Atsei Cooper never thought she would go back to college. She also never imagined her artwork would be displayed in a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Cooper says. “I’m still trying to get over my imposter syndrome. I’m like, ‘How did I get here? How did this happen?’”
Cooper, who is enrolled in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is one of 17 contemporary Native American artists whose work is part of the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture’s new exhibition Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art. Highlighting artists from four Native Nations with connections to Knox County, Homelands features interpretive text panels, paintings, ceramics, textiles, and other media that explore the cultural and spiritual continuity of mounds as sacred spaces.
“Art has always been something that I’ve really leaned on in life,” says Cooper. “Our communities have a long tradition of art, even before removal from our homelands. There are so many different facets to what it means for my community—economic, social, cultural, political—and all of these different factors have impacted my craft today.”
Atsei Cooper’s painting, Private Property
Cooper’s painting Private Property explores the barriers that the modern concept of private property creates for Indigenous communities looking to reclaim ancestral remains, medicine objects, sacred sites, and other cultural artifacts.
“Regardless of what you do or don’t know about Indigenous culture, particularly Cherokee culture,” says Cooper, “you’re going to look at things in the painting and ask, ‘Why is this private property?’ That’s really what I want people to meditate on, and that’s how I wanted to use my voice in this exhibit.”
While moving through the museum curation process, Cooper found herself drawn to a new challenge: a master’s degree. Inspired by her work with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, as a registrar at the Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee, North Carolina, she applied to UT’s master’s program in anthropological archaeology shortly before submitting her piece to the museum.
“I didn’t think I would ever come back to college, but I felt I needed to because I couldn’t just leave this work,” says Cooper, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in 2021. “I feel so driven by it. I’m very passionate about it—not for any kind of academics but more for trying to help my community and our ancestors.”
After she graduates in spring 2026, she hopes to continue working with NAGPRA.
“I’ve always cared a lot about our material history and culture, whether it’s much older or more modern,” says Cooper.
As she uses both her creativity and academic pursuits as mediums for advocacy and change, Cooper hopes Homelands can serve a similar role—strengthening the relationship among Native communities, non-Native peoples, and the land.
“I think it definitely deserves some compassion and open-mindedness when people come through the exhibit,” says Cooper. “Homelands really reclaims that while yes, we were the traditional stewards of these lands, we should really begin thinking about how we can form better relationships with each other as institutions and as peoples.”
Private Property and the rest of the exhibition will be on display through December 2027.