Spirit Beings and Sun Dancers Black Hawk's Vision of the Lakota World

by Berlo, Janet Catherine

• ISBN13: 9780807614655
• ISBN10: 0807614653
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-17
• Publisher: George Braziller Inc.

Summary

During the winter of 1880-81, Black Hawk, a Lakota artist living on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, drew seventy-six vivid images depicting complex scenes of ceremonial activity, personal visions, historical events, and nature studies. Having recently emerged from obscurity, Black Hawk's drawing book now stands as the most complete visual record extant of Lakota art of the early reservation period (1875-95). It is published here in full, for the first time, with fine quality color plates of each drawing. Detailed commentary accompanies the drawings, providing insight into Lakota religion, art, and culture in the nineteenth century. Some of Black Hawk's illustrations are the only known drawings of ceremonies described in ethnographic works such as Black Elk Speaks, the famous account of visions experienced by Lakota holy man Black Elk. The ceremonies depicted in Black Hawk's drawings include the Sun Dance, buffalo transformation ceremonies, and ceremonies honoring the sacred pipe. He also recorded scenes of Lakota encounters with the Crow, of buffalo hunting, and of wildlife. An invaluable contribution to our knowledge of Native American history and art, Black Hawk's drawing book is a window unto a complex and eloquent world. 76 color illustrations, 20 b/w illustrations.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introductory Note	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Black Hawk and the Lakota World	p. 1
Art and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Cosmology and Religious Practice
Black Hawk: An Artist of the Sans Arc People
The Lakota Drawing Tradition
Black Hawk's Drawings	p. 25
Visions of Spirit Beings
Sacred Pipes and Sacred Altars
The Sun Dance
Ceremonial Practice and the Arts of Transformation
Lakota Social Organization and Daily Life
Crow Indian Ceremonialism
Warfare, Horsemanship, and the Hunt
Natural History Drawings
Wowapi Wakan: Art and the Persistence of Cultural Memory	p. 143
The Reservation Era: Loss, Endurance, and Survival
Black Hawk and the Persistence of Cultural Memory
On the Other Side of the Ledger: Lakota Aesthetic Practice across Generations
Black Hawk's Drawing Book as a Physical Object	p. 157
The Artist's Methods and Materials
The Binding of the Drawings
The Sequence of the Drawings
Historical Documentation from the Caton Family	p. 163
Notes	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 179
Index	p. 186
About the Authors	p. 190
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