Blackwing Volume 574, a tribute to Native American Art and Culture

PENCIL STORY

For centuries, the Indigenous people of North America have preserved their histories through art. As more and more Native Americans were displaced by westward-expanding colonialism, art became a vessel for preserving their culture as well as their history. Their daily lives were recorded through paintings, songs, stories, and dances.

Native American art is both functional and beautiful, acting as a bridge to Indigenous cultures and offering a unique perspective on their history. These works enrich the lives of all North Americans, providing a window into the world through Indigenous eyes.

The Blackwing 574 is our tribute to Native American art and the 574 nations that use it to assert agency and identity. We worked with Kaw, Osage, Lakota artist Chris Pappan to design a pencil that evokes geometric patterns found throughout many Native American expressions of culture. Each pencil includes our firm graphite.

A portion of the proceeds from this release will be donated to the Cheyenne River Youth Project and their mission to provide enriching arts programs to Lakota youth on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation.

Chris Pappan:

https://www.instagram.com/chrispappan/

Cheyenne River Youth Project:

https://lakotayouth.org/
https://www.instagram.com/lakotayouth/

LEDGER STORY

The Indigenous peoples of the Plains have kept visual histories of their people for centuries. As they continued to be displaced by settlers throughout the 19th century, this practice became more challenging, and even more essential. Hides and cloth were traditionally used as canvasses, but those were soon replaced by a more portable and accessible solution – paper.

One of the more popular vessels for these visual histories were the ledger books used by the very settlers that were displacing them. The Native artisans drew in these books with pencils, paints, and sometimes crayons, documenting their histories, important stories  and more. What was once used to keep inventory of settler property was repurposed to keep inventory of the cultural practices of the people of the Plains.

This Blackwing 574 ledger book is a recreation of the types of ledger books used by the Plains tribes to preserve their identities and histories. This 7.5″ x 11.75″ book features a multi-textured vegan leather and suede cover and 152 numbered ledger pages. Use it as a ledger of your own or fill it with your own drawings of the important events in your life.