ABSTRACT
This critical content analysis focuses on the picturebook Antelope Women (1992) by Michael Lacapa, an Indigenous author/illustrator who gained his inspiration from traditional storytellers, using his cultural roots and artistic training to develop imaginative stories filled with designs and patterns indigenous to the Southwest. This Apache folktale teaches about traditional dynamics of family kinship, relationship, love, and the need to honor family and all life as well as visionary dimensions and spirituality. This visual analysis was conducted by an Apache researcher through the lens of decolonization and resistance to mainstream images. The study examines the book as connected to the teachings and ideology of Apache people, particularly how the images position readers in relation to characters, through Indigenous symbols based in Apache culture. This question is addressed by analyzing the story content, tracking and comparing the descriptive attributions and relationships of characters/symbols, and by examining how the writer and readers of the story are positioned and the visual strategies relative to the characters/symbols.
