Destinies Manifest is an animated video installation that interrogates the enduring myths of Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism. Drawing from John Gast’s 1872 painting American Progress, the work reimagines the westward expansion narrative through Indigenous and decolonial perspectives. By animating suppressed histories and spectral presences, the piece exposes how settler ideologies—rooted in the Doctrine of Discovery—continue to shape the American imagination. This counter-narrative surfaces the trauma of conquest and land theft while honoring the resilience of Native communities and their nonhuman kin. Destinies Manifest invites viewers to confront the settler colonial past not as distant history, but as an unresolved structure haunting the present.

The installation has shown at the Denver Art Museum as a part of the "Mi Tierra" exhibition. It was also featured in the traveling exhibition "Supernatural America" at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Speed Museum in Lousiville. 

Credits

Artist: John Jota Leaños

Music Composition: Greg Landau

Percussion: Javier Navarrette

Vocals & Prayer: Jeremy Goodfeather (Mohawk)

Animation Assistant: Julian Sestanovich

Additional Drawings: Sean Levon Nash, Anthony Coleman & Crystal González