Black Hawk was a member of the Sans Arc

Sans Arc

The Sans Arc, or Itázipčho in Lakota, are a subdivision of the Lakota people. Sans Arc is the French translation of the Lakota name which means, "Without bows." The translator of Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer renders the name as Arrows all Gone...

 or Itázipčho band of Lakota people. He is best known as an artist who, in 1880-1881, produced a set of seventy-six color ledger drawings

Ledger Art

Ledger Art is a term for Plains Indian narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. Ledger art was primarily from the 1860s to about 1900, although some of the old style drawing continues to the 1930s. There is also a contemporary group of accomplished Native American artists who work in the...

 of Lakota life for William Edward Caton, the federal "Indian trader

The Indian Trade

The Indian Trade refers to trade between Europeans and their North American descendants with the Indigenous people of North America ....

" at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation

Cheyenne River Indian Reservation

The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following its victory over the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey and Ziebach counties in South Dakota...

. The cover of the bound volume of Black Hawk's drawings describes him as "CHIEF MEDICINE MAN

Medicine man

"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...

 OF THE SIOUX". He is believed to have been killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre

Wounded Knee Massacre

The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...

 of 1890 but this is not certain.

Black Hawk's drawings include seventeen warfare scenes, seventeen natural history scenes featuring fifteen animal species, and numerous drawings of Lakota ceremonies, Black Hawk's spiritual visions, and depictions of Lakota cosmology

Cosmology

Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...

. A statement by Caton's daughter and bound into the volume reiterates that Black Hawk was a "Chief Medicine men" [sic] and "was in great straits" in the winter of 1880-1881 with "several squaw

Squaw

Squaw is an English language loan-word, used as a noun or adjective, whose present meaning is an indigenous woman of North America. It is derived from the eastern Algonquian morpheme meaning 'woman' that appears in numerous Algonquian languages variously spelled squa, skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que,...

s and numerous children dependent upon him." It continues: "He had absolutely nothing, no food, and would not beg." The drawings were produced in exchange for credit at Caton's store.

Black Hawk received fifty cents per drawing from Caton. In 1994, they were sold in an auction by Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

 Fine American Indian Art division in New York and later that year became part of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art of the Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum

The Fenimore Art Museum is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, USA, operating under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association...

.

External links

• "Drawing on Tribal History" by Inga Kiderra. This @UCSD magazine article is about ledger drawings and features Black Hawk and his work.
• "Black Hawk Ledger," a virtual gallery of Black Hawk's drawings on the Plains Indian Ledger Art web site.