White Buffalo Horn Spoon

Label

Kevin Pourier is one of only a few artists today working with incised buffalo (American bison) hornas a medium, and because buffalo do not shed their horns, his ability to work with this material is limited. Creating spoons and vessels, Pourier reinvigorates an artistic practice rooted in Lakota subsistence lifeways with his detailed carvings. The addition of complementary materials introduces striking imagery to inspire thought, growth, and learning.

Most buffalo ranchers raise their buffalo for meat and discard everything else. Additionally, the large bulls are kept as herd bulls, and if they are butchered, their heads are usually kept as trophies. Traditionally, Northern Plains peoples used every part of the buffalo . . . nothing went to waste. The hides were used to make drums and Tipis, the horn caps were used to make horn spoons, cups, and adornment. The bones were used to make sleds, children’s toys, and game pieces. —Kevin Pourier

From the 2022 exhibition Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, curated by Dillen Peace '19, Native American Art Intern and Sháńdíín Brown '20, Native American Art Intern

Course History

ANTH 11/NAS 11, Ancient Native Americans, Deb Nichols, Winter 2019

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Winter 2022

Writing Program 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Writing Program 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Winter 2023

Art History 38.04, Food and Art: Global History, Nicola Camerlenghi, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

Native American Studies Exhibition, Bartlett Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,January 9-September 1987.

Unbroken: Native American Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 22, 2022-March 12, 2023.

Provenance

Purported by have belonged to Chief Crazy Horse (1840-1877); given to Running Elk [grandson]; collected by Glover Street Hastings III, West Newton, Massachusetts and Bridgeton, Maine, 1920's-1930's; bequeathed to his daughter, Carlena Hastings Redfield (1888-1981), 1949; bequeathed to present collection [under the terms of her father's will], 1981.

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