Artist Joe Pulliam, who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, has some famous ancestors including Black Elk and Chief Crazy Horse. And he’s got a friend and advocate in Vermont, Dr. Jay Stearns, who has secured a temporary home for a sampling of the Oglala Lakota native’s paintings at Mirabelles Café in Burlington, through March 31. Pulliam describes on his Facebook page his mission “to further preserve our history and culture through my art.” His emblematic and evocative watercolor works on ledger paper “help my people reclaim and regain an identity, stolen from us over a century of genocide,” Pulliam writes. The images also echo the style of late-19th-century Native Americans who turned to painting on government records and other paper when traditional buffalo hides were no longer available. Pictured: “Crow Owners Society Short Lance Carrier.”
