George P. Horse Capture

An artistic community unique in American history flourished in St. Augustine, Florida, between 1875 and 1878. Some 70 Plains Indians, imprisoned for their refusal to accept life on the reservations, produced an extraordinary body of work that chronicled their history, their lives, and their experience of exile from the freedom so central to their heritage. Called “ledger art” after the large lined books that in most cases were the first form of paper they used, these remarkable pencil and ink depictions are vivid evocations of a poignant chapter in American history. A superbly annotated reproduction of one such ledger, originally presented to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the late 19th century, WARRIOR ARTISTS is alive with color and movement, and presents more than 50 eloquent drawings by two of the finest practitioners of this traditional narrative art. -- front flap. Zotom’s rich and vivid drawings preserve the proud and tragic story of the American Indian people; for what happened to one group happened to all of us. But not all tribes were as fortunate to have had a warrior artist like Zotom, who recorded this compelling chapter of his tribe’s history with such detail, accuracy, and skill. His drawings are exceptional. In addition to making us feel outraged by the treatment of these human beings who were only fighting for their way of life, WARRIOR ARTISTS enables us to appreciate the sad dignity of the Indian people, and the genius of Zotom and his unique style. -- George P. Horse Capture, National Museum of the American Indian A selection of the Book of the Month Club

"Provides real insight into the religion of the nineteenth-century Gros Ventre (Atsina) Indians. Known to themselves as the White Clay People, this little-known tribe now shares the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana with the Assiniboines. However, throughout much of their recorded history they were allied with the Blackfeet. The book is a record of the spiritual life of Bull Lodge (born ca. 1802, died 1886), religious leader, healer, and for a time, keeper of the Feathered Pipe, one of the two tribal objects of the Gros Ventres. . . . [It] makes absorbing reading. Beginning at the age of twelve, Bull Lodge sought spiritual power through the tribal Feathered Pipe. From the ages of seventeen to twenty-three he was favored with a series of seven visions on seven buttes that together outline a Gros Ventre cultural geography. . . . "The strength of the narrative is the rich detail of ritual description: fasting, sacrifices, vision experiences, the practices of healing. By describing ritual in the context of a man's life, the book gives a uniquely historical understanding of the dynamics of traditional religious life. It provides deeper understanding of the Gros Ventres' way of life and gives a valuable comparative perspective on plains Indian religion."—Raymond J. DeMallie, Western Historical Quarterly.

American Indian cultures, especially those of the Great Plains, have a rich relationship with their horses. Far more than a beast of burden, the horse is for Native people a friend and a spiritual companion. Nowhere is this bond more spectacularly illustrated than in the beautiful equipment Native horses wear and the tribal clothing, tools, and other objects that incorporate horse motifs. Filled with photographs of objects from the unparalleled collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as historical photographs of North American Indians and their horses, this book documents the central role horses play in Native cultures. 95 color and black-and-white photographs.

Follows the activities of a young boy as his family attends a Wampanoag powwow, describing the significance of some of the events at the gathering, particularly the dances.

This is the first U.S. publication of an extraordinary collection of native American art, unknown to contemporary American audiences. For centuries, ornamental robes made of buffalo hide were painted by artists of the various Indian nations. Brought back to the French kings in the eighteenth century, the robes represented here are now housed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, and together they make a stunning tribute to a bygone art form. These robes, spectacularly executed and perfectly conserved, offer an incomparable pictographic representation of early native American life. As George P. Horse Capture observes in his essay on the craft and history of buffalo hide painting, we see the largely symbolic, complex geometric patterns painted by women contrasted with the more realistic, narrative scenes painted by men, depicting battles and dances. Both kinds of design played an important role in native American society as messages for tribe members, as well as for their visitors, and both share a powerful visual appeal. With introductory and historical essays by three leading experts on native American art, a preface by W. Richard West, Jr., the director of the National Museum of the American Indian, and over a hundred photographs of the hides, this splendid volume is sure to be a treasure in any collection.

Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts represents a powerful collaboration between two great museums -- the National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution, and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts -- and two curators, father and son members of the A'aninin Indian Tribe of Montana. George P. Horse Capture, and his son, Joseph D. Horse Capture, bring different insights to this project as they explore new relationships among the shirts, the shirtmakers, the historians and scholars, and the audience of Indians and non-Indians alike. "Plains Indian people greatly admired the power and the beauty of these shirts," says George P. Horse Capture. "We regard them with that same admiration today, and we take this opportunity to emphasize their deep cultural meaning, the remarkable skill of the artisans who made them, and the importance of the people who earned the right to wear them." Now you are invited to enter this world.