Richard Ray Whitman

Richard Ray Whitman was born in Oklahoma in 1949.[3] His maternal grandmother was Polly Long.[1] Like many Yuchis, Whitman is enrolled in the Muscogee Nation, and his Yuchi name is T'so-ya-ha.[4] He grew up in Gypsy, Oklahoma and attended Bristow High School. He also attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Oklahoma School of Photography in Oklahoma City.[1]

Whitman began his art career as a painter and expanded to photography, installation, and video art.[4] In 1973, he participated in the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee and created art during the occupation.

Whitman is known for his black-and-white photography portraying contemporary Native realities, especially his "Street Chiefs Series" from the 1970s and 1980s. "Street Chiefs" features images of homeless Native men, primarily in downtown Oklahoma City. "The contemporary Indian in the isolation of the city canyons and rural reservations is avoided. The boredom, pain, frustration, poverty of the reality-counterbalance of our lives is harsh, unattractive, and unmarketable."[2] His photographic portraits are compassionate and empathetic to the lives of homeless natives and places them in the larger context of Indian Removal, which forced tribes from all over the country to Indian Territory.[4]

From the 1980s onward, Whitman has incorporated text and computer graphics in his photography to create collage or mixed media. His socio-politically informed work often deals with the issues of homeland and dispossession.[4]

Collaborating with Yuchi poet and brother Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya, Whitman created video to document the Yuchi language. Together they worked with French filmmaker Pierre Lobstein in the 1990s. Whitman read T.C. Cannon's poetry in the video "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon" which was directed and edited by Phillip Albert. This work was subsequently screened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (3/19/1994) and was presented on the Bravo Cable Channel and the Independent Film Channel from May, 1995 through June, 1996.

• "War Party" (1988). Harold. Director Franc Roddam[5]
• "Carriers of the Light" (1990). Co-producer with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
• "Humanity's Voice" (1992). Co-producer with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
• "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon" (1993). Director Phillip Albert; T.C. Cannon poetry read by Richard Ray Whitman.
• "The Grand Circle" (1994). Co-producer with Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya and Pierre Lobstein
• "Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee" (1994). Carter Camp.[5] Director Frank Pierson
• "American Indian Graffiti: This Thing Life" (2003). Barry.[5] Directors Tvli Jacob, Steven Judd
• "Rune" (2006). Tecpatel.[5] Directors Arayna Thomas, Seth Kenlon
• "Four Sheets to the Wind" (2007). Frankie Smallhill. Director Sterlin Harjo
• "Missionary Man" (2007). Chief Dan.[5] Director Dolph Lundgren
• "The Only Good Indian" (2009). Father of stolen child.[5] Director Kevin Willmott
• "Barking Water" (2009) Frankie.[5] Director Sterlin Harjo
• "The Cherokee Word for Water" (2103). Roger - Cherokee Elder. Directors Tim Kelly, Charlie Soap
• "Winter in the Blood" (2013). John Fist Raise. Directors Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith
• "Drunktown's Finest" (2014). Harmon John. Director Sydney Freeland. Winner, Best Supporting Actor, American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco (2014)
• Neither Dog Nor Wolf (2016). Grover.[5] Director Steven Lewis Simpson
• The Son (2017) AMC TV series. Old Warrior
• Chambers (2019) Netflix TV series. Harrison Yazzie
• "Oklahoma Mon Amour" (2021). Lloyd. Director Carolina Rueda
• "Reservation Dogs" (2021), FX TV series. Old Man Fixico. Created and produced by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi

• List of Native American artists
• Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas

• Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8061-9936-9.
• Lippard, Lucy. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. New York: The New Press, 2000. ISBN 1-56584-573-0.

• Profile and contact info through the Oklahoma Arts Council
• Interview with Richard Ray Whitman by Larry Abbott
• Native Networks biography, National Museum of the American Indian
• Oral History Interview with Richard Whitman at the Oklahoma Native Artists Oral History Project