Howling Wolf and the History of Ledger Art

Ledger art is the term used to describe Plains Indian drawings and paintings on paper from the second half of the nineteenth century because they were often made on ledger paper readily available form military outposts. Howling Wolf is arguably the single most important ledger artist to emerge from the anonymity of this period. The Southern Cheyenne warrior was not only an extremely skilled artist, he was also the only Plains artist known to have created ledger art in all three phases of the art form: the pre-reservation era, the years form 1875 to 1878 when Indians of the southern Plains were confined at Fort Marion in Florida, and the reservation period.