Nokkoist (Bear's Heart)

The Cheyenne warrior artist Nokkoist (Bear's Heart) was born in 1851. He was one of some six dozen Kiowa and Southern Cheyenne warriors incarcerated at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, between 1875 and 1878. At the time of his arrest, he was twenty-four years old.

As an experiment in penal reform, the fort commander Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924) provided a small group of prisoners with paper, ink, graphite and coloured pencil, encouraging them to create drawings on paper which were in turn sold to tourists and gifted to like-minded reformers. He also introduced classes in reading and writing in English.

Nokkoist was among the most accomplished of this group of warrior artists at Fort Marion. He depicts memories of the eventful trip from Oklahoma Territory to Florida by horse cart, train, and ship, as well as scenes of his everyday life at the military fort. Other drawings reflect on Cheyenne warrior societies, hunting and important ceremonial events. Nokkoist's images provide an insight into Plains Indian life during an era of intense conflict with the US military as well as increasing legislative assault on Indigenous self-governance. By contrast to the strict monotony of military routine inside the fort, his renderings of Plains nations abound with vibrancy, prowess and visual splendour.

Upon his release in 1878, Nokkoist spent three years at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, previously a school for ex-slaves. He returned to the Cheyenne-Arapaho Agency in Oklahoma in 1881 and died of tuberculosis just a few months later.