Store Run

Michael Elizondo, Jr.’s artistic vision stems from his fascination of the aesthetics and meanings within ancient and contemporary design.  Michael is the Director of the Bacone College School of Indian Art.  He spent a large portion of his time from 2016-2020 helping to learn and revitalize the Cheyenne language with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

Store Run envisions how the Cheyenne language might deal with modern day transportation: “It is common to hear Native American communities refer to their vehicles as ‘ponies.’ While progressing in the Cheyenne language, I noticed that many terms related to ‘driving’ and ‘automobiles’ were used in relation to the horse. Example, you would use the command ‘Climb on the car!’ rather than saying ‘Get in the car!’ Many words that we do not have translations for are usually substituted with our own descriptions. At one time, I was curious of how to say the word ‘tire’ in Cheyenne to find one translation for it is ‘leg.’ This is the first time I remember wondering “What would the world look like if all Cheyenne translations were taken literal?'”