Native American shot at New Mexico protest heals through art

By Andrew Hay

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - A Native American activist and artist who became a victim of America's ubiquitous gun violence during a visit to New Mexico last year returned to the state to exhibit work that includes paintings of his suspected shooter.

Banging a drum inside a Santa Fe art space during his exhibition opening this month, Jacob Johns, a 41-year-old Spokane, Washington, artist, sang as members of the nearby Santa Clara Pueblo danced near a portrait of Ryan Martinez.

Martinez is accused of shooting Johns and faces trial Oct. 8 for attempted murder in an alleged hate crime. He has pleaded not guilty.

Much of the work in the show tackled Johns' main concerns, justice for indigenous peoples and climate justice. While gun violence affects Americans from many walks of life -- the U.S. surgeon general has declared it a public health crisis -- Johns' portrait of Martinez tells a particular story, of colonialist violence against indigenous peoples and the inter-generational trauma caused.

“I wanted to do something to, like, first, purge myself and free myself from the weight that was associated with all of this, and also invite the community to be able to have a way to vent," said Johns, who was seriously injured in the shooting. "So I put his (Martinez's) face up along with, like, a bunch of markers and allowed people to just do whatever they wanted to the canvas to get it out.”

One visitor scribbled: "The Pueblo Revolt Lives Forever 1680," a reference to the Native American uprising that briefly pushed Spanish colonizers out of New Mexico.

Johns was in New Mexico for a climate event last year when he heard about a protest against plans to reinstall a toppled bronze statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate. Such statues had been erected in the 1990s to commemorate the arrival of Spanish settlers and are reviled by many Native Americans as symbols of colonial occupation and genocide.

Johns joined the prayers and protests in Espanola, around 26 miles north of Santa Fe. On Sept. 28, Martinez, wearing a red hat with the Donald Trump slogan "Make America Great Again," was with counter protesters at the vigil. He is accused of shooting Johns at close range as he tried to enter the protest area.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Santa Fe; editing by Donna Bryson and Leslie Adler)