Indigenous Nations and allies in North Dakota. 

While in the works for nearly two months, "Supreme Law of the Land" is looking more poignant than ever with symbolism meant to illustrate the points of the #NoDAPL effort. The Artist, standing in a ribbon shirt, black pants, moccasins with his hair braided and ties on each braid, reads from Article VI, Section 2 of the Constitution which states Treaties are the supreme law of the land. Deal's reading of this statement is to establish the importance of Treaties as dictated by the Federal Government. Following this statement, Deal reads the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, which is being violated under the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline (the treaty reads the areas by which each of the mentioned tribes listed will occupy, but for the purposes of this reading, Deal only reads the area and land affected by the Dakota people).

The symbolism of the Artist standing upon the 60x80" American flag represents land, and the man in black who begins to cut away pieces of the flag represents the taking, ceding, and elimination of Indigenous lands and the rights to said land until all the Artist stands upon is under his feet and nothing more. The two men in suits represent the oil companies who care nothing for Indigenous rights, land, culture or environment for the benefit of gain and profit. Each man taunts, intimidates, and ultimate takes part in soiling the Artist with oil, representative of the lack of respect happening at the DAPL as well as the KXL pipelines. Also of note, the cup of water the Artist is drinking from is ultimately filled with oil from one of the men in suits, an important analogy to the legitimate fear of the DAPL and KXL pipelines to leak in to water sources, thus tainting life giving water through water sources that affect not just local Indian Nations, but millions of people who use those water sources for drinking.