Buffalo Eagle Spirit Meeting at Oyaken Creek
Mixed media ledger drawing, tintype photograph (copy), and embossing on 1907 ledger paper. 2002 15 1/2 x 19.
"In the 1890s through 1910, there were. . . relatives who lived in the Oyaken Creek area on the Spokane Reservation. And I can remember my mother telling me stories about these relatives. They would have their winter medicine dances or they might ride to various family locations out there or maybe have meetings or talk about, for example around 1910 . . . the reservation land allotments."
"To this day I think I can really understand more and more and more about the traditions these people had. . . .
Sometimes I ride horses into that area, just to get a feeling of what might have happened back in the earlier years when some of our elders lived up [there].
When I do these pieces of ledger work, I try to put their feelings into what I do. . . . Maybe 20, 50 years down the road these pieces will become more important, because it's really getting harder and harder and harder to remember some of the old legends that were told to me by family members."--George Flett narrating exhibit
On the upper right is an image cut out of a tin-type photograph (copy). It is of Shwin-whit (Green Leaves or John Stephens) and daughter; John Stevens was one of Flett's ancestors living in the Oyaken Creek area. The photograph was used on Spokane tribal stationery until the early 1970s. (See detail below.)
To the left is a tipi, within which we can see the brown silhouettes of four tribal leaders, including Strong Eagle.
A warrior is standing outside with his spear and shield. Under the piece is written, “The doorman will guard them. He sees a horse turning into a buffalo eagle in his dreams.” Slightly below and embossed across the entire 1907 ledger is the doorman’s vision.
Small horse spirits are drawn on the surface of the photograph and the tipi, connecting the native and Euroamerican technologies of historic representation, which relate in their different ways to the competing grounds of the ledger and embossed spirit.