The Stylistic Development of Plains Indian Painting And Its Relationship to Ledger Drawings.

Abstract

This paper attempts to trace the stylistic development of Plains Indian figurative hide painting. Beginning with its possible origins in the petrographs and bark drawings of the pre-and early historic Northeast and Southwest it ends with the ledger drawings of the late 19th century. The early (pre 1860) hides are shown to have indicated events through a form ofvisual shorthand in contrast to the detailed refinement of the illustrated scenes on later hides. The ledger drawings include both traditional warfare themes and scenes from reservation life, ending with views of the white world drawn in the white man’s manner. One drawing by Bears Heart, a Cheyenne prisoner in Florida, is examined in some detail and in relationship to the historical, biographical and cultural world in which it was created.