LEDGER ART:

Stories of the Plains Indians…

LEDGER ART, represents a transitional form of Plains Indian artistry corresponding to the forced reduction of Plains tribes to government reservations, roughly between 1860 and 1900.

THE PLAINS INDIANS got their name because they lived among the Great Plains of the United States. This vast expansion of land extended all the way from Mississippi to the mountains of Canada.

IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, the Plains Indians hunted buffalo as their main source of food. They would typically surround the buffalo on horse, until the group of Indians drove it to run off of a cliff.

At that point, the buffalo would be dead and ready for consumption.

Not only was hunting an integral part of Plains Indians’ life, RELIGION was as well.

• Animism• Great Spirit• 'Medicine Bag or Bundle’• Smudging Rituals• Vision Quest. Tricksters

THE EARTH was considered the Plains Indians’ female God, and so all of her rich resources were utilized.

Due to the destruction of the buffalo herds and other game animals of the Great Plains by ANGLO-AMERICANS during and after the Civil War, painting on buffalo hide gave way to works on paper, muslin, canvas, and occasionally commercially prepared cow or buffalo hides.

LEDGER ART:When cloth wasn’t available, Natives used lined LEDGER papers and accountant LEDGER record books for the artists to finally tell their stories.

PLAINS ARTISTS adjusted well to the relatively small sized sheet of ledger paper. The wealth of detail possible with newly accessible coloring materials marks the Plains ledger drawings as one of the most popular forms of NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLING ART.

LEDGER ART emerged during the 1920s in Indian schools in Oklahoma and New Mexico and is becoming more and more popular today. The older paintings done on Buffalo hide are some of the most expensive Native American art being sold today.

You are a Plains Indian who has had your land taken from you and your family taken to a reservation. Suddenly, you are taken from your family and placedin a “White Man’s” school. You were told you can take one treasure with you to the school. When youarrive, you are asked to choose a new basic name,your hair is cut, and your clothes are taken fromyou in exchange for clothes that are the same as all the other students.

TELL YOUR STORY…