Cadzi Cody |
At the time this hide was painted, the Shoshone people were confined
on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Most of the buffalo had been
killed by white hunters and the railroad and white settlers demand for
land that made up the buffalo's habitat. The government had outlawed the
sacred Sun Dance until 1935 in an effort to force Indians to give up old
traditions and participate in a new way of life as defined by the government.
Cadzi Cody painted events he experienced during a time of great change
for the Shoshone people.
He included a scene of the traditional buffalo hunt on this elk hide
to make the painting more salable to white tourists visiting the reservation.
By including scenes of hunting, dancing, and ceremony, Cadzi Cody was
able to earn much needed income from an outside market for images of Indian
ceremonies. Today the Sun Dance continues to be practiced by many Plains
people in modified ways. |