ARTISTS A WARRIOR’S LEDGER DOMAIN

Ledger drawings—so named because they were made on pages of old ledger or account books—flourished as an art form among the Plains Indians in the second half of the 19th century. The drawings, made with pencil, ink, and watercolor, were a way for warriors to memorialize their deeds. Howling Wolf, a Southern Cheyenne warrior, is considered to be one of the most important ledger-book artists of the era.

Known in his tribe as Honannistto, Howling Wolf fought in its battles with the U.S. Army in the 1860s and early 1870s. He was one of 72 Cheyenne warriors who in 1875 were imprisoned at Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. And he worked with other Cheyennes to maintain some semblance of traditional life after his release to the Cheyenne reservation in present-day Oklahoma in 1878. He is the only artist known to have made ledger drawings at every stage of this turbulent period in the Cheyenne nation’s history. The subjects of Howling Wolf’s increasingly complex drawings illustrate the change in Cheyenne society from near-constant warfare to externally imposed peace.

Ledger drawings