The Finish, A View of Western North Dakota before much Development

"Verendrye Meets The Mandans" by Clell Gannon. Photo by Brian R. Austin, State Historical Society of North Dakota. The painting is on display in the south vestibule of the Burleigh County courthouse. Visitors will need to acquire permission to photograph the paintings.

"The Finnish" By Clell Gannon
A View Of Western North Dakota
Uploaded by Dakota Wind
BISMARCK, N.D. - Clell Gannon, born in Wisner, NB and raised in North Dakota, was a geologist, horticulturist, artist, and photographer. Some of his work can be viewed today in the south vestibule of the Burleigh County courthouse. In his youth, Gannon spent some considerable time rafting the Little Missouri River and Missouri River. There's some part of Gannon that never left the North Dakota Badlands. His poem is a reflection of the western North Dakota he intimately knew and deeply loved.

The Finish

by Clell Gannon

When the final page is written in the hist’ry of the West,

And the cowboy and the Redmen have all gone beyond the crest

Of the hills that rim the skyline unto other lands unguessed,

- Why, I don’t want to be there.

When the last he-man dies bravely with the leather on his feet,

When the last coyote has hollered and has made a fast retreat,

When the trail is strung with fences and the wreck is all complete,

- Why, I don’t want to be there.

When the West is stuck with bill-boards and the roads are slick and fine,

And when every sunny acre wears a bloomin’ Keep Off sign,

When they’re playing golf instead of riding broncos – I resign,

- And, I don’t want to be there.

When the signs on every corner tell you just which way to go,

And when every man’s a stranger, which he isn’t now,

you know,

And the weatherman will tell you how tomorrow’s wind will blow,

- Why, I don’t want to be there.

When they’ve tamed it, and shamed it, when they’ve put it up for sale,

And the final chapter’s written, why I’ll find someplace where the hungry buzzards sail.

- ‘Cause that’s where I want to be.

Waniyetu Ehanna, Sung Noni Ota Kin: A Long Time Ago, They Saw Horses, 1692

A horse emerges from a swirl in the river according to the story, as pictographed.

Waniyetu Ehanna, Sung Noni Ota Kin

Long Ago They Saw Many Horses, 1692

By Dakota Wind

BISMARCK, N.D. - A few months ago I was asked to draw a pictograph of the arrival of the horse. I was also working on a short essay about the sense of place that the Dakota and Lakota people have for the Northern Great Plains. I want to share with you reader the picture I drew on ledger graph paper.

It is more than just a picture. The words on the top right say, "Waniyetu ehanna, Sung noni ota kin." In English this means, "A log time ago, They saw many horses." The text is lifted from the John K Bear Winter Count, a Pabaska Ihanktowana (Cuthead Yanktonai) Dakota winter count. The year that they saw horses for the first time was 1692.

The words on the left half of the picture at a nintey degree angle are a prayer, the Lord's Prayer:

Ate unyapi Mahpiya ekta nanke cin, Nicaje wakanlapi nunwe. Nitokiconze u nunwe. Mahpiay ekta nitawacin econpi kin, he iyecel maka akanl econpi nunwe. Anpetu ihohi aguyapi kin, anpetu kin le unqu piye. Na tona ecinsniyan ecaunkicinpi wicaunkicicajujupi kin, he iyecel waunhtanipi kin unkiciajujupiye. Na taku wawiyutanye cin ekta unkayapi sni piye; Tka taku sice etanhan eunklaku piye; Wokiconse kin, na wowasake kin, na wowitan kin hena ohinniyan naohinniyan nitawa heon. Amen.

Here's a link to the article and my pictograph as it appears in this magazine. The other articles are worth reading too. The majority of the content of this issue of the On Second Thought magazine focus on the current changes facing the western half of the state and the impact of the oil development there.

See it online at: On Second Thought [A Sense of Place], Spring 2012.

Sacagawea, Sakakawea, Sacajawea

"Sacagawea," by Michael Haynes.
Sacagawea, Sakakawea, Sacajawea
Imagery About Historical Figure
By Dakota Wind
GREAT PLAINS - Some time back I posted an explanation about the name of the young native mother who accompanied the Corps of Discovery from Knife River to the west coast. What is her name? How is it really pronounced? These are a couple of questions that people pose as though knowing her name means knowing who she was.

Of interest to some people is how she looked or dressed, even what kind of cradle board she put Pomp in, or if she just carried her baby in a sling on her back.

Artist Andrew Knudson painted this scene (above) of the Corps of Discovery entering Black Cat's Village (present-day Stanton, ND), a Mandan Indian village.

Vern Erickson created this scene (above) he called "Sacagawea, Lewis, Clark." Sacagawea is almost always portrayed with her baby boy Pomp, an American icon as inseparable as macaroni and cheese.

