Kiowa Memories: Images from Indian Territory, 1880

From the Jacket:

By the 1870s the Kiowas of the Southern Plains, once a proud, free people, were defeated and then confined to a reservation near Fort Sill, in what was known as Indian Territory and is now Oklahoma. There, a few warriors created unique, colorful records of Kiowa life, such as this picture chronicle drawn in a ledger book about 1880 and collected by artist Julian Scott (1846-1901).

These fifty drawings—only two of which have been previously published in a redrawn form—depict memories of rituals and rites, combat and courtship, which almost magically bring us in contact with a remarkable, distinctly American culture. These are among the finest historical Kiowa ledger drawings in existence. Viewed as Plains Indian art, they exhibit sleek, elegant simplicity and raw power and are, moreover, an evocative source of testimony illuminating a now-vanished way of life. Dr. Ronald McCoy's thoroughly—researched, concise commentary aids in the appreciation of this unwritten history by detailing its wealth of meaning.