Ashland School- Ashland, MT
Ashland school is located just off the Northern Cheyenne reservation. It was a special place to talk about Alaina Buffalospirit’s, “Cheyenne Horses” and Bently Spang’s, “Presence of the Sacred.” Both artists are part of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and create artwork based on their history and contemporary themes relating to reservation life. When we looked at Alaina Buffalospirit’s ledger artwork, the 4th grade teacher piped up. “Hey everyone, we know ledger art. We just visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield national park last week and saw examples of ledger art.” When I brought out Bently Spang’s piece, I asked if anyone knew Bently. I heard that he had lived in Ashland when he was younger. One student said, “Yeah! My dad hangs out with him all the time.” With the older students, I asked if they noticed anything in Bently Spang’s piece that they might recognize. One student thought the colors in the drawing might be part of the medicine wheel. It was fantastic to have an audience of students who shared a unique perspective with the artist. Both age groups K-4 and 5-8 had many questions for me and were interested in all the work displayed.
Ashland school is located just off the Northern Cheyenne reservation. It was a special place to talk about Alaina Buffalospirit’s, “Cheyenne Horses” and Bently Spang’s, “Presence of the Sacred.” Both artists are part of the Northern Cheyenne tribe and create artwork based on their history and contemporary themes relating to reservation life. When we looked at Alaina Buffalospirit’s ledger artwork, the 4th grade teacher piped up. “Hey everyone, we know ledger art. We just visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield national park last week and saw examples of ledger art.” When I brought out Bently Spang’s piece, I asked if anyone knew Bently. I heard that he had lived in Ashland when he was younger. One student said, “Yeah! My dad hangs out with him all the time.” With the older students, I asked if they noticed anything in Bently Spang’s piece that they might recognize. One student thought the colors in the drawing might be part of the medicine wheel. It was fantastic to have an audience of students who shared a unique perspective with the artist. Both age groups K-4 and 5-8 had many questions for me and were interested in all the work displayed.