Opening the books: ledger art featured at Sandoz Center

During the late 19th century and early 20th, the Plains Indians gained a new medium for their art as they obtained or captured ledger books used by white men to keep inventory or account for profits. 

The paper and bound books gave the tribes a new way to record their history; the artists often drawing depictions of battle directly over written information in the books. One of those artists, Oglala Lakota Amos Bad Heart Bull, inspired modern Oglala Lakota artist Joe Pulliam to take up the medium. 

Through Dec. 13, both artists’ work can be found displayed at the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center as part of its “Native American Legacies” exhibit. Along with the work of Bad Heart Bull and Pulliam are honor quilts on loan from The Business Connections’ Roxy Puchner and a red dress from the Red Ribbon Skirt Society of the Black Hills that honors indigenous women who are missing, victims of assault, or victims of violent death since settler colonialism. 

Pulliam, or Akicita Tokahe as he’s known in Lakota, is the Center’s current Artist-in-Residence will be in Chadron through Friday afternoon. Born in Rushville and currently living in the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, Pulliam still uses ledger books from the 1800s as a medium for his art, though he’s not limited to it. 

Pulliam said it was an honor to be featured along with Bad Heart Bull and associated with Sandoz who was able to document Native history during her years in the area. The artist, a U.S. Army veteran, said he creates his art in hope of helping his people regain their identity and to facilitate healing for Natives and all Americans.