Mah-hi-vist Red Bird

Emmanuel C. Montoya

Texas born "Apachecano" artist Emmanuel Montoya pays homage to a young man with whom he has a strong cultural affinity.

Man-hi-vist "Red Bird" Goodblanket, at the age of eighteen years old, was shot to death in his family's home in Clinton, Oklahoma by two Custer County sheriff deputies on December 21, 2013.

Four years earlier, Mah-hi-vist was chosen as a youth ambassador and traveled to England and France. After high school, he attended Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas and was planning to attend the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal College in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Man-hi-vist, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, struggled with a mental health disorder and was diagnosed as suffering from Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

"Red Bird" was experiencing an episode associated with this illness while in his family home and police were called to mitigate the situation. Their solution was to shoot the young man seven times. This incident was one of many in which an American Indian was killed by officers of the law who swore to protect life and the law of the land. In all instances no charges were brought against the officers.