Lakota Sioux Painted Buffalo Hide by Merle Locke

Lakota Sioux warrior painting on buffalo hide by Merle Locke. Paint on contemporary buffalo hide. Painting of 16 warriors riding on horseback, each carrying feathered coup sticks, surrounded by geometric motifs. Captioned "Lakota On Victory" and signed by the artist at lower right corner. Merle Locke is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, having grown up in the Porcupine district of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He is known for his ledger art paintings, evoking the style's origins amongst the Plains tribes in the 1860s. By this time, buffalo had become increasingly scarce, and the older tradition of Plains hide painting migrated to ledger drawings out of sheer necessity. Merle's hide painting represents a full circle return to this traditional art, mirroring the return, if only partially, of the buffalo from the brink of extinction. Included are a selection of photographs of Locke with the robe, and a note from him to the purchaser, reading in part: "There are 16 horses on the hide painting. 16 is a sacred number among the Lakota, such as the 4 sacred directions, the 4 stages of life, the 4 sacred colors of mankind throughout the world, the 4 sacred animals. Each warrior is fully clothed with decorated regalia. The border along the buffalo hide represents the buffalo nation, protects the Lakota people."