Artifacts
PHOTO OF DRAWING FROM THE WALTER BONE SHIRT LEDGER (18) COURTESY OF THE K. ROSS TOOLE ARCHIVES, UM
This image was one of eighteen color pencil sketches in a ledger of American Indian art found recently by a Mansfield Library staff member. The ledger, which provides a rare look into the life and culture of the Plains Indians, is estimated to be more than 100 years old and had been donated by Missoula resident Genevieve Prochnow in 1962. She inherited the ledger from her father, John S. Parke, who acquired it while serving as an officer in the U.S. Army in South Dakota. During the winter of 1890-91, Parke was assistant adjutant general at Rosebud Agency, home to the Lakota Sioux. The artwork is believed to have been drawn by Walter Bone Shirt, a Lakota Sioux, known to have created commissioned art from the 1860s to 1890s, when Plains Indians were being relocated to reservations. An appraiser’s analysis suggests that the drawing may depict an animal dancer/dreamer, possibly an elk dreamer.
