A Selection of Works by Native American Painter Brent Learned

 I recently happened upon the beautiful work of Brent Learned. I think some of these paintings would be useful for starting discussions in class. The rest can be found on the internet. I simply gathered them in one place.

You can also visit his Facebook page if you like.

I asked Mr. Learned if I might use his works for this post and he graciously gave his permission.

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For a different look at the massacre at Sand Creek, see my post for 1864. Colonel Chivington defends his actions.

Dee Brown in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, chastises him for murder.

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As for Mr. Learned, he explained his artistry and what his art meant in a discussion with Denver University’s  Museum of Anthropology, in the summer of 2021, prior to a showing of some of his works. 

This blogger, for one, finds his paintings fascinating; and the descriptions of pieces on display are worth your time to read. 

Learned explains, 

For me, a place of memory is not only a location. It can be an item, a time, a type of food , the knowledge we gain, or the love we carry. It can be the bravery we show, our thoughts for others, or the hate we hold in our hearts. It can be our heritage and culture or the sacrifices we make.  All these are examples of places of memory.  

 

The pieces in this exhibition all tell the story of my ancestors from my tribe the Cheyenne and Arapaho. I use famous works of art to showcase my tribe’s places of memory in a relatable way.

 

“Judge not by the eye but by the heart” – Cheyenne Proverb

“Buffalo Hunt.”

“Sand Creek.”

“Sand Creek 2.”

Soldiers at Sand Creek mutilated the dead and committed various atrocities.

“Genocide Sand Creek Massacre.”

Inspired by Picasso.

“Arapaho on Horseback.”

As the exhibition notes at Denver University explain: 

3,000 years ago, the Arapaho-speaking people (Heeteinono'eino') lived in the western Great Lakes region which is now Canada and the Minnesota area. Following westward expansion in eastern Canada, together with the Cheyenne (Hitesiino'), the Arapaho were pushed westward onto the eastern Great Plains. 

 

The Arapaho people entered the Great Plains, the western Great Lakes region, sometime before 1700. During their early history on the plains, the Arapaho lived on the northern plains – from Canada south to Montana, Wyoming, and western South Dakota. 

 

They moved around using a large sledge structure called a travois, pulled by domestic dogs. The Arapaho acquired horses in the early 1700s by trading with other tribes. The Arapaho became a nomadic people, utilizing the horses as pack and riding animals. They traveled more easily by horseback and hunted more widely, increasing their success in hunting on the Plains. 

 

Some of the allies of the Arapaho were Lakota, Comanche, and Kiowa with a strong alliance with the Cheyenne who they treated like brothers. 

 

The Arapaho signed many treaties with the United States government. The last one was the Medicine Lodge treaty in which the United States promised the Arapaho and Cheyenne peace and protection from white intruders in return for amity and relocation to reservations in western Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

 

Those promises were not kept. 

“Old Man Arapaho.”

I believe it is always important to humanize the people in the past.

As a teacher, I might use this picture and the one below to make a point.

“Arapaho Kiss.” 

Learned perfectly captures the humanity of his people in beautiful colors.

That humanity, General Chivington failed to grasp.

“Starry Night on the Plains.” Will students realize whose influence this shows?

Learned refers to this painting as an “ode to Monet.” 

Not sure of the title – likely a scene depicting Custer’s defeat.

“Blood and Ground Mix.” In this painting Cheyenne women puncture Custer’s eardrums 

with awls, so he will hear better in the next world.

“Cheyenne Grandmother.” 

“Victory.”

“Beware of the man who does not talk and the dog that does not bark” – Cheyenne Proverb 

The Cheyenne (Tsitsistas) people had six different military societies, one of the bravest of which was the Dog Soldiers, known as the “Spartans of the Plains.” Beginning in the late 1830s, this society evolved into a separate, militaristic band that played a dominant role in Cheyenne resistance to the westward expansion of the United States across the land where the Cheyenne settled in the early nineteenth century – Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.  

After the deaths of nearly half the Southern Cheyenne in the cholera epidemic of the late 1840s, many of the remaining bands joined the Dog Soldiers. It effectively became a separate band, occupying territory between the Northern and Southern Cheyenne. Its members often opposed policies of peace chiefs such as Black Kettle. In 1869, most of the band were killed by United States Army forces in the battle of Summit Springs. The surviving societies became much smaller and more secretive in their operations.  

In the twenty-first century, there has been a revival of the Dog Soldiers society among the Cheyenne people. 

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: It was Black Kettle’s band that was decimated at Sand Creek in 1864. As I explained the problem to my students, drawing what I called the “Cycle of Violence” on the blackboard – with chalk – because I started teaching in 1975 – the whites and blacks killed Indians. Then the Indians killed whites and blacks. Mostly whites, of course. But they rarely managed to kill the people who were responsible for previous attacks. The cycle continued. 

So, for example, some of the Cheyenne and Arapaho did kill some settlers – in revenge for the killing of some of their people. Colorado troops were sent out to find and punish the killers. Instead, they cut down Black Kettle and most of his followers. Enraged warriors from other bands conducted a series of attacks to punish the settlers – usually killing the wrong settlers. 

“How did it end?” I always asked students. 

They had various answers, including one young lady who responded hopefully, “We learned to get along?”  

“I wish,” I remember telling her, “but no.” 

The answer, I offered, I think, is sadly correct. “We never got one bit smarter. The killing continued until there weren’t enough Cheyenne and Arapaho – or people of other tribes – to defend themselves or get very much in the way.”

I always felt it was important to teach students to have more empathy, even for those whom they hated or disliked. I warned that hatred was a blinding emotion – and admonished my students to not give in to hate if they could. A bone-marrow-deep sense of justice also would help. And I believe we, as teachers, can help instill in students such qualities – whether or not such success shows up on some nearly-useless (as I see it) standardized test. 

“When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us” – Arapaho Proverb

In 1864 millions of buffalo darkened the Great Plains. Learned’s people could not have imagined that the great herds would be nearly wiped out in the next decade. 

“Arapaho with Mask.”

Native Americans forced to live on reservations still have far more health problems, including obesity and diabetes, than other Americans. So they have been careful to “mask up” during the pandemic. 

“Pretty Nose Arapaho.”

"Indian Gothic."