What is "Ledger Art"?

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several tribes of the Great Plains – Lakota, Cheyenne's and Arapaho – developed a unique and powerful medium to document the history and heritage of their people: ledger drawings.

Translating the traditional iconography of buffalo – skin painting to a new use in actual accounting ledgers, Plains Indian artists (or "hostiles" as the government referred to them) who were removed from the original homelands and forced into federal (prison) camps chronicled their way of life while acknowledging monumental social change.

As they experienced new pictorial styles and materials, these artists also transformed conventional methods of narrative painting into a more personal, visual language.

Donald Montileaux (Oglala Lakota) is a master ledger artist, and following in the footsteps of his forefathers, created this drawing for the 2003 Honor the Earth Tour. He describes the icons used in the T-shirts:

The drawing of the Indigo Girls shows Emily with her fire-red hair and the brunette, Amy, both playing their guitars.

There are also two men looking on and enjoying the music and the freshness of the air.

At the bottom of the drawing there are four figures – two women dressed in jingle dress and a little girl and boy, both in traditional Plains Indian dress.

The wind-powered generator in the drawing symbolizes the clean way to produce energy in the present and future for all the energy needs of all people so that the air and watrers will remain clean and pure.

(Source material: Plains Indians Drawing 1865-1935).