Ledger Art
Encyclopedia
Plains Indians
The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...
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 medium of ledger art. The term comes from the accounting ledger
Ledger
A ledger is the principal book or computer file for recording and totaling monetary transactions by account, with debits and credits in separate columns and a beginning balance and ending balance for each account. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting journals which...
books that were a common source for paper for Plains Indians
Plains Indians
The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...
during the late 19th century.
Historical precedents
Ledger art evolved from Plains hide paintingPlains hide painting
Plains hide painting is a traditional Plains Indian artistic practice of painting on either tanned or raw animal hides. Tipis, tipi liners, shields, parfleches, robes, clothing, drums, and winter counts could all be painted.-Genres:...
. Among Plains tribes, women traditionally paint abstract, geometrical designs; whereas, men paint representational
Representation (arts)
Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation that people organize the world and reality through the act of naming its elements...
designs. The men's designs were often heraldic devises or visions painted on shields, tipi
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
s, shirts, leggings, or robes. Before the Plains tribes were forced to live on reservations in the 1870s, men generally painted personal feats in battle or hunting. Plains ledger art depicted communally acknowledged events of valor and tribal importance in order to gain status for the individuals who participated in them, and their band and kin. Plains pictorial art emphasizes narrative action and eliminates unnecessary detail or backgrounds. Figures tended to be drawn in hard outlines and filled with solid fields of color.
These were all traditionally painted on animal hides – particularly buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
hides. When buffalo became scarce after eradication programs encouraged by the US Federal government, Plains artists began painting and drawing on paper, canvas, and muslin.
New materials
An increasing supply of ledger books and other paper came from traders, government agents, missionaries, and military officers. With these came pencils, ink fountain pens, crayons, and watercolor paints. These new tools allowed for greater detail and experimentation than the earlier tools, such as bone or wood styli dipped in mineral pigments, had. The compact ledger books and pencils were highly portable, making them ideal for nomadic lifestyles.Fort Marion
Castillo de San Marcos
The Castillo de San Marcos site is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. It is located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Construction was begun in 1672 by the Spanish when Florida was a Spanish territory. During the twenty year period of British possession from 1763 until 1784, the...
in St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
. In 1874, in what became known as the Red River War
Red River War
The Red River War was a military campaign launched by the United States Army in 1874, as part of the Comanche War, to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Native American tribes from the Southern Plains and forcibly relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory...
or Buffalo War, a group of Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
, Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
, Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
, and Caddo
Caddo
The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
warriors fought the US Army to protect the last free herd of buffalo and to assert their autonomy.Szabo, 12–14 In the harsh winter of 1874–1875, many tribal camps were forced to surrender to various Indian agencies, and the supposed leaders of the Red River War were rounded up and sent to Fort Marion. From 1875 to 1878, the 71 men and one woman were under the command of Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt
Richard Henry Pratt is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.-Military career:...
, who used the opportunity to expose the Indians to Western education. He provided the prisoners with basic art supplies such as pencils, ink, crayons, watercolor paint, and paper.
26 of the Fort Marion prisoner actively engaged in drawing. They were younger Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa men. Some of the most prolific and well-known artists include Paul Caryl Zotom (Kiowa), David Pendleton Oakerhater
David Pendleton Oakerhater
David Pendleton Oakerhater , also known as O-kuh-ha-tuh and Making Medicine, was a Cheyenne Indian warrior and spiritual leader, who became an artist and Episcopal deacon. Imprisoned in 1875 after the Indian Wars at Fort Marion , Florida, Oakerhater became one of the founding figures of modern...
or Making Medicine (Cheyenne), Tichtematse or Squint Eyes (Cheyenne), Wohaw (Kiowa), Howling Wolf (Cheyenne)
Howling Wolf (Cheyenne)
-Prisoner of war:In 1875 Howling Wolf and Eagle Head were among a group of 33 Southern Cheyenne, 11 Comanche, 27 Kiowa and one Caddo imprisoned at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They were then taken by eight prison wagons to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and placed upon a special train to carry them east to...
, Etahdleuh Doanmoe (Kiowa), White Bear (Arapaho), Koba (Kiowa), and Bear’s Heart (Cheyenne). Tichtematse, Howling Wolf, White Bear, and Koba all continued drawing after their release from prison.
