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.

Originally commissioned by the Denver Art Museum for the exhibition Mi Tierra, the artwork was created by John Jota Leaños in collaboration with Anthony Coleman, Crystal González, and Sean Levon Nash. It was later featured in the traveling exhibition Supernatural America at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. Original music was composed by Greg Landau, with percussion by Javier Navarrette and prayer by Jeremy Goodfeather (Mohawk). Animation assistance was provided by Julian Sestanovich.