Watch

Artist: Joyce Growing Thunder (b. 1950)

Culture/People: Assiniboine-Sioux

Place: Fort Peck Reservation, Montana

Media: Glass beads, leather, and a commercial watch

Dims: 1.5 x 10.5 in. (3.8 x 26.6 cm).

Date: c. 1984-5

Description: Jim Fogarty and Joyce both felt that I needed a more stylish way of presenting myself for Indian affairs: “You really ought to look right.” I was told that I spent much too much time looking at my watch and since clocks are “very whitey” the solution to that was to give me a watch, beaded in Indian style, but which had only a blank dial. —Ted Coe

Ted was a dear friend, and as all will tell you he was a passionate collector whose art covered every inch of his house. The object I most associate with Ted, however, is this watch given to Ted from his good friend, Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty. It is a beaded wristband with a watch without a face or hands. Ted wore it so often, probably as much to shock those he would encounter as to remind him of the Native American peoples he had grown so close to over the years. —Gerald Stiebel

​During spring 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was present, when we were all required or asked to wear protective face masks, wash our hands carefully, and social distance from each other, Gerald G. Stiebel created this video to pass along Ted Coe’s story…

RTC No: NA0451c
Gift of Ralph T. Coe, 2011