A Conversation with Ryan Red Corn

Ryan is an Osage who spent his early years on the Osage Reservation in the largest of the 3 existiing traditional Osage Indian Villages, the Wa.hxa.ko.lin district. Hes a member of the Tsi.zho Wa.shta.ke Clan (Peace maker/Gentle Sky Clan) and was named accordingly at age five. Since age six, hes been a participant in the Osage In.lon.shka dance. He attended University of Kansas where he graduated in 2003 with a BFA in Graphic Design. While at KU he served four years in the First Nations Student Association and two of those years as Co-president. In 2004 he was named the Big XII Conference Native American Leadership Graduate Student of the Year. Among other things he curated an all Native activist art exhibit for the Mid America American Studies Association, sat on several university wide discussion panels dealing with the issue of Indian mascots and American Indian Identity, helped organize a protest at the Kansas City Chiefs/Washington Redskins game and is currently working on a documentary on the Indian mascot issue. Ryan's graphic design clientele is almost exclusively Native American tribes, Native owned businesses and Native American non-profit groups. He is very familiar with protocol and the proper use of imagery of Native American populations and producing work on a national level through the integration of tribally specific designs to each one of their respective communities. He bridges the long standing gap between traditional Native communities and the graphic design world that is used to represent them to the general public. He has earned the trust and respect of indigenous communities throughout the country with his hands on communal level approach and understanding of their wishes, desires, and maintenance of their specific tribal aesthetic designs systems and symbols. Bringing American Indian graphic representation into the 21st century with a no holds barred unapologetic philosophy, he aims to disassemble the publics perception of Indigenous peoples.