Subject matter
Battle exploits dominated ledger art. Other traditional themes such as hunting, courtship, and religious practices were common subjects. Ledger artists also documented their rapidly changing environment – portraying encroaching European-Americans and new technologies such as trains and cameras. Many ledger artists worked with ethnologists, by documenting shield and tipi designs, ethnobotanical information, winter countsWinter count
Winter counts are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Plains tribes used winter counts extensively...
, dance customs and regalia, and other cultural information. Dreams and visions inspired ledger art just as they had inspired earlier hide paintings. Ledger art today often references pre-reservation lifeways, historical transitions, social commentary, and to illustrate cultural continuity being historical and contemporary Native life.
The fine art world
Missionaries, anthropologists, and tourists eagerly collected ledger books in the late 19th century. Arapaho artist Carl SweezyCarl Sweezy
Carl Sweezy was a Southern Arapaho painter from Oklahoma. He painted individual portraits, but was best known for his portrayals of ceremonies and dances.-Background:...
(1881–1953) and Kiowa artist Haungooah, or Silver Horn
Silver Horn
Silver Horn or Haungooah was a Kiowa Ledger Artist from Oklahoma.-Background:Silver Horn was born circa 1860 and was a member of the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. His Kiowa name, Haungooah, refers to sunlight reflecting off a buffalo horn, making it gleam like a polished, white metal...
(1860–1940), both established professional careers as ledger artists. These artists inspired the Kiowa Five
Kiowa Five
The Kiowa Five or Kiowa Six is a group of six Kiowa artists from Oklahoma in the 20th century. They were Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke.-Background:...
, or, as they are increasingly known, the Kiowa Six, who painted with more sophisticated materials and met with international success when they exhibited their work in the 1928 International Art Congress in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Today
Numerous contemporary Plains artists create ledger paintings today. Many seek out 19th century documents on which to paint, creating ironic juxtapositions between the printed text and the paintings. Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala LakotaOglala Lakota
The Oglala Lakota or Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people; along with the Nakota and Dakota, they make up the Great Sioux Nation. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the...
) uses the style of 19th Lakota painters to express humorous views of contemporary realities for Lakota people. Arthur Amiotte
Arthur Amiotte
Arthur Douglas Amiotte, is an Oglala Lakota American painter, collage artist, educator, and author.- Biography :...
(Oglala Lakota) builds upon the collage aspect of ledger art and combines text, photography, naturalistic painting and stylized Plains pictorial art in his work.
Notable ledger artists
- Black HawkBlack Hawk (artist)Black Hawk was a member of the Sans Arc 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 of Lakota life for William Edward Caton, the federal "Indian trader" at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation...
, Sans ArcSans ArcThe 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...
Lakota - Howling Wolf, CheyenneHowling Wolf (Cheyenne)-Prisoner of war:In 1875 Howling Wolf and Eagle Head were among a group of 33 Southern Cheyenne, 11 Comanche, 27 Kiowa and one Caddo imprisoned at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They were then taken by eight prison wagons to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and placed upon a special train to carry them east to...
- Michael HorseMichael HorseMichael Heinrich Horse is an American actor, jeweler, and ledger painter.-Early life:Michael Horse was born in a Yaqui Native American reserve near Tucson, Arizona, and is of Yaqui, Mescalero Apache, Zuni, European and Latino descent...
, YaquiYaquiThe Yaqui or Yoeme are a Native American tribe who originally lived in the valley of the Río Yaqui in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Many Yaqui still live in their original homeland, but some live in Arizona as a result of wars between the Yaqui and the Mexican government...
-Mescalero Apache-Zuni Pueblo - St. David Pendleton Oakerhater, CheyenneCheyenneCheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
- SilverhornSilver HornSilver Horn or Haungooah was a Kiowa Ledger Artist from Oklahoma.-Background:Silver Horn was born circa 1860 and was a member of the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. His Kiowa name, Haungooah, refers to sunlight reflecting off a buffalo horn, making it gleam like a polished, white metal...
, KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma... - Sitting BullSitting BullSitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
, Hunkpapa Lakota - White Horse, KiowaWhite Horse (chief)White Horse White Horse White Horse (Kiowa: Tsen-tainte (? - 1892), was a chief of the Kiowa. White Horse attended the council between southern plains tribes and the United States at Medicine Lodge in southern Kansas which resulted in the Medicine Lodge Treaty...
External references
- Ledger drawings in the Smithsonian Institution's collections
- Ledger Art Collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum
- Plains Indian Ledger Art Project, University of California, San Diego