Memory and Vision: Arts, Cultures and Lives of Plains Indian People

Emma I. Hansen with essays by Arthur Amiotte, Gerard Baker, Beatrice Medicine, Joe Medicine Crow, and Bently Spang

Published by Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the University of Washington Press

The Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center tells the story of the Native peoples of the Great Plains, and how they are integral to the history and heritage of the American West. These buffalo-hunting and horticultural people once dominated the vast open region of the Great Plains, west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains that stretches from present-day Canada to Texas. Now these stories are presented in a lavishly illustrated and marvelously written book – Memory and Vision: Arts, Cultures, and Lives of Plains Indian People. Featuring images of favorite Plains Indian Museum objects like traditional feather bonnets, war shirts, beadwork, and quillwork, it also contains archival photographs of historical events and individuals, as well as images from contemporary Native life. Memory and Vision is a comprehensive examination of the environments and historic forces that forged the arts and cultures of the Great Plains and a celebration of their ongoing presence in our national society.

Emma I. Hansen, a member of the Pawnee Nation, is curator of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.