As a painter I find the North American Indians a fascinating people to portray. The feathers the beadwork and the colors; all of the natural elements in which these people blended together, makes even the most skillful of designers in awe of their work. We as  people in North America tend to look to the older and more established countries for lessons in history.  But right here in our own country we have perhaps one of the most intriguing  cultures in history with very dire lessons to be learned. The study of the North American Indians, the plains tribes in particular, is one of the most fascinating stories of a proud and peaceful nation with the most horrific and brutal ending to a unique way of life.

     America is a young continent, for  its wild beauty and undisturbed lands were left alone until just over 500 years ago, when the Spanish came. There were Natives living on the lands, and were considered to be the freest people in history. They structured their lives around the seasons and the availability of food, making their home in the Texas region in the winter, and moving up into Canada in the summer. They moved around freely, with no geographical or political restraints, ultimately, they had the freedom to do so.

         The Main difference between the early white settlers of North America and the Indians, as one theory has it,; seems to be in the way they viewed the land. The whites seemed to view the land as a sentence, a place of banishment as to which there would only be a temporary existence. They had a get all you can attitude, for they took as much as they could from it ,stripping and parceling up the land with no apparent regard for it's own natural ecology. The Indians viewed the land in a much different light, calling it their Mother, and living off of it the way it was. It was very much a part of them, and they viewed themselves as caretakers of the land.

        The Historical events of the 1800's recorded in the clashes of these two cultures raises many questions and brings to light the intolerances and injustices of a nation against it's own people. The Sand Creek massacre, the Battle of the Washita, the climax at the Little Big Horn and the ending at Wounded Knee are all heart wrenching tales of the struggle over land and the people in it. The birth of a nation and the death of a peoples dream, is one of the most horrific yet captivating events ever recorded in history...

Contact the Artist: tracy@tracygardnerart.com