Alan
Monroe - Oglala Lakota | ||
Example shown here is 16" x 11" ledger-style art in a 21" x 17" frame. | ||
Click on an item below for details and to order. | ||
 LA34 - $80 14"wide x 11"high |  LA32 - $80 14"wide x 11"high |  LA36 - $80 16"wide x 11"high |
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The women of the tribes often made designs while the men depicted scenes of war, hunting, other personal feats or historic events. Besides battles, the changing lifestyle of the Plains Indians and infusion of Euro-Americans was documented in the art - trains, covered wagons, guns, and even cameras.
At right is an 1884 crayon ledger drawing by Lakota artist Red Dog honoring the valor of a warrior named Low Dog.
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About Alan MonroeAlan Monroe was born in Hot Springs , South Dakota and is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. He graduated from Hot Springs High School and studied business and art in Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota. Alan creates his Northern Plains artwork from hides, stone, leather, and wood. He learned the basics of quill working, weaponry, sculpting and pipe making from traditional and contemporary artisans in his family circle. He is a fifth generation master pipe maker. In his sculptures, Monroe works with a variety of materials such as pipestone, bone, wood and alabaster. He creates small objects like fetishes to large pieces than can weigh hundreds of pounds. Monroe's work can be seen in many galleries and museums across the country and he has won many awards. About Lakota Sioux |
Ledger
art evolved from Plains Indian hide painting. Traditionally Plains tribes decorated
tipis, leggings, buffalo robes, shields and other clothing items with depictions
of life events. The figures were usually drawn with a hard, dark outline and then
filled in with color. The painting was done with bone or wood sticks that were
dipped in naturally-occurring pigments. 
Ledger
art began in the 1860s and continued to the 1930s and is experiencing a revival
with a few contemporary Lakota artists today. It is called ledger art because
instead of the paintings being on buffalo hides (which became scarce with the
near extinction of the vast buffalo herds) the drawings were done on paper, often
ledger book paper that was discarded by government agents, military officers,
traders or missionaries. In addition to the new paper format, Plains artists also
had access to pencils, pens, crayons and watercolor paints. 
Noted
Lakota artists include Black Hawk and Sitting Bull. Black Hawk, in an effort to
feed his family during the very harsh winter of 1880-81, agreed to draw a series
of 76 pieces of art for an Indian trader that depicted one 
of
Black Hawk's visions. He was paid 50 cents a drawing. That book of 76 drawings
sold in 1994 for nearly $400,000 dollars. Although not technically ledger art
since the drawings were on plain paper, not ledger paper, Black Hawk's work are
one of the finest examples of that style of Lakota art. Two examples of that series
are shown here.