H. Charles McBarron painted this wonderful painting (above) titled "Lewis and Clark at Mandan Village, 1804." A beautiful picture with a wonderful attention to detail on the Mandan Indians clothes and Sacagawea's clothes. The State Historical Society of North Dakota has a commentary card accompanying this painting, drawing viewers' attention to the portrayal of Sacagawea, a view from behind and without her husband and without her baby. My commentary is this: Why is Sacagawea in a Mandan village?

"Corps of Discovery at a Knife River Village," by Vernon W. Erickson (above). There's very few Hidatsa Indians pictured in this painting, and most of those are painted as an afterthought or as ghosts. The only real detail is in the Corps of Discovery, a couple of Hidatsa, Charboneau, and Sacagawea. Sacagawea might take direct center stage in this painting, but her likeness was rendered closer to that of a twelve year old girl or else a ninety year old grandmother. York, Captain William Clark's slave since they both were children, is portrayed wearing what appears to be a dress uniform.

Mink (Hannah Levings) of the Arikara, Hidatsa, Mandan Nation posed for Orin G. Libby as one of the most famous American Indian women, Sacagawea.

During the centennial celebration of the Corps of Discovery, the State of North Dakota wanted to honor Sacagawea. A few paintings were commissioned and sold to raise money for a Sacagawea statue. A young native woman and her baby were selected to serve as the model for the statue.

The Sakakawea statue (above) as it stood on the Bismarck capital grounds in 1906.

At one point, the state of North Dakota had even considered erecting a massive statue in the likeness of Sacagawea along Interstate 94.

Personally, I think it should have been built looking east towards Washington DC. 

More Christian Iconography in The Tradition of Plains Indian Pictography

A picture of the icon as in its finished state.

Christian Iconography: The Archangel Gabriel

Plains Indian Pictography

By Dakota Wind

BISMARCK, N.D. - This past spring season I thought I'd finish a project that began maybe five or six years ago. I had applied plaster to a wood plank then pretty much forgot about it. It sat around in the basement and was occasionally moved when I went to the book shelf, when it would be briefly remembered, then forgotten about. I didn't even know what the icon was going to represent.

It started with a sketch on regular paper. It looked much the same when finished.

I stetched out a couple of concepts of the Archangel Gabriel. I had at first envisioned the angel without wings. Instead, I pictured a figure looking like the above image, only instead of wings, this angel would have clouds behind with lightning making the outline of the wings. I ended up going with wings, because without wings, no one would recognize that it was supposed to be an angel.

The drawing was applied to the plaster and a few parts were filled in.

The wings of Gabriel are often painted blue and red. I kept the edges of the wings silver, in a throwback to my original concept of lightning. Gabriel is said to have a trumpet. The Lakota people did not have trumpets, but we have flutes. I painted Gabriel holding a flute instead. The shirt is a mix of an old time war shirt, like the kind made out of elk skins, and a mix of the late nineteeth century ghost dance shirt.

The icon nears completion.The blue of the sky and wings turned out great.

I added paint to the bottom half of the image. The very top is the celestial heavens, the blue is heaven above. The angel is standing on the world, with his height reaching above the sky and into the stars. The shirt has seven stars. Ghost dance shirts were often decorated with celestial imagery to represent the heavens. In this case, the seven stars on the shirt represent the seven archangels.

I added clouds, a few other destails, and a warbonnet pattern emanating from the traditional halo. In direct sunlight, the icon sparkles and the halo warmly glows.

Here is a close up of the detail on the head, halo, and shirt.

I submitted this icon to the editorial staff of the Indigenous Theology Training Institute's First People's Theology Journal for their consideration, and in hopes the image would be chosen for publication in their forthcoming journal. It was selected. I am grateful and happy.

Visit the Indigenous Theology Training Institute's website sometime, for information about ordering a copy of their journal at: www.indigenoustheologicaltraininginstitute.org.

Sibley Island or Burnt Boat Island?

This image is taken from the hilltop at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park looking south southeast. In the center line is Sibley Island.

Sibley Island or Burnt Boat Island?

One North Dakota Landmark, Two Names

By Dakota Wind
BISMARCK, N.D. - In the 1830s, Prinz Maximilian ascended the Missouri River with the artist Karl Bodmer. On coming up the Missouri River, they noted a burned out steamboat which had run aground on a sandbar. The steamboat as called "The Assiniboine," it was the second steamboat to travel upriver from St. Louis to Fort Union. It became grounded and overheated and burned. The sandbar grew to an island and is new part of the west bank of the Missouri River.

A different view of Sibley Island, looking west from the University of Mary, Bismarck, ND.

The island was renamed after General Sibley and his campaign against the Dakota in 1863. On July 29, 1863, Sibley engaged a force of perhaps as many as 2600 Dakota and Lakota warriors and fought them for three days in a battle larger and lasting longer than the Little Bighorn. Sibley was unable to take prisoners and could not estimate how many his men killed. The Sioux were encamped on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River and Apple Creek and held their ground until their women and children escaped. The "battle" was essentially a stalemate.

