Okan: Blackfeet Sundance Paintings by Gary Schildt

The annual Medicine Lodge ceremony, or Okan, is known to most as the Sundance. The Blackfeet, of Browning, Montana, celebrate this important ceremony in July of each year. It is a process of renewal and reaffirmation, and has been for centuries. It is a day of thanksgiving for the creator of the world and to the myriad of spirits that inhabit it. And, it teaches the people their own history, traditions, and place on the earth.

Gary Schildt, a noted western artist who happens to be Blackfeet, has put together a series of 42 paintings depicting the most meaningful aspects of the Sundance ceremony. The paintings show the ceremony and the life of the Blackfeet as it used to be, but also how it still is today. Schildt has long wanted to do a series of paintings on the Blackfeet, to give something back to the people. But this remarkable series of paintings is not only a gift to his people, it is a gift to all of us, as well as a confirmation of his roots.