The Gift

This year’s educational art exhibit from the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS), "The Gift," is based on a traditional Lakotan narrative about when White Buffalo Woman, an emissary from the Pte Oyate (Buffalo Nation), gave a sacred pipe to the Itazipco Oyate, one of seven oyates of the Lakota division of the Oceti Sakowin Confederacy. In the Standing Rock Reservation in 1911, Lone Man shared a narrative, “The White Buffalo Calf Pipe (Ptehin’cala Canonpa),” about the gift, with Frances Densmore who published it in 1918. It is a wondrous account of that event. 

The narrative is organized into seven passages, each of which is interpreted and illustrated by a Lakotan artist. These seven artists are the Narrative Artists for the exhibit. When Frances Densmore recorded the narrative, she also recorded Charging Thunder singing, “Song of the White Buffalo Maiden.” He, Charging Thunder, is the Narrative Musician, and his song can be heard in the exhibit and in the online version of the exhibit. There also is a Narrative Poet whose poem is in the exhibit and its online version. The creative works of these nine Lakotans constitute the Narrative section of the exhibit.

The second section of the exhibit explores the seven ceremonies ⎯ "gifts" ⎯ that Black Elk says were foretold by  White Buffalo Woman. For each gift, a Lakotan musician or musical group composed a song, a Lakotan poet wrote a poem and two Lakotan visual artists each created an artwork. These creative works constitute the Gifts section of the exhibit.

The gifts were and are:

• Inikaga ⎯ Revitalizing the Ghost
• Hanblecheya ⎯ Crying for a Vision
• Wanaghi Yuhapi ⎯ Keeping a Spirit
• Wiwanyang Wachipi ⎯ Sun Dancing
• Hunka Lowanpi ⎯ Making Relatives
• Ishnati Awichalowan ⎯ Preparing for Womanhood
• Tapa Wankayeyapi ⎯ Throwing the Ball

THE GIFT - CAIRNS