Warrior artists

the long version

An artistic community unique in American history flourished in St. Augustine, Florida, between 1875 and 1878. Some 70 Plains Indians, imprisoned for their refusal to accept life on the reservations, produced an extraordinary body of work that chronicled their history, their lives, and their experience of exile from the freedom so central to their heritage. Called "ledger art" after the large lined books that in most cases were the first form of paper they used, these remarkable pencil and ink depictions are vivid evocations of a poignant chapter in American history. A superbly annotated reproduction of one such ledger, originally presented to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the late 19th century, Warrior Artists presents more than 50 eloquent drawings by two of the finest practitioners of this traditional narrative art.