Stories & Culture
“The world is full of stories, and from time to time they permit themselves to be told.”
~ Old Cherokee Saying
PAINTINGS
Diné Biké Yah
Diné Biké YahThe Native featured in this painting is a Navajo friend of Jd's. (We do not give out the actual name of persons per request.) He is wearing a Navajo blanket made by Navajo women. The land around him & behind him is what is now called Monument Valley...
Wild Cat Renegade, Act II
Wild Cat Renegade, Act II Wild Cat, also known as Coacoochee or Cowacoochee (c. 1807/1810–1857) was a leading Seminole chieftain during the later stages of the Second Seminole War. U.S. military records show that Wild Cat was considered a fierce warrior...
Ashes to Dust
Ashes to Dust Jd had always wanted to do a painting honoring those Native Americans who served during the Viet Nam War. When he had this painting mostly completed, he kept having difficulty completing the face.He just couldn't get it quite right, and it...
STORIES
The Eyes Tell the Story
Southwest Profiles • October 1990
Walk into Jd Challenger’s Taos studio and you step back a hundred years. Beaded medicine bags hang on the wells, along with papooses, old firearms, bridles and gauntlets. The space is dominated by Challenger’s large, bold paintings of Plains Indian warriors in dramatic face paint. Just as dramatic is the artist himself. Dressed in black hat (“I only take this hat off for two people, and you’re not one of them,” he said firmly but pleasantly when a photographer complaned about shadows on his face), gambler’s vest, knee-length red boots, huge conco belt buckle, shoulder length silver hair and Buffalo Bill-style beard with seven-inch handlebar mustache, Challenger lives . . . Read More
White Breast
White BreastMon-Gay-Ska White Breast: Omaha The warrior White Breast carries the moon on his shield. The moon is the night sun. any Native American languages have but one name for the sun and moon and each is distinguished by night or day. When we dance until...
Spirit of the Canyon
Spirit of the CanyonThigSpirit: Arapaho It is understood that in the early Arapaho belief system, the spirit would lies in the west on a higher level above earth and separated by water. The crow the sacred bird of the Ghost Dance, leads the departed to this world. The...
How the Red Bird Got Its Color
Retold by Barbara Shining Woman Warren • see Cherokee words below.
Gv-li loved to tease wa-ya.
One day gv-li teased wa-ya so much that wa-ya became very angry.
Wa-ya began to chase gv-li through the woods. Gv-li, being the clever animal that he is, kept ahead of wa-ya.
Making the Sacred Bundle
Making the Sacred Bundle Long ago, a young Pawnee named Eagle Feather was very proud of the way he looked. He wore the best clothes and the richest ornaments he could find. Always when he hunted, he wore a magic downy eagle feather in his hair. He was not...
The Giant Bird
The Giant Bird By Llewellyn Clark - PeaceseekerHow long ago was it?It was only yesterday, as time is told in the old stories, before the coming of the white man. It was a time when "The People" lived with respect for all living things. It was a time when...
CULTURE
Paiute
Paiute History traces the Paiute Indians back to around 1200AD where they were thought to inhabit an area in Utah now called Bryce Canyon. Consisting mainly of foragers, gatherers and hunters, their main source of food were rabbits, deer, mountain sheep,...
Cherokee People
Cherokee People In the latter half of 1838, Cherokee People who had not voluntarily moved west earlier were forced to leave their homes in the East. The trail to the West was long and treacherous and many were dying along the way. The People's hearts were...