North of the Bismarck Landing is Burnt Boat Recreation and boat landing.

There is a Burnt Boat Drive in north Bismarck, ND. It was named for an incident on a sandbar island on the Missouri River north of the Bismarck Landing.

In the 1860s, miners descended the Missouri River from Fort Benton, Dakota Territory (Montana), to spend their loot somewhere downriver. The miners' keelboat was either hung up on a sandbar or they decided to rest for a bit on the sandbar. A Lakota woman was bathing her baby on the same sandbar. She and her baby were shot and killed by the miners. Lakota warriors retaliated by firing on the keelboat. The miners returned fire. On the keelboat was a small cannon mounted on a swivel and secured to the bottom of the boat. The cannon came loose and fired into the floor of the keelboat, firmly keeping the boat from going anyway. The boat caught fire and the miners were all killed. Several pounds of gold dust was lost.

The sandbar island became known as Burnt Boat Island, and later a nearby road became known as Burnt Boat Drive. For a virtual tour of Burnt Boat Landing Recreational Area visit: http://www.realnd.com/burntboatlanding1.htm.

Christian Iconography...But Painted in The Tradition of Plains Indian Pictography

Above is a side view of the icon I wrote.

Christian Iconography

Plains Indian Pictography

By Dakota Wind

BISMARCK, N.D. - Some years back I painted an icon of the Holy Trinity. I thought that I'd take a traditional art like American Indian pictography and attempt to "write" an icon in the tradition of eastern or Russian Christian iconography. Here's my first attempt.

I am no expert in iconography. I took a course of Christian art while I pursued my degree in Theology at the University of Mary from Sister Edith Selzer. 

Traditionally, I believe, and I hope I'm recalling this correctly, iconographers selected a cypress plank upon which to write their icon. They "wrote" the icon rather than "painted" it because many Christians couldn't read or write, but they could understand pictures and colors. 

I chose to use cedar on which to write my icon, for it is a sacred wood. Its an aromatic wood, and the tree itself grows with other cedar trees. The roots of one cedar twine around the roots of other cedar trees and in this way the trees are collectively stronger, and on the Great Plains of North America the cedar needs all the strength it can call on to withstand the winds.

I anointed the plank with linseed oil. I then applied a red cotton cloth to the side on which I was going to write. Iconographers typically use white cloth to represent the shroud of Jesus Christ. I used red cloth, for red is a sacred color and is often used in medicine ties when one prays, and to represent the blood of the Christ. 

From the angle of the above picture, one can see plaster. I had put it on rather thick. Over the past few years, the wood has warped ever so slightly which caused the plaster to crack. 

A head-on view of the icon. The good people at KAT Communications allowed me to use their studio to take these pictures.

A bald eagle flies in the bottom left hand corner, a golden eagle flies in the opposite corner. The two eagle do not fly within the circle of green, they fly above and beyond. In the Lakota tradition, eagles carry the messages or prayers of the people to the Creator above. 

The circle of green has three green rectangles in the top left corner, two rectangles and a triangle in the corner opposite. The green circle and the green shapes subtly suggest a turtle. In the Lakota tradition the turtle represents the world, grandmother earth.

The Holy Trinity stand above or beyond the visible heavens.

A closer view of the icon.

The Holy Trinity stand in front of the Creator's lodge. On the left tipi flap are seven stars arranged in the pattern of Seven Brothers, commonly known as The Big Dipper. On the right tipi flap are also seven stars, these are the Seven Sisters, more commonly known as the Pleiades. In the Lakota tradition, some say that our souls or spirits descend from the heavens from the Seven Sisters, on its descent, the spirit passes through the "spoon" of the Big Dipper, before beginning its worldly journey in a body. 

A closer view yet of the icon.

The "Black Warbonnet" pattern radiates from the heads of the Holy Trinity. The left figure wears a creation robe, the robe with the patterns of the sun, the stars, the moon, and animals which were created before people. The right figure wears a blanket of holiness and humaness, and also carries the gift of the sacred pipe and a pipe bag which features the image of a bison cow. In Lakota tradition, the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought the pipe to the people, a "covenant" if you will, that each Lakota person create a deep and personal relationship with the Creator and the world around. The figure in the center is the Christ. This center figure makes two signs. The first sign is the sign for good in the Plains Indian Sign Language - with the left hand. The second sign is the Christian sign for divinity touching humanity - two fingers are shown, the thumb and the ring and pinky fingers touch, leaving the middle and index fingers straight out.

The icon was blessed by then Roman Catholic Bishop Paul Zipfel of the Bismarck Diocese. The icon now resides in a private collection.