A s a member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe, contemporary artist Wendy Red Star uses a multidisciplinary practice to reexamine not only the canonical history of the United States but also concurrent accounts of Native American people. Her photographs and mixed media artworks offer fresh, often humorous perspectives on the history of Native American representation. Recalling transformative works of Cindy Sherman, Red Star’s oeuvre frequently includes self-portraiture to exaggerate or contradict certain stereotypes. In the present work, The Last Thanks, Red Star inserts herself into a Thanksgiving dinner tableau. Saturated with the tawdry elements of a modern American Thanksgiving, from an inflatable turkey to paper-feather headdresses, Red Star’s image positions her at the center of the table, mimicking Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of Jesus in The Last Supper. Her meal consists of stereotypical American processed foods from Wonder Bread to Kraft Singles, yet her skeletal dinner mates go without—marking the scene as a type of last meal for Red Star, thus representing the genocide of Native Americans. When asked about the often shocking depictions in her imagery, Red Star references the cultural importance of “teasing” and has stated: “Humor is healing to me… To have that element in my work is quite Native, or Crow” (Wendy Red star interviewed in: Abaki Beck, "Decolonizing Photography: A Conversation with Wendy Red Star," Aperture, 14 December 2016).