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Honored to have been asked to be part of Native Perspectives at the @metmuseum in #newyorkIn conjunction with Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, contemporary Native artists and historians have been invited to respond to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Euro-American works in the American Wing's collection. Offering a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, the contributors present alternative narratives and broaden our understanding of American art and history.For my perspective, I was asked to create a caption for William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916). At the Seaside, ca. 1892. Oil on canvas, 20 x 34 in. (50.8 x 86.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967 (67.187.123). On view in gallery 769.My caption in the Met :This work depicts a leisurely beach scene painted one year after Chase opened a school of art near the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on Long Island's East End. This land is situated on the Shinnecock people's ancestral territory—of which more than 4,422 acres was stolen through an illegal transaction in 1859. The school and Chase's stay on Long Island was devised by Mrs. Janet S. Hoyt, a wealthy patron of the arts and an artist who lived in the Shinnecock Hills. Hoyt proposed a summer employment opportunity for Chase with the end goal of developing a real-estate venture and transforming the area into a summer-resort destination. Despite the increased eagerness to settle in the Shinnecock Hills, the Shinnecock Indian Nation has remained vigilant in asserting their rightful title to their ancestral land. —Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock)