Black Hawk. Ledger Drawing, Dream or Vision of Himself Changed to a Destroyer or Riding a Buffalo Eagle (2), 1881. South Dakota. Sans Arc Lakota (Teton Sioux). Paper, ink, graphite. The Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York
Death of the Buffalo, 1860–80
Buffalo likely numbered in excess of thirty million in the early 1800s. By 1895, fewer than one thousand survived. Formerly mobile and independent, hunters now faced a choice between starvation and the reservations. Tribes once prosperous and powerful were reduced to poverty and dependence on government rations. The horse-and-buffalo culture that Plains Indian peoples built in the 1700s and 1800s collapsed under assault from epidemic diseases, American soldiers, government agents, buffalo hunters, railroads, and settlers.
—Colin G. Calloway, Scholar
For one and sometimes two decades, people lived near reservation headquarters. They camped in tattered skin tipis or lived in tipis and tents hand-sewn from canvas that was issued as an annuity (treaty payment).
—Arthur Amiotte, Oglala Lakota Artist and Scholar
Plains Native people regret and mourn the drastic and sudden losses of the late 1800s and early 1900s—the lands, the buffalo, the ceremonies, and the lives of our ancestors.
—Emma I. Hansen, Pawnee Scholar
Even in crisis, the arts continued. Distinct tribal styles became fully realized, and ledger drawings by men emerged as an important form of artistic expression. New warrior societies produced elaborate and distinct regalia.
—Gaylord Torrence, Curator
Death of the Buffalo, 1860–80 section of the exhibition
