Book Description
Howard Terpning, often referred to as the "Storyteller of the Native American People," has concentrated his award-filled career on painting the major Great Plains tribes: Blackfeet, Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow, Commanche, and Apache. Terpning's images are powerful and sweeping, yet profoundly intimate in the way they include the viewer in the emotion of each scene, like the sweetness in a young girl's passage into womanhood or the youthful pride of a new warrior. His paintings chronicle the Plains Indians' "glory days" in the early nineteenth century until their displacement as a result of the westward expansion of the white man.
Western historian Don Hedgpeth interweaves a stirring narrative about the tribes' final, desperate years and the spiritual basis to all aspects of their lives.
Back Cover copy
Relations between the Blackfoot and the white man got off to a bad beginning when members of the Lewis and Clark expedition killed two Piegan warriors in the summer of 1806. The Piegans were one of three bands that made up the Blackfoot nations. From that day forward, for the next sixty years, the Blackfoot would prove to be a fierce and formidable foe; an implacable enemy of white men forever. Blackfoot chiefs and the leaders of the various warrior societies met in council to develop strategy and make plans for their continuing crusade against the intruder. Young men listened to the wisdom of the elders, and no one spoke at all of appeasement, or surrender.
About the author
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Indisputably one of the foremost artists working today, Howard Terpning has won all of the highest prizes in Western art: countless awards from the Cowboy Artists of America, The Hubbard Art Award for Excellence, the National Academy of Western Art's Prix de West (twice) and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gene Autry Museum. His paintings hang in the permanent collection of major art museums including the Gilcrease, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Phoenix Art Museum.
Born in Illinois and educated at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the American Academy of Art, Howard Terpning first gained attention for his eighty-three movie poster illustrations.
In 1976, he walked away from a successful illustration career to pursue his dream of chronicling the Native American people. Within two short years he became one of the giants in his field.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Don Hedgpeth is a freelance writer on subjects related to the history and art of the American West. He has authored a dozen books, including two earlier titles for The Greenwich Workshop: An Invitation to History - The Art of Tom Lovell, and Traildust - The Art of James Reynolds. He is a fifth-generation Texan and currently lives west of San Antonio in the Texas Hill country.
