Aaron Jones, now an administrator at the Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers, was raised in Oklahoma, is an artist himself and can trace his own ancestry back to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. He’ll be the host for a Cultural Conversation Saturday at MONAH. (Courtesy Photo/Aaron Jones)
Aaron Jones will modestly tell you he's just the host when the Museum of Native American History presents "A Rare Cultural Conversation: Honoring Ancestors: Red Cloud to Red Otter" at 2 p.m. Saturday.
His guest will be Jay Benham, an artist, a museum educator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and a member of the Kiowa Tribe. His Kiowa name, Ay-Oia Goddle, translates to Red Otter, Jones says, but it was during quiet conversations when he too worked at Crystal Bridges that he discovered something other things about Benham. He is a direct descendant of Red Cloud, a legendary chief of the Oglala Lakota tribe during the 19th century; his great-grandfather, Ahepeahtone (Wooden Lance), was the last recognized chieftain of the Kiowa; and his grandfather guarded Geronimo at Fort Sill.