Found(n)ation
Cannupa Hanska Luger, 2022
Ceramic, mixed media
51 x 31 x 20 in

In the 1800’s, when the US Army lost in battle against the Plains Tribes, of which I am a descendent, a different type of war was waged against us. With aims to decimate our food supply and way of life, soldiers and settlers orchestrated a full-on massacre of the buffalo. 

This war of attrition took its toll on my people and other Plains Tribes. The crash in buffalo population represented not only a dietary impact, but also a loss of spirit, land, and Indigenous autonomy. The loss was tremendous, unfathomable, and inhumane. With the disappearance of the buffalo, we were forced to become more dependent on settler economies and were forced onto reservations. Tribal land was seized, parceled, and fenced. 

The late 19th century was a time of western expansion and settlers were easily incentivized to kill buffalo as a way to clear land for settlement. A bounty was put on buffalo -- every dead buffalo symbolized a dead Indian. Teams of settler hunters roamed the Plains, killing up to 1000 buffalo in a single day. Without these wide-ranging herds -- who migrated cross-continental distances -- “American Progress” was unhindered. The historic images of this era document towering pyramids of buffalo skulls; these are testaments to settler might and monuments of conquest. They communicated a warning to Native people, a haunting commitment to our destruction. 

Buffalo are a symbol of freedom; they represent sustenance and survival for Indigenous people; they have agency and immense power. Their might is matched by an innate duty to care for all who encounter them. They give endlessly -- even after extinction, we continue to benefit from their sacrifice. In this way, I see buffalo not only as victims but as the fallen heroes of the American Indian War. As collateral damage for the war that I continually survive, the buffalo were true martyrs.   

Found(n)ation is a reliquary to acknowledge the accumulation of loss, the entropy of societal waste, and the cascading effects of a decimated species on our precious and interconnected environment. This work is part of an ongoing series titled Emergent which honors the Buffalo Nation.