This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Amos Bad Heart Bull was a member of the Oglalas one of seven bands of the Teton Sioux nation. Bad Heart Bull grew up hearing and drawing the stories told by his relatives. The Sioux had no written language and depended on oral histories and drawings to preserve their traditions and history. Bad Heart Bull's father was the tribe's historian and every year he presented to the tribe a pictographic representation of the tribe's events from the previous year.
Although Bad Heart Bull inherited his father's talent he did not become the tribe historian. Amos bad Heart Bull did create his own history for the tribe. While working as a scout for the United States Army in Fort Robinson, Nebraska, Amos Bad Heart Bull began a journal of drawings of pre-reservation life from stories he had heard as a child. He drew pictures of every day events as well as ceremonies and warfare.
Although the journal was buried with Dollie Pretty Cloud whom Amos Bad Heart Bull had willed it, there are photographs of the contents. A University of Nebraska graduate student photographed the contents in 1927 and had them hand tinted in 1930 as part of her master's thesis.
Source: The Magazine Antiques, November 2003 |
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