Fools Crow
Dimensions279 cm x 203 cm x 82 cm
Materials Sandblasted glass, bronze, wood, real objects
Collection Collection : National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Materials Sandblasted glass, bronze, wood, real objects
Collection Collection : National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fools Crow was born in 1890 in the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation a nephew of Black Elk, he was raised in the traditional ways and never attended the white man’s school. He spent his life working to preserve the traditions of his tribe and organizing for the reclamation of the inherent rights that were stripped from his people. A holy man he was revered in his community. He died in 1989.
The figure in the sculpture is carved into a sheet of glass that is in the shape of a stretched buffalo hide; This is a sort of symbolic crucifixion. Many of the ceremonial objects in the piece relate to religious practices including the peace pipe and the coup stick which is used in the masculin coming of age ceremony.