"Drawn Over” centers the museum’s world-renowned collection of Native American Ledger drawings, guest-curated by Dr. Jacki Thompson Rand (citizen, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma); Associate Vice Chancellor for Native Affairs, Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Ledger drawings emerged at the intersection of the US invasion of the Great Plains and a long tradition of Plains men’s graphic hide painting, an expressive form through which they told stories, memorialized achievements, and located events in time. Before the US incursion into their homelands, Plains men recorded their important deeds as warriors and hunters in narrative drawings on buffalo hides. Pictographic representations of their Native-language names (“name glyphs”) and detailed depictions of their regalia conveyed meanings that were readily identifiable to community viewers.

Drawn Over: Reclaiming Our Histories is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Dr. Rand was supported by a five-person curatorial cohort of advisors: Erica Prussing, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa; Jennifer New, Community Engagement Specialist; Mary Young Bear (Meskwaki), Traditional Artist; Patricia Trujillo (Ojibwe/Meskwaki), Museum Professional, Retired; Phillip Round, Professor Emeritus, English/Native American and Indigenous Studies, University of Iowa.

Image: Courting: Man, Woman, Horse, from page 51 of the Old White Woman Ledger, 1880-1890. Gift of Gerald and Hope Solomons, 2010.37. Southern Cheyenne.