The CAIRNS director zoomed into the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute to present a talk titled “Isms of American Indian Art”. The premise of the talk is that American Indian art is a complex topic and therefore a theoretical framework is needed in order to discuss the diversity and breadth of creative expressions that fall under the umbrella of “American Indian Art”. The talk proposes five “isms” or “traditions” of American Indian art, and illustrates how each has its own source of sovereignty and land base.