“Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains,” opening Saturday, March 12, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center in New York, celebrates the vibrant storytelling of society, war and peacetime, repression and expression found within the historic narrative artworks of Native peoples of the Great Plains.
Photo by Carmelo Guadagno, National Museum of the American Indian
Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
Bear's Heart (Nock-ko-ist/James Bear's Heart/Nah-koh-hist), Southern Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne), 1851–1882), Cheyennes Among the Buffalo, ca. 1875. Paper, graphite, crayon. Drawing titled in pencil by Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, later the founder of the Carlisle Indian School.
Photo by Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian
Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet), Mountain Chief, 2012, depicting Blackfeet leader Mountain Chief. On view in “Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains,” opening March 12, 2016, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York.
Photo by Ernest Amoroso, National Museum of the American Indian
Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
Dallin Maybee (Arapaho), Conductors of Our Own Destiny, 2013. On view in “Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains,” opening March 12, 2016, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York.
Photo by Katherine Fogden, National Museum of the American Indian
Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains
Blackfeet elk skin robe with painted decoration depicting war honors of Mountain Chief, ca. 1920. Attributed to James White Calf (Blackfee, ca. 1858-1970). Elkhide, paint.
Photo by Katherine Fogden, National Museum of the American Indian