IF YOU’VE BEEN TO WICHITA, KANSAS, YOU’VE NO DOUBT SEEN THE KEEPER OF THE PLAINS. AT THE CONFLUENCE of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers, the statue rises monumentally from its pedestal, a Native American in a headdress with face upturned, arms upraised, thanking, imploring, protecting.
It’s the work of Francis Blackbear Bosin, who was also known by his Kiowa name, Tsate Kongia (meaning “black bear”). Born in Cyril, Oklahoma, near Anadarko, in 1921, Blackbear Bosin made his home in Wichita from the age of 19 and eventually set up his studio there. The statue honors his Comanche-Kiowa roots; designed in 1968, it was conceived to share his culture with Wichita, where the Mid-America All-Indian Museum has mounted an exhibition as part of its two-year “Bring the Bosins Home” campaign to collect and care for his
