The young boy in this painting grows up to be Lakota Chief Black Elk.

Black Elk was born in 1863 along the Little Powder River in Wyoming. At age nine, he felt into a coma for twelve days and was believed to be ill by his family., who urgently sang and prayed over him. Healers and medicine men were called to cure him, but nobody realized that he was not ill at all. Black Elk was having a great vision.

 When he awoke, he kept the vision a secret until he was 17. When he shared the vision with his elders, they were astonished with his power. Black Elk grew up to become one of the greatest medicine people and chiefs of the Sioux.

This painting depicts the coming of Black Elk’s vision. It is a painting that shows the coming of a blessing and spiritual power.

The scene, including the clothing and tipi accessories, is historically accurate for 1870s Sioux life, and shows the mother and father praying together for healing.

The paints include natural pigments made from these and other materials:

·      Yellow clay from Mt. Vesuvius
·      Red pipestone dust
·      Mayan blue from Central America
·      Browns from mountain minerals
·      Ochres from Europe

“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...”

-Black Elk

    I paint a lot of historical American Indian scenes, but despite first impressions, this is not one of them. This painting depicts a moment I experienced just this past Autumn.
    I sat in the tipi listening to my friend share stories with us. just minutes before the moment in this painting, she was crying with grief as she shared her experiences in an Indian boarding school. Lest anyone believe that these atrocities are all part of America's past, this mother is younger than I am, and had lived through them. She was removed from her family at such a young age that she only rediscovered as an adult who her family even was. As she cried, she told us about having her braids chopped off, and all connections to her family and heritage severed. And even though I was there to hear her stories, that is not the story of this painting.
    As she talked, she turned to her son (on the far right). This young man's braids and buckskins were a contrast to her own life at his age. She smiled and began to speak to the children about the importance of perseverance, tradition, and pride. The impact of these boarding schools and their hostile efforts to eradicate Indigenous ways was ending with her. Those traumas would not touch the next generation of her family.
    That is why she is smiling. Beaming, even. Children are hearing her story, and she is seeing them carry forth the values that were nearly lost. The handing down of tradition and culture continues.
    This painting is about someone living through adversity, and becoming resilient rather than defeated. This is about the insistence of people on surviving and preserving and care-taking for future generations. This painting is not just a sentimental scene; it is about overcoming.