Ledger Book Drawing

Item number 1992.76.1 from the Brooklyn Museum.

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Description

The reservation era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Native American tribes had ceded their land to the federal government and were confined to set aside tracts of land, created profound cultural changes for the Plains peoples. The masculine artistic tradition of painting warrior's exploits on hide shirts and robes declined but men continued to record their deeds and their changing way of life in paintings and drawings on canvas, muslin, and small notebooks, or ledger books. Many of these works memorialize individual achievements in hunting and warfare. Some ledger books were carried into battle and "captured" on the battlefield. U.S. Army men who had amicable relations with Indian scouts or were guards of Native American prisoners commissioned others. This drawing depicts one warrior scalping another fallen warrior who is dropping his bow and arrows.