Amos Bad Heart Bull - Bad Heart Bull Papers

Bad Heart Bull Papers

At the time of his death, Amos' sketchbook was given to his younger sister, Dolly Pretty Cloud. In the 1930s, she was contacted by Helen Blish, a graduate student from the University of Nebraska, who asked to study her brother's work for her master's thesis in art. When Pretty Cloud died in 1947, her brother's ledger book full of drawings was buried with her.

In the 1930s, Hartley Burr Alexander, Blish's professor, had Bad Heart Bull's drawings photographed as a record and to accompany Blish's theses. He published them with an introduction and notes in a book, Sioux Indian Painting (1938).

With the rise of interest in Native American history and culture, in 1967, the University of Nebraska Press published Blish's thesis as A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux. It included the drawings of Amos Bad Heart Bull. The reproductions were based on copies of the original prints of the photographs of the drawings.

In the years since, scholars have come to view the Amos Bad Heart Bull images as a very important contribution to Lakota history and culture.