Chief Killer
The Chief Killer Ledger Book contains sixteen pictographic drawings done by a Southern Cheyenne artist named Chief Killer, while he was a prisoner at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida in 1877.
Chief Killer (Noh-hu-nah-wih, 1849-1922), was one of the foremost artists of the Fort Marion group. A Southern Cheyenne warrior, he fought during the late pre-reservation years and was one of the seventy-two Southern Plains warriors and chiefs sent to Fort Marion, Florida, near St. Augustine. The group was comprised of Indians from the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa tribes. As part of the prisoners' presumed rehabilitation program, the use of paper, colored pencils, and water colors to produce images of their personal experiences, was encouraged. The resulting imagery was executed with much closer attention to detail of costume and scenery than previously demonstrated in American Indian art.
This artist can be identified by his individual style of firmly outlined figures filled in with a variety of colors. One of his most distinctive characteristics is his use of color and pattern. He applied different degrees of pressure when using his materials, resulting in a large range of intensity and hues. This technique is rarely seen in pre-reservation ledger art. Chief Killer's uniquely styled figures are identified in the details of personal adornment, with specific designs serving as signifiers of the owner's identity and social status. In his renditions of landscape, he departs from his linear, outlined style, instead using watercolors or inks in a painterly fashion.
The ledger book reveals both the process of drawing, as well as the diversity of Chief Killer's representations. Reminiscences of former life activities, like hunting scenes, are found together with remarkably detailed records of daily life at Fort Marion and in St. Augustine. Nostalgic depictions of Plains life most often appear on a blank page, with no further indication of setting or environment, Indian Territory being assumed. Traditionally, drawings of this sort would function as a supplement a warrior's verbal recounting of the story.