Hand Painted Buffalo Skull: Buffalo Dancers

Miniconjou Lakota (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) artist Jim Little Wounded uses a combination of free hand painting tecwith acrylic paints, beadwork, quillwork, imitation eagle feathers, and leather fringe to create his elaborate “Buffalo Dancers” design.

Jim’s idea came from a memory he had of a Sundance he went to when he was younger. The feathers hanging down on each side of the horns is a representation of what he saw during the ceremony, where a medicine man had feathers pierced on his arms as he danced.  The middle of the skull with the four direction colors and pillars with horns represent Sundancer’s as they dance around the tree. The tree is also represented as the quilled medallion with the strings representing the ropes for piercing, the medicine wheel attached with two strings represent two scouts with the four feathers. The blue circle around the pillar’s honors Tunkasila the creator of all. The beaded man amulet honors fertility and the warrior who returned from battle successful and who pledges to dance after returning alive and well. The beaded buffalo amulet honors the Pt’e Oyate (Buffalo Nation) who provide for the people with food, clothing, shelter, and tools. One side of the skull is a buffalo dancer painted which represents the animals’ dances and dreamers’ dances that are done before the Sundance. On the other side of the skull is painted a figure of a white buffalo which pays tribute to the “White Buffalo Calf Woman” and the pipe she brought which is sacred to the Lakota Dakota and Nakota people as well as other tribal nations of the plains.

Measurements: Full Length (top of horns to bottom of feathers) 29 inches x Width 24 (horn to horn) inches x Depth 12 inches *dimensions are approximate*