Tie Creek Ledger Book

The Tie Creek Ledger Book is an impressive example among a body of early ledger books created by Native American warriors across the Northern Plains to record their martial feats and vision quests. Made by an anonymous Cheyenne warrior circa 1870, the pages of the Tie Creek Ledger Book were penned with a variety of drawing instruments: ink, graphite and coloured pencils. From the assortment of drawing materials and the numerous hunting, raiding, combat and visionary scenes created with them, a contextual map of this warrior’s quickly changing life can be gleaned. Native American sovereignty had been greatly compromised following the signing in to law of the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, almost fifty years prior to the creation of this ledger. The author of the Tie Creek ledger drawings would have been distinctly aware of the omnipresent threat of removal posed by the advancement of Euro-American settlers on the western frontier. Like other ledger artists of his day, the author availed himself of the new materials at hand to record the last days of nomadic warrior traditions on the Great Plains.