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Title:
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From Buffalo Hides to Accounting Ledger Books: Analyzing Counter-Narratives and Materials in Native American Art from Fort Marion, 1875–1878
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Creator:
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Raffo, Catterina Maria
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Subject:
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Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
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Subject:
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Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
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Rights:
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Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Abstract:
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"In 1875, the United States War Department captured and transported seventy-two Native American warriors from the Great Plains to Fort Marion, Florida, where they remained until 1878. Imprisoned Native Americans were given accounting ledger books, graphite and colored pencils, crayons, and gouache paints by government agents, missionaries, and military officers to create artworks for sale. These works on paper came to be known as 'Ledger Art,' and their history illustrates the restrictions and catastrophic destructions endured by these Native Americans as their people were moved to reservations or prisoner-of-war status. Looking into drawings made at Fort Marion by the Cheyenne, or Tsétsęhéstaestse as they call themselves, this thesis argues that their holistic approach to materials used to narrate their history on the Great Plains, such as natural pigments on hides of the buffalo or hotóá'e and ésevone as the Cheyenne call them, is the key to interpreting counter-narratives in their Ledger Art. Scholars such as Joyce Szabo, Sara Hayes and Becca Gercken have used nineteenth-century letters and photographs to thoroughly account for the sociopolitical context of Ledger Art at Fort Marion. This thesis deepens their account by looking at the materials used to create Ledger Art as significant sources of information, functioning as both symbol and ritual in Cheyenne storytelling traditions. Out of respect for the continuity of Cheyenne culture, this thesis also studies best practices for culturally responsive care and study of Ledger Art in the interest of restoring Cheyenne agency in the preservation and interpretation of objects produced by their ancestors." -- Abstract
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Publisher:
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Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
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Date:
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2020-11
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Format:
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1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 73 pages, color illustrations, map)
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