Balancing
Crow and Gros Ventre Indian
F
igurative art among the Plains
By
Elizabeth
Indians of North America
M. Guheen
historically chronicled the
heroic deeds of warriors and chiefs. It was an art form
Artist Unknown, Gros Ventre (Hidatsa), Drawing of
Gros Ventre Men and Women at a Dance, 1883,
commercial pigments and ink on ruled paper.
practiced by the male leaders of the tribes. They painted
on rocks, buffalo robes, and tipi covers using charcoal,
naturally derived colors and hand-made tools. In the
second half of the 19th century the Crows surrendered
38 million acres of their hunting grounds at the Treaty of
Fort Laramie in 1868 and agreed to occupy a reservation
in south-central Montana. Traditional native figurative art
transitioned by the imposed changes to Native American
life-ways, events and culture. Many Indian men turned to
art as a means to chronicle this complicated and complex
time in their tribes' histories. The pictorial art of the last
nomadic warriors of the western plains is known as Ledger
Art. Indian Agents and other government employees on
the reservations supplied the tribal members with leftover
or unused office papers that were often blank sheets torn
from account or ledger books. They also made available
colored pencils, commercial inks and pigments, pens,
pencils and crayons.
Major Charles H. Barstow was the chief clerk for the
Bureau of Indian Affairs at Crow Agency, Montana from
1879 to 1897. He took an interest in encouraging the
New Bear, Gros Ventre (Hidatsa),
Drawing of a Buffalo Hunt, 1884,
commercial pigments and ink on
ruled paper.
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D I ST I NCT LY M ONTANA • SU M M E R 2013
