I am Jalen DeCoteau and I am an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and have a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of North Dakota. I am currently attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for my MFA in Visual Arts with an emphasis on drawing.

Storytelling is vital to the human experience. Stories pass down knowledge, preserve cultures, and connect us to one another. For Native American communities, stories have long been a tool to preserve our cultural identity despite centuries of efforts by colonizers to eraser or reshape it. Indigenous people traditionally told stories using the oral tradition, verbally sharing stories that would change with each telling; altered by the storytelling, audience, and environment. My work draws from the interpretive nature of the oral tradition but instead uses ink illustration in comic book format.

The narration of comics, or sequential art; arranges static images in a specific sequence to construct a narrative. My comics utilize panel based sequential art to create fictional stories rooted in Native culture and history. My personal interpretations of Indigenous folklore and mythology, historical events, and contemporary life are crafted through my experiences as an Ojibwe native who grew up on a reservation, also using my stories to explore themes of identity, community, and generational trauma.

What draws me to create comics is their balance of intended structure and audience participation. Sequential art’s storytelling requires audience participation; as the reader you turn each page and decide how long you want to linger on a moment, you get to decide what events transpire in the blank space between each panel. Through visual art, comics also transcend language barriers, allowing the construction of narrative throughout the imagery provided. All these elements allow for interpretive storytelling experiences, allowing the audience to shape the story as they read.