colorful drawing, created by Cheyenne warrior Making Medicine
(1844-1931) some time from 1875 to 1878, depicts an encounter
between the U.S. Cavalry and a group of Native American warriors
circa 1875. It derives from a long tradition of Native American
art; similar works exist all over North America, many drawn
on rocks, cave walls, animal hides, and bones. Making Medicine's
image, however, belongs specifically to the unusual category
of ledger art—a 19th-century practice so named for the
paper volumes in which the artists made them—created by
Indian prisoners of the U.S. Army.
Making Medicine's captivity stemmed from the Red River Uprising
of 1874-1875, a series of battles between the U.S. Army and
several Native American tribes of the southern Great Plains.
The army imprisoned 72 of the Indians deemed most dangerous
at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida; Making Medicine
was among them. This small group of warriors produced an impressive
number of striking and important drawings—more than
1,000 have been identified to date. The artists had a patron
in the prison commander, Capt. Richard H. Pratt. A proponent
of Native American education and assimilation, Pratt encouraged
the men to draw by providing them with paper and colored pencils.
Although Ft. Marion housed individuals from five tribes, the
artists were all Cheyenne or Kiowa, the two nations that dominated
the prison. Most of their drawings depict camp life, hunts,
and battles, and some show scenes of Indian prisoners interacting
with teachers and soldiers.
The booklets they produced were given as gifts to visiting
officers and sold to tourists for around two dollars a volume.
The ledger book in which this drawing appears belonged to
Francis Parkman (18231893), a historian best known for
his multivolume history of the French and Indian Wars. Donated
to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956, along with
the bulk of Parkman's personal papers, the book contains 28
drawings. Most are the work of Making Medicine or Bear's Heart,
another Cheyenne warrior, known also by their Cheyenne namesO-kuh-ha-tuh
Making Medicine, an eminent warrior, celebrated Indian life
on the plains in many of his drawings, but after his release
from Ft. Marion he followed Anglo-American laws and traditions
for the remainder of his life. Baptized and given a Christian
name in 1878, he spent several years recruiting students for
Richard Pratt's Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Penn.
In 1881, he returned to Oklahoma, where he served as an Episcopal
deacon until his death in 1931.