The Storyteller


Historical Subjects Howe rarely created paintings that ref- erenced a specific historical moment. He claimed that his painting of the Wounded Knee massacre “was not meant to be a shocker but merely a recorded true event.” In this depiction, Howe


38 SPRING 2022 AMERICAN INDIAN


represents the U.S. Cavalry as a mono- lithic killing machine in contrast to the suffering and humanity of the Lakota men, women and children massacred on December 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.


Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota, 1915–1983), “Wounded Knee Massacre,” 1959–1960. Gouache on paper, 22” x 28”. Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, National Archives and Records Administration, Abilene, Kansas, acc. no. 60.618. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration, Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas.


COURTESY OF THE NMAI AND OSCAR HOWE FAMILY


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