Terrance Guardipee Relay Horse Racing Ledger Art

"Relay Horse Racing"

The image is based on Northern and Southern Plains Indian relay racing.  It is a huge sport in native country so they would have had their own designs and their own style.  The riders here are depicted racing in relay racing style: the front rider on the Black Horse is a Blackfoot rider, center rider is from the Sioux Nations and the third rider represents a Crow Warrior lighting from the Crow Nations.  

The front rider of the relay race on the Black Horse, wearing a standup black headdress with red plume, represents high ranking in society.  Down the side of the headdress we use that animal cause it’s very feisty so again it’s spiritual power from nature into our sacred objects, his body is representing the house of the sun, the sky yellow paint on his face represents the sun. The dots on his body represent hailstones his upper arms are yellow. The black on his forearms same with the calfs represent power and strength.  The mushrooms represent scout marks depicting how many times he’s ridden with this particular horse.  Down the neck is the red heart and arrow is blood that binds the horse green is air or lungs. The seven white dots are hailstones but again it represents the number seven.  The flex negativity or evil is represented on the right front leg,  sunrise on the left leg mountain designs for glacier Park or the back of the world. There are four of them representing seasons, wind, and directions.  The red dots represent joint markings that keep the horse upright. The single mountain symbol on the belly of the horse is Chief Mountain, the Blackfoot sacred mountain behind the keyhole design Buffalo corral or personal protection symbol. The two red dots on the hips are kidney markings - protect the inside, the blue and yellow stripes are sun and sky.   

The center rider is a Sioux rider with a laid-back headdress with yellow representing the sun the creator, green is Springtime.  The rider's body is orange-red representing the blood, blue represents the sky or the moon.  The horse is decorated with lightning, representing power and strength, hoof prints depict how many times you have ridden with that particular horse.  Yellow represents the sun, the handprint at the center represents ownership.  The marks on the back legs represent being very fast.  There are four yellow lines down the back of the hip representing direction,  seasons, wind.  Each of these horses have joint markings for strong legs.  The riders would make offerings to the creator for a good race to win for good blessings for the family.

On the Bottom, on both sides are the green tombstone looking things called "Rollinghill symbol."  The dots inside could be mushrooms and are an ember of fire.  The green color represents springtime, a new beginning, a new start fresh, and the start for the young riders of the Indian relay race.  The dots inside the Earth on the green part represents the Milky Way, which we call Wolf Trail at the center represents heaven.

All the designs on the horses and designs on the bodies protect the rider. 

At upper center of the page the sun represents the creator of the Blackfoot culture. The moon represents the mother of all the planets and the heavens, and the constellations "MorningStar" their son represents the savior to the Blackfoot people with false brother Scarface.  The way we got our way of worshiping God is represented by the triangles on either side, these are mountain designs for glacier Park, which we call backbone of the world. The yellow dots are above being sky. People come from heaven to earth so we put them inside or designs. 

The ledger is 36" x 18.5" and dated from 1893. That’s the largest ledger book of acquired fused onto.  It is a old gas station map of Montana representing where the different tribes that the riders come from.  The checks represent winning prize money in racing. The mining stock represents minerals being used from the earth, which would be gold that  represents winning.  The First National Bank receipts, checks, and Blackfeet bank represent money and winning in this race.  There’s also Virginia City checks 1880s represents winning the little red five Stanford fives on them again represents betting winning the ones with the 10 again betting and winning all horse racing on.

This piece can be is sold framed, with black mat and classic black 1" frame for an additional charge.

Terrance Guardipee is an internationally acclaimed Blackfeet painter and ledger artist, consistently recognized for the traditional depiction of his Blackfeet heritage and contemporary innovation demonstrated in his work. Terrance was one of the first Native artists to revive the historical ledger art tradition, and was the first ledger artist to transform the style from the single page custom into his signature map collage concept. His style of art is known as "Ledger Art" which is a collage mixed media on a very large ledger paper with antique documents, checks, maps and stock receipts. The leading institutions in the Native art community consistently acknowledge Terrance’s innovative incorporation of authentic Blackfeet images into his own contemporary form of ledger art.