Down and Out, Bunky Echo-Hawk

Exhibition Label:
"Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place," Sep-2011, Nancy Mahaney
This painting portrays a Pawnee Scout, a member of an elite Pawnee military group that served the U.S. Army for generations. They were highly instrumental in ending the Indian Wars, and additionally were instrumental in protecting the railroad expansion. In turn, the Pawnee Nation was poorly served by the U.S. government-so badly, in fact, that they decided to move us from our homelands, where we believe we lived since the beginning of time, to Oklahoma. This painting reflects the sentiment I imagine those veterans had at the time...