Winter Horse Raiding Episode c. 1910

Curator: Standing before us is "Winter Horse Raiding Episode," created around 1910 by Old Bull. The artwork is composed using colored pencils on what appears to be ledger paper, and it's currently housed here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Editor: It’s strikingly graphic—a raw, almost childlike quality to the figures, yet imbued with tremendous energy. The repetition of the horse forms is mesmerizing. Curator: The choice of materials is critical here. Ledger paper, originally used for accounting, became a canvas for Indigenous artists during a period of intense cultural disruption. It represents the imposition of colonial structures, repurposed by Old Bull to document and assert Indigenous narratives. Editor: I notice how the artist renders the figures with flat planes of color, which almost reads as a kind of purposeful simplification. The contrast is pretty intense, given that it is just a colored pencil drawing, which is a really captivating strategy for depicting movement and violence. Curator: The narrative unfolds in tiers, with each episode seemingly capturing a different moment in the raid. It speaks to the dynamic nature of warfare and its social dimensions. The figures, though somewhat stylized, convey the violence of the skirmish using weapons and poses. Editor: Note the expressive quality imbued in the horses themselves. Their manes and tails seem electrified with movement, and the limited palette focuses our eye on the critical, forward momentum that defines the scene overall. The scale also reinforces this sense of progression. Curator: Absolutely, we should emphasize the means by which indigenous culture was perceived and reshaped in the American West. Consider how the act of raiding became intertwined with social structures, material accumulation, and warfare strategy among Indigenous peoples, but often seen under colonial perception. Old Bull reframes the conventional narrative. Editor: Looking more closely, one gets a distinct impression that there is a careful structural arrangement at work; each horse has its position and place in the linear, sequential ordering of the events in time. Curator: Precisely. He repurposes a medium associated with oppression to assert a story of resistance and cultural endurance. The work as an important sociohistorical record using an accessible material like colored pencils—democratizing art. Editor: Reflecting on "Winter Horse Raiding Episode," it reveals how crucial aesthetic choices can enhance and enrich complex material accounts of intercultural exchange and, in this instance, deep contestations. Curator: It offers us insight into indigenous agency during times of historical trauma, while the very nature of its production sheds light on an extraordinary interplay of power dynamics.