On January 23, 1870, in the Piegan Blackfoot territory of Montana, the American army attacked an Indigenous band led by Chief Heavy Runner, to whom the government had previously promised protection. This attack, known as the Baker Massacre, resulted in the deaths of approximately 200 Indigenous peoples, most of who were women, children, and elderly people.
Big Bull’s work recounts this tragedy as this nation itself might have, had they lived to share their story. The winter count is a pictorial history in which important events for a nation are recorded. This history, depicted on elk hide, memorializes the Indigenous peoples who lost their lives in that battle, and considers how the Indian Wars impacted our shared history as a nation.