The Amidon Ledger

[grahamew]

"Discovered" in 1985 and currently being digitized for the Plains Indian Ledger Art Project, you can view this ledger here:

www.hmgrimmer.com/Current_Show/index.html

It was collected with the Macnider Ledger (unveiled in 2013 and viewable here: plainsledgerart.org/plates/index/78) and is believed to be largely the work of the Hunkpapa artist His Fight or Jaw, drawn some time in the 1880s. There is a variety of images, although they are not all as elaborate as many of the artist's other works: scenes of courting; mounted warriors dressed for battle (including another man wearing the red cape/red turban combo who may well be Jaw, although there aren't the scenes of actual combat present in the Macnider Ledger; hunting; animals, including a scene of animals scavenging and fighting over a dead buffalo; dancing.

You can read about it here: www.hmgrimmer.com/Current_Show/Amidon_Ledger_Show_Brochure.pdf and here:
www.hmgrimmer.com/Current_Show/Amidon_Ledger_Summary_by_Ross_Frank.pdf

Some highlights:

[Californian]

Hi Grahame - I am about to purchase a couple of pieces of the Amidon Ledger offered for sale at a gallery in New York. The links in your text are no longer active, but I thought that I'd share the following information:

Ćehu′pa/Jaw, or Okicize Tawa, (Hunkpapa Lakota, b.1850)
Amidon Ledger Book (Sioux, c.1880)

The Amidon Ledger Book was principally drawn by a Sioux artist named Jaw (Ćehu′pa), also known as His Fight or Okicize Tawa. Born around 1850, Jaw quickly gained recognition in his youth for being an exceptional horse thief. (That horses were a form of currency on the Plains meant that he was also wealthy at a young age.) Over time, he also became a distinguished warrior, going on to become a veteran Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. His military prowess not only gained him celebrity among the Sioux, but also among Anglo-artists and ethnographers. In 1884, American artist De Cost Smith was compelled to paint him due to his accolades. The warrior-artist is best known to us today because around 1912, ethnographer Frances Densmore (1867-1957) interviewed Jaw and was the recipient of several of Jaw’s works. A highly prolific artist, Jaw is known to have drawn several ledger books, one of which is currently housed in the collections at the South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre, South Dakota.

Approximately one hundred-and-fifty of the Amidon Ledger Book drawings, while unsigned, are largely attributable to Jaw. The book was privately purchased when it was discovered in 1985, underneath a stack of used dictionaries in a used book sale in Amidon, ND. The book was subsequently purchased by H. Malcolm Grimmer of Santa Fe, NM, in 2016 when it was documented by the University of California, San Diego’s Plains Indian Ledger Art project.

[Californian]

The entire ledger has been scanned and documented by the

PLAINS INDIAN LEDGER ART PROJECT
Dept. of Ethnic Studies, University of California San Diego (UCSD)
Ross Frank, Associate Professor
9500 Gilman, Dept 0522
Office 227 Social Science Building
La Jolla, California 92093-0522
[phone] OFFICE

[phone] DEPARTMENT

[phone] FAX

EMAIL
 [e-mail]


and can be accessed under this website: plainsledgerart.org/plates/view/3780#

The artist has been identified as Jaw (Cehupa) or His Fight (Okicize Tawa) of the Hunkpapa Lakota, born approx. 1850. He was intensely interviewed by ethnomusicologist and ethnographer Frances Densmore (1867--1957) who around 1912 also collected a tipi liner painting on muslin from him which is now at the Smithsonian Institution. He seemingly belonged to the Kigleska (Tied in the Middle) society of the Hunkpapa. I located a photograph of Jaw in the book TETON SIOUX MUSIC, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 61, by Frances Densmore, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1918, between page 386 and 387.



the below two drawings from this ledger are in my possession





If anyone has more or better photographs of Jaw (Cehupa) or His Fight (Okicize Tawa) would appreciate to know.

[shan]

Californian,

I don't know if there are any more photographs of this man, but there is a very nice painting of him by Decost Smith in his wonderful book "Red Indian Experiences." in which he devotes a chapter to this man including some of his drawings.

Shan

[Californian]

Dear Shan
thank you very kindly. I was aware that De Cost Smith painted a portrait of Jaw, but did not know where to look for it and thus am most obliged for your information. It seems this book was published in the UK, there are a few copies available for purchase, thus shall get one for my library.
Thanks again and best regards
Californian

[Californian]

I found another portrait of Jaw - had it all along and was not aware of it right away, in the book Witness: A Hunkpapa Historian's Strong-Heart Song of the Lakotas by Josephine Waggoner, edited by Emily Levine, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE (2013), page 404

[grahamew]

Don't forget Ron McCoy's essay: plainsledgerart.org/essays/view/27

[Californian]

The original glass plate negatives of Jaw's photographs are at the National Anthropological Archives (credited to Frances Densmore, dated 1912/1913) 

Jaw (Ćehu′pa) or His Fight (Oki' cize-ta'wa) c.1850-1924

[shan]

Californian,

Re, " Red Indian Experiences , by De Cost Smith," My father bought this book for me when it was first published in the U.K. I would have been 10 or 11 at the time, a long long time ago. It has travelled with me ever since, and has been much loved and much read, and as a result, it became extremely worn and fragile Worrying that I might lose it, I decided to try and find myself another copy ~ a back up if you like, several years ago and managed to get one here in the U.K. online. It wasn't too expensive as I remember, and worth every penny.

I am an artist myself and have always thought that his work should be more highly regarded than it is, I looked on line to see if there was anything else out there, but there are very few examples to be found. However, there are at least half a dozen examples of his work in the book, including His Fight, plus a very sensitive portrait of Rain in the Face, so you've got a treat coming when you eventually lay your hands on a copy.

Shan